Natural Born Citizen

Last week on the Political Hope Radio Show, our guest, Jerry Petermann, asserted that neither John McCain, Barack Obama, nor Roger Calero (Socialist Workers Party) are "natural born citizens". There are a plurality of problems that come to light in Petermann's statement, and a number of you contacted me regarding this issue throughout the week. So, I hope to summarize the primary concerns.

First, regarding the Constitution and the phrase ... "natural born Citizen" is one of the qualifications for President required by Article II, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution.

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.

To understand the basis of the qualification, we can look to the John Jay, the first Supreme Court Justice and a Constitutional Framer for instance. We have no record on any related debate.

John Jay wrote: "Permit me to hint, whether it would be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the Commander in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen."

The problem is the lack of a clear legal definition for the phrase. Some take it to mean a person born on native U.S. soil, while others include the various citizenship exceptions and naturalization procedures. The courts have discussed the issue, but have not made any clear rulings to my knowledge.

As we move on in history, citizenship criteria and naturalization laws change, and some could be interpreted to suggest that they impact the definition of "natural born citizen". You can look at commentaries surrounding the Fourteenth Amendment, various legal citizenship decisions, or the law extending citizenship to those born in the Panama Canal Zone. Some use the key phrase, "natural born citizen", others refer specifically to "citizenship" or"naturalization". The Natural Born Citizen article on WikiPedia is a good place to get relevant information, but it's not the final authority. WikiPedia contains opinions too.

Republican John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, therefore his citizenship status was such a concern that the Senate passed a non-binding resolution declaring him a "natural born citizen". The resolution has no legal weight, but it clearly points out that folks were concerned, and made an attempt to remove the concern.

Roger Calero, Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Worker's Party, appeared on the 2008 ballot in Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York and Vermont, while being denied on the natural born citizenship issue in five other states. Calero was clearly born in Nicaragua, and may not even be a U.S. citizen at all.

Barack Obama has multiple problems. There are concerns over Hawaii's procedures for issuing birth certificates in 1961. Hawaii was a new state at that time. There are also legitimate assertions of falsified birth certificates posted on the web during the campaign season. There is the question of the State of Hawaii sealing/protecting Obama's birth certificate. And finally the assertion that he was actually born in Kenya, not Hawaii. Oh, let's not forget the absence of details on the time and exact location (i.e. hospital) of his birth.

There are on-going legal actions involving Obama's citizenship status. Hillary Clinton supporter and lawyer, Phillip Berg has been pursuing numerous legal actions, and activity is still underway. Below is the latest post from World Net Daily, which has tracked the issue closer than any media outlet. Jermone Corsi played a key role in breaking this story and has paid a price for it.

I remain concerned about ignorance and disregard for the Constitution. I can understand the case for calling McCain a natural born citizen. The Calero case is probably the most clear cut, and bleeds with blatant disregard for the Constitution. The Obama case brings up more questions than answers, and they do need to be answered. The problem is finding someone with the guts to make it happen. We'll see if the Supreme Court does it's job.

Eligibility Remains Focus of Supremes' Conferences
Dispute posted on docket twice after Electoral College Vote
Posted: December 26, 2008 WorldNetDaily
A second conference has been posted on the docket for the U.S. Supreme Court over the issue of Barack Obama's eligibility to occupy the White House, this one scheduled a week after Congress is to review the Electoral College vote tabulation.

Holly Hansen & The National Conventions

In the past two weeks, we heard everything thing from "After all, there aren’t many people eager to see the words “Texan’ and “president” in the same sentence ever again" ... to "We lost the trust of the American people ..."

While it may not have been the most exciting speech of the last two weeks, it had two important and rare traits in political speech. Those traits are integrity and humility. A few DNC & RNC speeches referenced humility; Senator McCain displayed it by admitting his and the GOP's part in recent government problems/failures. Cecile Richard's speech reflects the antithesis of humility and is much more typical of what we hear in political convention speeches.

Was anything said or done at the conventions that swayed your opinion in the past two weeks? What did you see as the high lights and low lights? Join the Political Hope Radio Show with Republican delegate Holly Hansen and I as we review the 2008 National Conventions.

Sunday, September 7, 2008- 4 pm
http://www.theword993.com/
http://www.politicalhope.com/

Robert Novak Doesn't Recognize the Plague

Today's GOPUSA news included an interested article from Robert Novak, "McCain, Huckabee And The Evangelicals". Novak wonders aloud if Huckabee is helping or hurting McCain, and if Huckabee really supports McCain or not. Novak suggests that Huckabee and Michael Farris view an Obama presidency as a plague that America deserves and which fulfils prophecy. You can read Novak's view for yourself on the following link. This writer disagrees with Novak.

http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/rnovak/2008/rdn_05121.shtml

The scary part of Novak's article is that he doesn't blast the socialist ideologies of Obama. Militant evangelicals are the apparent enemy in Novak's mind. The last I checked socialist and communist ideologies were the enemies against which American soldiers have fought upon numerous occasions. Countless American boys have given their lives fighting such governments, and now it's being welcomed at home.

Thanks to the Humanist ideologies inculcated into our public education system, many Americans now tend toward socialist policies. Many Americans stand behind the socialist ideas of Hillary and Obama, not to mention a good number of Republican policies. Apparently Novak doesn't think that to be as big of a threat as evangelicals.

My friends, do not be disillusioned. Socialism is on the rise in America. Evangelical or not, are you going to stand and fight, or welcome it in?

God Save the U.S.A.