DC Bateman:
- Look at it this way. He IS an American citizen. There ARE witnesses. Hawaii was a new US State, his mother was a citizen, so that makes him one of us. … This is my hope, that he does do a good , honorable and patriotic job.
So say we all, DC.
No, really.
Perhaps it’s gotten lost in the seemingly fruitless attempts by some of us to point out Moran’s and others’ willful stupidity, apathy, ignorance, hypocrisy and/or inanity here, but I’m not aware of any serious person who believes BHO isn’t an American. I’m also not aware of any serious person who hopes he’ll do a bad job as President – despite the fact that it’ll be his very first executive position, ever, and will be the first office he’s held in his political career where he won’t be spending all his time running for some next-higher office.
And – leaving aside the unprecedented overwhelming media bias, BHO’s outright lie about taking public funding, his campaign’s documented but open and unchallenged online fund collection fraud, and numerous other transgressions no other candidate could ever have gotten away with – he was clearly elected by a goodly majority of Americans. So in the sense that people get the government they deserve, his current status as President-Elect is legitimate as far as it goes. If he’s sworn in next month, you won’t hear me mimicking moral adolescents like Julia Roberts, claiming “he’s not my president”. Respect he’ll have to earn, but loyal opposition he will have, for my part.
But the problem is this: the vast majority of those who voted for BHO did so based on the assumption (remember: ASS|U|ME) that he is legally eligible to serve in the Office of the POTUS according to the letter of the Constitution, which requires that he be a natural born citizen of the United States. There’s no wiggle room in that requirement, and questions on this point have been raised for almost a year now. Those questions have never been answered definitively, only allegorically, as BHO attempted to do in his manifestly premature memoirs, and as Moran has sought, unconvincingly, to do in this article.
These same questions arose when it became widely known that McCain was not born in the Continental United States. The resulting controversy this past spring would undoubtedly have been resurrected if McCain had been elected, and for similar reasons: there are inconsistencies regarding the circumstances of McCain’s birth that leave his citizenship status unresolved in the strictest sense.
I’ll skip my standard lament regarding our nation’s inability to produce candidates with unimpeachable qualifications, because the above brings up the question of the standards for Moran’s faux version of “Derangement Syndrome”. Did Michael Dobbs qualify for this dubious prize back in May when he wrote the article linked above, which is clearly an attempt by the overwhelmingly left-biased media to cast doubt on McCain’s eligibility? Dobbs was so desperate to offer damning innuendo that he included statements by an obviously clueless, academic hack (Sarah Duggin) who seems to think that “[t]he Constitution is ambiguous”. Duggin failed to note that the Constitution is mute regarding the definition of a “natural born Citizen” and that, therefore, there is no ambiguity. Contrary to her assertions, status as a “natural born Citizen” has in fact been defined legislatively going as far back as 1790. Dobbs’ source further embarrasses herself by claiming a Constitutional Amendment or Supreme Court decision would be required, and that such could somehow retroactively alter the 1936 laws defining natural born citizenship so as to make McCain’s eligibility clear. One can only wonder whether this sort of shameless pandering by Dobbs, in transparent pursuit of a political agenda, might have been considered “McCain Derangement Syndrome” by someone like Moran. Oh, who am I kidding – of course it wouldn’t have.
In any case, McCain made good faith efforts to comply with the Constitutional requirements: he released a valid, physical birth certificate document. No one has seriously questioned the validity of this document and McCain’s eligibility status was at least proven to the unanimous satisfaction of the U.S. Senate (for what it’s worth given their resolution’s unbinding nature… and responses like Martinez’ – see above). Truth be told, I would also guess that the Senate was willing to give him the benefit of any doubt since, unlike BHO, McCain came as close to giving his life for his country as it is possible to do, and in about as horrific a manner as can be imagined.
But BHO has so far refused to do the same. There is in fact a COLB document available in BHO’s case – it’s simply been sealed for undisclosed reasons and he refuses to release it for public scrutiny. If BHO wishes to serve as my President – against my express wishes as a natural born, voting U.S. citizen – I’d like to know what those reasons are and I’d like to see proof that he’s eligible to do so. But the double standard allowing BHO to ignore the requirements – and worse, to offer a digital image of a certificate that can’t even stand up to cursory analysis – is openly and even cheerfully accepted by hypocrites like Moran, most of the entrenched media and politicians like Martinez. Anyone who might possibly improve the prospects for their career in a darkening economy by doing so seems comfortable covering for BHO on this issue. It’s shameful.
Moran and his like-minded ilk in the left blogosphere would like to frame this issue as a case of “sour grapes”. Lacking conclusive facts and thus incapable of mounting a rational argument, they turn to irrelevant factoids. Failing in that, they continue with ad hominem attacks and appeals to ridicule – both of which are direct obeisance to Rule 5 of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. Just as we’ve seen with the anthropogenic global warming scam, their goal is to shut down debate before the issue becomes a wider concern – straight from Rule 7. This is not how a Republic is preserved.
During the campaign it was possible, even likely, that BHO didn’t want to release his original COLB for fear that something on that document might cost him the election. That’s somewhat understandable, assuming there’s nothing on it that would call his eligibility into question. But now that he occupies the redoubtable (albeit heretofore unknown) Office of the President-Elect, the situation has changed dramatically. BHO’s continued refusal to accede to the same standards as McCain did (before the election) not only increases the likelihood that the COLB contains disqualifying information, but minimally fuels a controversy that will only grow, casting permanent doubt on his administration and any actions he may take as President. What happens, for instance, when another country questions the validity of his administration on the basis of this issue? How, exactly, are we as a nation supposed to respond to that? By just saying, “trust us”? It’s patently absurd.
My personal concern is that this is exactly what’s going to happen, as we’ve come to live in a world increasingly devoid of accountability. This has gotten so bad that I can easily envision the Supreme Court collectively taking a pass on this issue based on legalistic technicalities like “lack of standing” or “not within judicial notice”, etc., and inspired by the manner in which they’ve been blamed for “selecting” George W. Bush – who, according to media-induced conventional wisdom, has since brought America to the very brink of ruin.
We’ve just barely survived 8 straight years of the entrenched media’s relentless attempts to destroy the Office of the POTUS because it was held by someone they hated, so it should go without saying that this is NOT what our country needs right now – especially in the context of America’s first half-African-American President. The irrational hysteria from the quarters of the left blogosphere and Rick Moran’s basement, however, make it increasingly unlikely that this issue will ever be definitively resolved.
