A major news story has been brewing for days in the US. One that has been systematically ignored by the BBC. It concerns the legitimacy of the US Presidency. Note: of the Presidency NOT of the President. I have not seen so much ‘bluster’ and deliberate swerving around the pertinent issues since the early days of the Madeleine McCann saga.
I blogged yesterday here of the particular legal points involved.
In short, this is not an issue of whether the President is a US citizen, he is; it is an issue of whether he complies with the particular requirements of the constitution to be a ‘natural born citizen’.
Anybody born in the US can take US citizenship, and there seems no doubt that he was born in Hawaii. He has produced a shortened form of birth certificate to prove that.
The President has refused/claims he is unable to/that it is unecessary to produce proof that his Father was also a US citizen (It appears that Barack snr was a British citizen at the time)
This requirement was placed in the constituion to prevent a royal heir from being in a position to take the Presidency for obvious reasons.
The story becomes more interesting because so few people are actually arguing over the legal points, but hurling ad hominem abuse at anyone who raises the isssue.
So far, the people in the firing line are Major Cook – for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan until the legality of his orders is sorted out – generally along the lines of ‘draft dodger’.
Various Senators – for daring to raise the issue on the floor of the Senate – ‘aligning themselves with the lunatic Internet fringe’.
Lou Dobbs of CNN – for daring to give air time to the matter – ‘racist’.
A resolution was brought in the house yesterday to declare that Hawaii was the President’s birthplace (Note – that is not the problem, but a nice attempt at swerving round it!)
And now we have this video clip of the White House spokesman saying that there are ‘more important things to discuss’……..really?
If the Presidency is not legitimate, then it follows that a lot of other things are not – like British soldiers being deployed to support the American offensive in Afghanistan.
A simple ‘long form’ birth certificate would solve the issue, once and for all.
Quite fascinating to see the lengths they are going to, to avoid producing this, or allowing discussion on the subject.
A story worth following.