According to Birthers' definiton of "natural born", none of these men were qualified to be president

According to Birthers' definiton of "natural born", none of these men were qualified to be president:

Andrew Jackson
Martin Van Buren
Chester A. Arthur
Herbert Hoover
Woodrow Wilson

...and neither were/are:

George Clinton (VP for Jefferson & Madison)
William Wirt (ran against Jackson)
James G. Birney (ran against Polk)
Eugene Debs (ran against TR, Taft, Wilson & Harding)
Wendell Wilkie (ran against FDR)
Hubert Humphrey (ran against Nixon)
George McGovern
Michael Dukakis
Bobby Jindal
Ralph Nader
Bill Richardson
Mike Gravel

All of these (and probably many more) had at least one foreign-born parent. Feel free to add to the list.

It's really incredible that anyone could attempt to argue that a foreign-born parent could render Obama inelegible, "even if" he was born in HI (which becomes more difficult for these morons to deny every day). It really shows that these people have no respect for reality, no matter how apparent it is. And it also shows that their problem is not a foreign parent, but an African, Muslim parent. That is the only thing new here.

I really want to see Orly Tates or one of her fellow nutbars confronted with this list of names. They make me embarrassed to be human.

EDIT: added Wilson, slight grammar fix

His mother was from England.

WTF?

There may be trolls aboard this morning.

Wat

;-) I'm baffled why this would be unrecced, except by trolling freepers. I suppose a Dem might think that paying these people any mind is a bad idea, but I just want to kill the argument.

who was born NOT on a Military Base as claimed but rather in a local town hospital (apparently) somewhere in Panama...

Just wondering (and also wondering what other candidates, VP's, Speakers of the House, or Presidents this might pertain to since it seems a big part of the argument as well).

I just started thinking of names and checking them on Wikipedia, essentially. I couldn't find anything about Joe Lieberman's parents for instance. I figured it was adequate to squash the notion that "natural born" has anything to do with one's parents' origin or nationality.

As to McCain, I was under the impression that the military base story was true, but I could obviously be wrong. OTOH, this post is more about the "foreign parents" theory than the "not born in USA" theory.

and his bio said that he was born in a hospital, that later in the article said was built 4years AFTER his birth. It's very likely that he may have been born in Colón, off base, but the birth certificate was provided by the navy, which probably just fudged it. we OWNED Panama, so we could do whatever we wanted.

It's actually time that we did amend that part of the constitution to make it totally clear.

I would prefer that anyone born to TWO American parents, no matter where (geographically) they were born, would be a "natural born" citizen,

and anyone actually born HERE would be a natural born citizen,

and of course since the mother actually grows the baby & gives birth, having an American MOTHER should also transfer natural born citizenship (regardless of the father).

The way it's worded now, allows for the ambiguity that gives birthers & odd-ducks like them the nugget of skepticism that they run with.

It seems unfair that two people..let's say missionaries, could be off doing good works, and end up having a child that could not grow up and run for president if they wanted to, and they had no say in where they were born.

Done very early on for that precise reason. It wasn't easy getting a pregnant woman from Europe to the US under the best of circumstances, so they decided to recognize children born abroad of US parents are also "natural born" citizens.

dg

http://supreme.justia.com/us/169/649/case.html

Worth wading through. The Court ruled that a person born in the United States is a natural born citizen, and that even though, in this instance, not only were both parents foreign citizens, but the law of the time expressly forbade the parents from becoming naturalized citizens....

Not only do they spew credibility-sucking bisch on all Republicans, but their aura makes 'Licans even stupider.

Someone threw out a number somewhere (I like to get "facts" straight, you'll note) that only 42% of Republicans believe that Obama is legally qualified to be president. Stupid *does* run downhill, and the likelihood of genuine independents ever voting for one of these goniffs again shrinks daily.

They marginalize themselves.

Jefferson's mother was born in London (gasp!).

dg

Now I have to do this all over again. Jefferson is too good not to add.

I didn't know that until I snuck a peak at wiki. ;)

dg

...aren't focusing on the one foreign parent aspect, but rather the not born in the U.S. and not to an adult mother.

Really?

Their claim is that if Stanley Ann was under 21 and in Kenya at the time of Obama's birth then he's not automatically a US citizen. To date, I have not seen anyone claim that that scenario isn't legally correct.

I would say that since Stanley Ann's marriage to Barrack senior wasn't valid , then his nationality is irrelevant. Barrack Obama Jr. was technically born to an unmarried US citizen in the state of Hawaii.

in hawaii, & finished grad school after the birth.

why would she go to kenya just to have the baby?

that force you to have babies in Africa.

And that is outside my area of interest.

That's really what this is all about. That's the reason Birther sentiment is so much more widespread in the south. Ultimately, it's just a way of saying that minorities are less American than whites.

If he were just African-American, that'd be bad enough for them to raise a stink, but his dad's Kenyan/Muslim background just drives them over the edge.

... and computerized a bunch of birth certificates, it seems that thousands and thousands of people now have electronic-only proof of birth. Are none of these people citizens? None are natural-born, simply because there's no HARD COPY certificate anymore? Simply because the paper that was actually touched by the doctor's pen is no longer in storage? Birthers are living in their own egotistical "gotcha" fantasy.

:eyes:

But the only form of copy that Hawaii will issue is the computerized copy.

Hawaiian officials have twice issued statements that they have viewed the original and verify that Obama was born in Hawaii, once last year, once last week. "FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate...We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said." The full story of their verification with photos and the verification of Hawaiian officials is here: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html

But this is not good enough for the birthers. Nothing will be since their real objection is that President Obama is "not like them." Even if Hawaii set up a kiosk and let them all go to Hawaii to personally view and handle the original, they would not be satisfied. That is why whacks like Orly Taitz have come up with other "reasons" why Obama is disqualified to be president. If every single objection they have raised were disproven, they would invent something else.

as the earliest guys were grandfathered in.

so I don't see what you mean.

:P :o :+ :rofl:

It's a response to Orly Taitz and others, who claim that even if Obama were born here, he still would not qualify as "natural born" under the constitution because of his foreign-born dad. McCain's case doesn't apply. If Obama were born in Kenya (which is simply not the case), he really wouldn't be qualified, I think, so bringing McCain in doesn't really help make the argument IMHO.

He was born in the Panama Canal Zone of parents who were themselves US citizens, but the soil of the PCZ itself was in legal limbo. Congress passed legislation settling the matter in 1937 (McCain was born in 1936) and retroactively declared people born there (after 1904) as born on US soil.

For normal people going on-and-on about Obama's "questionable" citizenship, these simple facts would stick in their craws. Of course, these birthers aren't normal people, so I doubt this would affect them in the least... :shrug:

but some of the comments about his status on DU lead me to wonder if we wouldn't be the "birthers" had the election gone the other way.

At least the dog will learn to stop stinking up the place.

It's Alice in Wonderland time and the Hookah pipe is up and running. And they're late, so very late, for a very important date or something! You know they won't hold that Thorazine forever. Late, late, late!!!

and that's why no amount of facts will convince the birthers otherwise.

to shut these idiots up would be to remind them that if obama is not eligible to be prez then i guess biden will need to take his place !

as would all his siblings, as Prince Philip was born in Corfu.

Winston Churchill could never have been PM, as his mother was American. Same for Harold Macmillan.

to be president:

Article II, Section 1, Clause 5:

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.

so, the natural born citizenship requirement would not have applied to:

Jackson (b 1767)
Van Buren (b 1782)
George Clinton (b 1739)
William Wirt (b 1772)

as all of them were born prior to the ratification of the US Constitution.

Piece of trivia: the last president elected who was not born a US citizen was Zachary Taylor (b 1784).

Other wise no one could have been over age 35 and born in a declared USA.

I shouldn't post before morning coffee. (I work nights so 10am central is like dawn to me.)

Clearly states I am a US citizen as long as my American father claimed me as a child. Up until age 18, that citizenship could be revoked. I was born in a US military hospital to an American soldier father and a Japanese citizen mother. In other words, the US government explicitly issued me a provisional birth certificate which gave me the rights of citizenship from birth. Why would they do this if I was not eligible?

I assume I am also eligible to run for president since my father did not reject me and I still retain my US citizenship which I was granted at birth.

if you're a woman, or a black person, or a child of one parent from Japan, (or any other non-white nation)...AND you are liberal...

you are in Obama's exact postition... NOT eligible, according to wingnuts.

You know I am being facetious, don't you?

I'd vote for any good liberal.

I am just a worthless half-Asian girl, so no chance i will ever be president. Means though you won't get universal healthcare, women's reproductive rights, demobilization of military industrial complex, funding for education and other much needed social programs anytime soon.

Hope that natural born American white guy can give you what you want instead.

:sarcasm: