This may be the first time in Presidential election history that the presumptive nominees of both major parties are facing legal challenges to remove them from the ballot.
Philip J. Berg of Pennsylvania is seeking a Declaratory Judgment and Injunction that Barack Obama is ineligible to become President of the United States. Berg is using a shotgun attempt to try to catch some form of favorable legal ruling. He claims that either Obama was born in Kenya, lost his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia, or has dual citizenship with Kenya or Indonesia. It does not help Berg’s case that he is uncertain which position he wants to argue.
Berg said Obama “lied and cheated his way into a fraudulent candidacy and cheated legitimately eligible natural-born citizens from competing in a fair process.”
Interestingly, Berg is a Democrat. He was a former Democratic candidate for Governor and US Senate, former Chair of the Democratic Party in Montgomery County and former member of the Democratic State Committee.
On the Republican side, supporters of California’s American Independent Party are seeking to remove McCain’s name from the California ballot because he was born in Panama. McCain’s father was stationed at Coco Solo Naval Air Station at that time. As a side note, the American Independent Party has nominated former Republican Presidential candidate Alan Keyes for President.
Both candidates are being accused of not being a “natural-born citizen.” In reality, there is no valid evidence that Obama was born anywhere else than Hawaii. McCain was born on a military base to American parents and that confers full citizenship as well. Whatever claims are made against Obama while he was in Indonesia for four years as a child are also ridiculous. He was six to ten years old at the time. As a child of that age, he was not controlling where he was going or what he was doing. There is no valid evidence he was ever an Indonesian citizen. In sum, the charges against Obama are innuendos and those against McCain run counter to established legal rulings on citizenship.
It is time to put the fallacious charges against these candidates to rest. The country benefits by having two candidates with backgrounds rich in experience of the world outside the United States, especially with the importance that foreign affairs will bear for the next President.
1 user commented in " Obama and McCain Opponents Want Courts To Rule Them Ineligible For Presidency "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackback“In reality, there is no valid evidence that Obama was born anywhere else than Hawaii. McCain was born on a military base to American parents and that confers full citizenship as well.”
Actually, what you say is inaccurate. There is plenty of doubt about where Obama was born. It doesn’t help that the Obama campaign offered an obviously faked version of a birth certificate. Similarly, McCain was not born in the Panama Canal Zone, but in Solon, Panama. It doesn’t help that McCain campaign said he was born at a hospital that didn’t exist at that time.
To protect the office of the presidency, these issues do need to be cleared up. It may seem unfair in some situations, but naturalized citizens don’t get to be president. The presidency is a privilege, not a right. The purpose of the Constitutional requirement for every president to be “natural born” (as opposed to “naturalized”) is to ensure against divided interests, in order to protect U.S. sovereignty.
When there is a question of natural-born citizenship of a presidential candidate, it is a conflict of interest for the party to decide.
Ultimately, though, this could all be cleared up if the candidates would produce certified copies of their birth certificates. Since neither has been willing to do so, questions remain that must be answered. The sooner, the better.
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