Newsweek: The Truth About Obama's Birth Certificate

Yeah right, get ready for the:
"OMG, NEWSWEEK IS PAID BY THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN!"
claim.

lol

Yeah right, get ready for the:
"OMG, NEWSWEEK IS PAID BY THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN!"
claim.

lol

That wouldn't surprise me one bit. These right wing nuts will ignore any truth to protect their delusions...

Maybe BatBoy has hidden the original in Elvis' secure, undisclosed location!

Would just about sync up with other Republican myths.

What's an original, though?

My birth "certificate" for years was a plastic card with raised letters and numbers like a credit card. After a couple of decades, it became brittle and started to fall apart. So I got a new certificate issued from the state where I was born. It may or may not bear any resemblance to the certificates issued in the 60's in AZ.

So my new document has none of the signs of age that you would expect. Anyone can get their own birth certificate reissued. And it takes very little proof of identity to get one reissued. Having one is hardly proof of anything.

douglasq, I agree.
if someone came and told you that your birth certificate was fake, what would you tell them? How would you fight any smear they may try to bring up using it as issue?
My original birth certificate (my mother kept it) is no longer considered official by my birth country. I had to get a new one, and this one is state of the art, with holograms, water seals, etc.
Since that is now the officially recognized document from my birth country, who has a right to claim that it's not legal or official? Certainly not some nut trying to do a smear job on me.

And since having one is hardly proof of anything as you stated, then the opposite should also hold true: not having one is not proof of anything, either.

Yeah right, get ready for the:
"OMG, NEWSWEEK IS PAID BY THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN!"
claim.

Oh, they'll do you one better. Instead of going after Newsweek and claiming there's some sinister tie and payoff there, they've decided that factcheck.org is the lying culprit instead. They tie in Ayers too. It's awesome.

That was good one Arcane you get a vote from me on it.

I liked this article it was a good photo that shows it's authenticity. Although I guess I must have missed the original rumors because I never heard that he wasn't born in America.

Stacy Malbon
Oh, they'll do you one better. Instead of going after Newsweek and claiming there's some sinister tie and payoff there, they've decided that factcheck.org is the lying culprit instead. They tie in Ayers too. It's awesome.

That kind of pisses me off. And, funny enough - because I'm a huge Ayn Rand fan and Atlas Shrugged is my favorite book ever. How dare they make such a mockery of such a fine piece of literature and tie it into Obama hate. Shame!

Well, that debacle's finally over.

Thank God.

Just to add some interesting factoids:

The reason for the requirement of the candidate having been born in the US was so that Americans could keep Alexander Hamilton from being president. Hamilton was born in Jamaica and Americans were terrified of him. We didn't have a president born in the USA until Van Buren (I think, although I could be wrong), they were all born in British territory.

Arcane: Interesting point! And by a not so odd, not so coincidental coincidence, Hamilton was also a man of color. Two hundred years later, Americans are still wetting their pants at the idea of a black President. What that says about us as a nation, I hate to even think, but at least today he's got the legal right to run, no matter how many bogus issues they think they can cook up that make him technically ineligible.

Yup

John Whittet: Okay then, make that "was BELIEVED TO BE a man of color." As we've seen with the "Obama is a Muslim" canard, it doesn't matter whether it's true or not if you want to define a political enemy as The Other, and Not One of Us.

Trex

I can see your point on the "color" issue but would have to disagree that is really a big factor. Political campaigns attempt to draw any distinction between candidates that will have a positive effect on turning out voters to their side. I remember a few years back that a black republican running for senate here was attacked for his color by the democrats who now praise Obama. It's got far less to with the persons race than it does with the ugliness of modern campaigning. The attacks are more against the he's in the other party, not so much against his race.

From a quick search, it looks to me rather that Alex. Hamilton's major stumbling block was that he was an illegitimate child. He and brother James were produced after his mother ran away from her husband and lived with their father James Hamilton Sr. They never married. The first husband, Lavien, divorced her, citing the fact of these 2 "obscene children" as one of the reasons for the divorce, and won very punitive terms.
See Overcoming Adversity: The Childhood of Alexander Hamilton, By Michael J. Gerson at
http://www.earlyamerica.com/review/2002_winter_spring/hamilton.html

Even after he had become a prominent political figure, his past still haunted him in the public setting. John Adams referred to him as a "bastard brat", while Thomas Jefferson called him a "foreign bastard"(Hendrickson Rise & Fall 11

).

Maybe you also recall the vicious attacks on Pres. Andy Jackson, calling him a bigamist etc etc. Could you imagine a similar episode if Hamilton had stood for high elective office?

You need to reread the Constitution. There was nothing that would have kept Hamilton from being president since he was an American citizen when the Constitution was adopted. Just another Obama red herring.

Susan C

You need to reread the Constitution. There was nothing that would have kept Hamilton from being president since he was an American citizen when the Constitution was adopted. Just another Obama red herring.

The United States Constitution was adopted on September 17, 1787.

Among the qualifications for the presidency is this paragraph:
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
This article made Hamilton ineligible to run for POTUS.
My opinion, however is that had he not died in a duel with Burr in the early 1800s, pretty sure he would have fought to amend that article and run once his Seniors were out of office.

AB: I really do not know where you are getting this stuff. Hamilton qualified for the presidency under the provision for "a citizen at the time of the adoption of this Constitution...."

Are you aware that he fought under George Washington in the American Revolution and helped draft the Constitution we are discussing? If you are trying to mount an argument against the provision, you will have to do a lot better than this.

You obviously think it is a serious problem.

Susan C
AB: I really do not know where you are getting this stuff. Hamilton qualified for the presidency under the provision for "a citizen at the time of the adoption of this Constitution...."

Are you aware that he fought under George Washington in the American Revolution and helped draft the Constitution we are discussing? If you are trying to mount an argument against the provision, you will have to do a lot better than this.

You obviously think it is a serious problem.

Getting what stuff? The links I posted are government websites. lol
Alexander Hamilton wasn't a U.S. citizen by birth on U.S. soil or under the natural born citizen article, what is so hard to grasp here?

AB- You are the one who does not grasp the fact that Hamilton was born years before there were any natural born U.S. citizens. There was NO UNITED STATES when Hamilton was born or when he moved to the AMERICAN COLONIES.

That is why there was an exception written into the Constitution for people like Alexander Hamilton WHO WERE U.S. citizens WHEN THE CONSTITUTION WAS SIGNED.

You should have paid attention to your American history. That seems to be a problem with you Obama people.

Susan C
AB- You are the one who does not grasp the fact that Hamilton was born years before there were any natural born U.S. citizens. There was NO UNITED STATES when Hamilton was born or when he moved to the AMERICAN COLONIES.
That is why there was an exception written into the Constitution for people like Alexander Hamilton WHO WERE U.S. citizens WHEN THE CONSTITUTION WAS SIGNED.
You should have paid attention to your American history. That seems to be a problem with you Obama people.

The Natural Born Citizen article doesn't even apply to him, what are you going on about? He wasn't born in the states at all, he was never a U.S. citizen to begin with.

"That seems to be a problem with you Obama people. "

Lets try and keep this discussion civil, shall we?

The articles of the consitution I pointed out were written not by Hamilton. He was involved in the write-up but not of that article. Historians will explain to you that at that time - articles were written to account for issues at the time. Hamilton's rise within the government was terrifying those who opposed him and they knew well that he wasn't a U.S. born individual. It's said that the article was written to keep citizens like him from running for POTUS.

Can someone else try to explain the exception in Article II, sec.1 of the Constitution to AB?It reads "..a natural born citizen, OR(emphasis added) a Citizen of the United States, AT THE TIME OF THE ADOPTION OF THIS CONSTITUTION (emphasis added)". HAMILTON WAS A U.S. CITIZEN WHEN THE CONSTITUTION WAS ADOPTED.

This is really absurd but you are the one who brought Alexander Hamilton into this. You just should not spread such ridiculous stories to distract from the real issue- Whether Barack Obama qualifies under Article II to hold the office of the President of the United States of America?

Susan C
Can someone else try to explain the exception in Article II, sec.1 of the Constitution to AB?It reads "..a natural born citizen, OR(emphasis added) a Citizen of the United States, AT THE TIME OF THE ADOPTION OF THIS CONSTITUTION (emphasis added)". HAMILTON WAS A U.S. CITIZEN WHEN THE CONSTITUTION WAS ADOPTED.

Does John McCain Have an Alexander Hamilton Problem? A Constitutional Challenge May Loom Over McCain's Eligibility for President

This is really absurd but you are the one who brought Alexander Hamilton into this. You just should not spread such ridiculous stories to distract from the real issue- Whether Barack Obama qualifies under Article II to hold the office of the President of the United States of America?

lol, I added it as an "interesting factoid" and others agreed with me that it did connect to this current issue. Simply because you personally have an issue with it doesn't dismiss the comment itself. -rolls eyes-

AB: Your link says exactly what I tried to tell you about Hamilton. You just can't admit you were wrong. It really doesn't hurt that much.

oh dear

sure, susan. sure.

Well, gee, John what I meant to say is that I found this article amusing because it disproved the "he's not a citizen" theory. I think it's amusing that things like this keep coming up. I'm sorry for asking to get some Depends off of McCain. And I actually thank you for not letting your discussion sway off topic.

For example, if you say: "The Republicans are bringing this up again! What a load of crap!" I will delete it.

What if I phrase it in the form of a question like trex advises in #6.2?

"Are the Republicans bringing this up yet again? And if so, can it really be considered a load of crap, or is it just a tiny bit of crap?"

Sorry, I'm kinda goofy today.