According to Article II of the U.S Constitution, the President of the United States of America must be: a natural born citizen of the United States; at least 35 years old; and have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least 14 years. However, there has currently existed a controversy, mainly among tea party conservatives, regarding the legitimacy of Obama’s citizenship. Some believe President Obama was born outside the U.S. and consequently ineligible to hold the office.
This past Sunday, Speaker of the House John Boehner was asked directly by the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” whether he believed Obama’s presidency was valid. Boehner stated he believed Obama’s birth in the state of Hawaii was a “fact.” However, Boehner also indicated how it was not his job to “tell the American people what to think” regarding Obama’s background. Moreover, as recently revealed by the current governor of Hawaii, congressional leaders actually have the authority and ability to view President Obama’s official birth certificate. Nevertheless, prominent republican members of congress, who also believe Obama’s natural born status is unquestionably valid behind closed doors, are willing to let misperceptions remain in order to politically weaken the Obama administration. Which, to be honest, would be my current political advice to any republican politician facing a potentially tough primary election in 2012.
Whatever the case may be, do you believe President Obama will be compelled into presenting his official birth certificate during the 2012 presidential election? Will it matter to those detractors who are already convinced he is illegitimate?
–TERRANCE MULLINS
PoliSci News Review 
i think they should have already investigated it. he is already president!!! too late! i too think that his birth place is questionable, why else would they have held on to this issue if it couldnt have been easily proved right or wrong?
I totally agree with you Brittany, whats done is done his our president and let him do his work, when we had george he did his mistakes and what did republicans do or say, nothing.
I agree, wouldn’t you think before a person was allowed to run for any office constitutional requirements would be investigated to ensure he or she met the eligibility criteria outlined in the Constitution. Isn’t that what is meant by ‘vetting’? If we are not doing that, shame on us. If we are doing it, publish the results to the American people and lets move on.
People keep forgetting a real important point to all of this commotion over this issue: It technically doesn’t matter where Barack was born, as long as at least one of his parents was born and/or lived in the United States prior to his birth, which is a fact. Barack’s mother, Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas. Barack’s father, Barack Sr., was born in Kenya. The fact that Obama’s mother was born in the United States allows him to be considered an American citizen. Also, it is said that Barack was born in Hawaii in 1961, just two years after Hawaii was admitted as the 50th state of the U.S. So while he wasn’t born in the continental U.S., he nevertheless was born in the United States.
I actually think John Boehner did the correct thing for saying that it isn’t his job to tell Americans what to think. He is right in this regard, because he is part of the House of Representatives, thus it is his job to listen to what Americans that are represented by him and the Republican Party are thinking and saying, regardless if he truly agrees/disagrees with them. In this case, his belief that Barack is indeed an American citizen goes against what a lot of tea party conservatives believe, but he recognizes that it’s not up to him to tell what the tea party conservatives should think and say.
I know I shouldn’t point this out, but I sometimes feel there is an agenda for some of these left-wing news media channels like MSNBC (which is where Meet The Press is broadcasted) to bring up this (and other trivial issues) over and over again and confront people like John Boehner in order to try to make him and the Republicans out to being igonorant, bigoted, racist, etc. There are so many other issues related to Obama’s presidency to discuss and critique, but it seems like MSNBC and similar channels try to avoid bringing those issues up in order to prevent legitimate criticism of Obama and the Democrats from being heard on their channels. Same thing with right-wing news media like Fox News, they seem to stay clear of issues that Republicans can be legitamtely criticized for, and instead look for trivial things the Democrats did to complain about.
Why are they now making a big deal if Barack Obama was born in the United States or not! At this point he could be an illegal and we the American people voted him into presidency!. By the way the last thing I heard about this issue was when the issue was questioned to officials in Hawaii they could not provide the records of Barack Obama birth there, instead there was a note stating his birth but not an actual birth certificate. That was two weeks ago I don’t know if it has change. It really makes no difference to me if Barack Obama is a natural born citizen or not, he is the president, and he should have met the requirements to hold that position right?
This matter should have already been investigated to its fullest capacity and the findings should have been published long before he became president. But, hindsight and retrospect shows us nothing. If I were hearing nationwide or worldwide attacks on my character or my validity, I would address those issues and publish the documents stating the facts which would or could end any confusion.
This whole issue is clearly about race and religion. The “Right Wing” is upset that a black man became President whose father was a muslim. There is no constitutional requirement that one must be of a certain religion to become president. Since when has Hawaii become the “Muslim Republic of Kenya”? Remember the controversy about Rev. Wright and how Barak Obama was brought up by a radical pastor? The Obamas were forced to resign their membership from Rev.Wright’s church. Nobody called him a muslim then. “The RIGHT WING” is very much confused.
In my opinion, it’s more of a situation of xenophobic feelings and beliefs that ignorant American-conservative folks have than anything else. I really don’t think most of the Republican politicians and the more enlightened right-wing/conservative voters genuinely think Obama is a Muslim and not an American citizen. The problem is that the regular folks who believe Obama is a Muslim and not an American citizen are oftentimes voters of the Republican party. And, in order to get these voters (who are, in theory, the lowest common denominator of conservative voters), some of the Republican politicians feel they have to appeal to those folks’ beliefs by adopting their beliefs themselves, regardless if they agree with them or not.
This is, to me, just another problem with they way democracy functions in America. It makes politicians tell the people what the people want to hear, not what they need to hear. As a result, lies and half-truths are widely spoken by politicians from both the left and right. And that old saying “a lie told often enough eventually becomes the truth” is what comes out from all of this. Basically, this makes America’s democracy out to being a promotion “popular beliefs” over “intelligent and realistic beliefs”.
What really turns me off about the issue of whether Obama was born in the U.S. and if he’s a Muslim is that it serves the purpose of political entertainment and acts as a distraction for people and politicians to discuss actual important political issues. There are other things like this that serve as distractions: abortion rights, gay marriage, marijuana legalization, etc. There are so many other important political issues to discuss than these things, yet they aren’t talked about because they require more intelligent and analytical thinking in order to have an opinion on them; in comparison to abortion, rights of homosexuals, marijuana usage, etc. which are issues that are, for the most part, very easy to have an opinion on (either for or against).
Keven, you make an excellent point. However, the lack of journalism in journalism makes the democracy you described unattainable in my view. Unfortunately, the News industry, as it is now, is no longer about providing a public service, but about providing entertainment.
I actually forgot that Mr. Obama was a radical Christian before he was a closeted Muslim. I wonder what he will be next?
terrancemullins,
That is a real problem that our country is facing today. That being the lack of journalism education in journalism today. And yes, in reality, the democracy I was describing is unattainable, for now, because of this. But still, I think it’s up to regular American citizens (whether they be conservative, progressive, libertarian, etc.) to become enlightened and go beyond the Chris Matthews, Bill O’Reilly’s, Ed Schultz’s, Sean Hannity’s, and Glenn Beck’s of the news industry and look for higher quality news sources to find out what other important issues are out there relative to Obama’s citizenship/religion. Oftentimes, that means turning off the T.V. and start reading a newspaper, certain political magazines, certain political news websites, etc.
As far as T.V. news goes, The PBS NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is the type of show that people should be watching if they want to have a better/more in-depth understanding of serious issues going on in the U.S. and around the world. I would also recommend Meet The Press, but I don’t think David Gregory is as good of a host as Tim Russert was. In some ways, I think the American public lost a valuable treasure in Tim Russert when he died 2 1/2 years ago.
…Also, in response to Obama turning from a radical Christian to a closted Muslim, I think his next choice of faith will be Hinduism: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1332046/Indian-Americans-upset-Newsweeks-depiction-Obama-Hindu-god.html