At the risk of causing a catastrophic rip in the time-space continuum — I almost agree with John Hawkins today. Apparently the SCOTUS is set to discuss whether it will hear the case of Donofrio v. Wells, which challenges Barack Obama’s citizenship. I say, hell, let ’em hear the thing. Hawkins writes,
Personally, I hope that they take the case so that they can squash this whole issue once and for all. Barack Obama is an American citizen and if the Supreme Court officially rules that way, then these particular stories will, for the most part, go away.
Where I disagree is that I doubt a SCOTUS ruling will make any difference. Those wingnuts who want to believe Barack Obama is not a natural-born American will continue to believe it and will continue to “discover” fantasy evidence. They will go to their graves believing Barack Obama is not a natural-born citizen, no matter what.
Let’s call it Truther Disease. Or Grassy Knoll syndrome. For some reason, people do fall in love with these conspiracy theories, and no amount of argument or evidence can shake them.
I can’t wait for the “explanations” from the Truthers as to why the SCOTUS delivered a “corrupt” verdict re Obama’s nationality, or why the “corrupt” court refused to hear the case. Nothing stands in the way of their fantasies.
robert’s SCOTUS will find some orginalist reason not to review the case and send it back to the lower court. This SCOTUS has no courage…no real moral sense of right vs wrong…its politics 24/7.
I think this Obama birth certificate is the sort of test on the right that 9/11 conspiracism is no the left. The measure between respectable players and nut cases is whether they reject it.
This just points out how important it is to scuttle that relic of the 18th century, the “natural born” requirement. It is ludicrous and discriminatory in our age. As we become more diverse and global, this will increasingly be an issue, and many more qualified, patriotic individuals will be excluded from trying for the Presidency, just as Arnold Swarzenegger and Jennifer Granholm are now. Any U.S. citizen 35 years old and not a convicted felon should be eligible for the presidency. Unfortunately, inertia will probably ensure that this is not changed.
I understand that the lower courts keep refusing to even hear these cases due to a lack of standing. I really expect scotus to do the same thing, which would be too bad – it would be nice to get this particular lump of crap off the table once and for all. I read on HuffPo that several other cases have been filed in other states. It’s like lawsuit whack-a-mole.
But no matter. There’s a certain segment of rightie world that’s going to hound Obama like they hounded Bill Clinton. Here we go again.
I didn’t know you had a blog here too – nice! I heard something about this when I looked at a hate group post in my comments section about Obama. They are convinced he doesn’t have citizenship. I hope that’s not the case as I am really interested in seeing what he can do as President! I’ll grab your RSS feed now. 🙂
Maybe Obama was born via cesarean section, in which case the Supremes might not consider him natural born. Other than that I don’t see a possible scenerio where he wouldn’t be considered a natural born citizen. My sister was born in Trinidad during the second world war, and she is a natural born American citizen.
My understanding is that if the mother is an American citizen the child is born into citizenship no matter where in the world they are delivered….Or conceived
There’s no standing, SCOTUS would find so, and the maniacs would just have more grist for the mill (“if they reached the merits, then they’d see! They’d all see!” and whatnot). This is the kind of thing that can’t be squashed; it can only be mocked. May as well get some joy out of it.
I dunno… I hear Obama was born on Krypton. Don’t mess with a guy with X-ray vision. Clarence Thomas, I’m talkin’ to you.
I don’t think the right will hound Obama as they did Clinton. They don’t have controll of the House and can’t use House committees for their games and charades. All they can do is scfream from their blogs. I doubt that the traditional media will pick up their loony stories so it’;s all just rightwing masturbation. Let them have their fun.
The idiocy of the Right knows no bounds. No amount of evidence will convince them. I guarantee that if we are in the most fantastic period of economic growth, peace and prosperity after eight years of President Obama, the wingnuts will still be claiming Obama’s not a citizen and it was Bush’s tax cuts (or maybe Reagan’s) that gave us economic good times.
Just let them live in looney land.
“Any U.S. citizen 35 years old and not a convicted felon should be eligible for the presidency.”
Before you know it, it’ll be all right to have dual citizenship, such as with Rahm Emanuel.
Please do not mess with the natural born citizenship requirement.
Rahm Emmanuel is a natural born US citizen – he was born in Chicago.
The concept of dual citizenship has nothing whatever to do with the concept of “natural born,” which as far as I know has never been legally defined but is usually interpreted to mean born on U.S. soil.
Anyone else think it’s odd that Obama’s citizenship is still a big to-do even though everyone KNOWS he never would have even been listed on the ballot if there was one iota of truth in it, and yet McCain was born in Panama and nothing is ever said because his father was military?
Now we have to waste time and money going to the supreme court over this. I have to wonder why they have decided to hear this now instead of before the election. If they wanted to rule on this, it should have been BEFORE the election.
OT/ $#*% I just noticed Nardelli (sp) is in charge of Chrysler.. just look at his record departure from Home Depot a few years ago and you will see where your taxpayer bail out for the auto industry will go. That guy filled up his pockets to an obscene level on the way out of Home Depot. I was for the bail out until I noticed that. Now, I am reconsidering.