8 ms·
at the risk of opening a can of worms, why is obama ineligible for the presidency?
by snewk 10y ago
at the risk of opening a can of worms, why is obama ineligible for the presidency?
- csallen 10y agoI think he meant to say that people think Obama is ineligible (birther claims).
- maxxxxx 10y agoCorrect. I better change the post before I get down-voted.
- Retric 10y agoThe short answer was because people did not want him to win. The supposed issue was his nation of birth, thus the 'birther' term. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_consp...
- maxxxxx 10y agoPeople believe he is born outside the country, also that he is a Muslim and has an agenda to destroy America.
- JohnTHaller 10y agoI've spoken to people who seriously believe he's a secret Muslim born in Kenya. The fact that our president-elect spent years pushing this completely fabricated lie to further his own ends didn't help.
- hackuser 10y agoTrump was a minor player in that rumor; it was pushed by many in the GOP and in right-wing 'news' organizations.
- weberc2 10y agoFor that matter, it originated among Hillary supporters in '08.
- JohnTHaller 10y agoOnce Trump finally dropped the birther lie in September of this year (seriously, he spent 5 years trumpeting that lie) he came up with the new lie: Hillary started it. Neither Clinton nor her campaign ever publicly questioned Obama's citizenship or birthplace.
- weberc2 10y agoI agree; I never posted anything to the contrary.
- hackuser 10y agoWhatever people's partisan feelings, surely Trump has established a track record that what he says is relatively very unlikely to be true. The above statement comes from Trump.
- weberc2 10y agoNo, it doesn't. As far as I can tell, Trump claimed HRC (or her campaign) originated the myth. This is different than her supporters, which is my claim. [This article][0] supports my point. [0]: http://www.factcheck.org/2015/07/was-hillary-clinton-the-original-birther/ http://www.factcheck.org/2015/07/was-hillary-clinton-the-ori...
- AnimalMuppet 10y ago... with "born in Kenya" being the relevant part. Muslim has nothing to do with it, secret or not.
- Nadya 10y agoI'll give you a neutral answer for a neutral question. You must be American-born to be eligible for president. With the exception of the "(truly) first generation Americans" which could be citizens since nobody was yet natural born [0]. This is what the birth certificate controversy/conspiracy [2] was about. Obama's father [1] is Kenyan so there was some belief he was born in Kenya, not a "natural born US citizen" and thus illegible for position as the POTUS. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause [1] It might be his mother, but I remember it being his father. It's one of the parents, but not both. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_conspiracy_theories https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama_citizenship_consp...
- Retric 10y agoAs a matter of constitutional law, natural-born citizen is kind of undefined. If he had been born outside the US, the would have had dual or even triple citizenship at birth which would seemingly also qualify.
- oh_sigh 10y agoRight...undecided in courts, but my (naive) reading of it would mean that you have to be a citizen from the moment you leave the birth canal. It doesn't seem like it should matter where exactly you were born...if your American parents were vacationing in Bermuda for 1 week when you were born prematurely, that means you can't run for president 35+ years later?
- vkou 10y agoTed Cruz, a Canadian, was almost nominated as the Replubican candidate. Clearly, a large number of people feel that the definition of natural American citizen is a bit more flexible then that.
- oh_sigh 10y agoThat's exactly in line with my statement. His mother was an American - it shouldn't matter where he happened to be born.