Good one
Snrk. Snrk. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Cue the 5.6.7.8.s and “Woo-Hoo.” (Think the Vonage commeercials.)
Posted by BlueStateSaint
11/01/2008 at 06:29 PM
The young lady has a point. Her comment points out the misunderstanding of what it means to be a naturally born U. S. citizen. From the U. S. Constitution, 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.
In the various laws passed since then regarding U. S. Citizenship and how one obtains U. S. Citizenship the term ‘natural born’ is not used (as far as I can recall and determine). Having been a U. S. immigration officer or the equivalent for some time, I’m familiar with the concept. The term used in the law is “… U. S. citizen by birth...” which is to say the person in question was a U. S. citizen from the time of their birth, and was not ‘naturalized’ or changed later.
I’m not a Senator Obama fan (I think we all know that), but even if the Senator was born in Kenya, he is still a U. S. citizen by birth. At the time of Senator Obama’s birth, the law read If only one parent was a U.S. citizen at the time of birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16. There are no conditions placed on retaining this type of citizenship. His mother was a U. S. citizen and - from what I can tell - had lived in the U. S. for ten years, at least five of which were after her 16th birthday. Senator Obama was then born a U. S. citizen.
He’s still lacking experience, ability to do anything but read a teleprompter script or raise funds, but he is a U. S. citizen from the time of his birth. He doesn’t seem to cherish many of the ideals of America, but he’s a citizen.
This whole issue is a distraction and a waste of time.
Archie, momma obama was 18, just, when The One was born. She was 3 years shy of that “at least 5 of which” you refer to. That’s the root of this entire flap; so to many people it is thus not a distraction or a waste of time, but a valid point of law.
And Archie, if he has traveled on an Indonesian passport, because he was an Indonesian citizen, then he was no longer an American citizen. Even if he had become a Naturalized Citizen through INS(which he has not), he STILL would not be eligible. All these “smoke and mirrors” to hide the facts are very very disturbing!
