legitimacy, revisited
Yesterday I commented on Karl Rove's complaint that not everybody thought de facto President George W. Bush had legitimacy as president, and noted that many Republicans refused to consider Bill Clinton as legitimate either. Not because there was any question about his electoral victories in 1992 or 1996, but because he was not a god-fearing conservative St-Ronald-of-Reagan's-ass-kissing right wing Republican.
Well, assaults on Barack Obama's legitimacy are already underway. So far they appear to be confined to the nuttier elements of the conservative world. Some lawyer from Pennsylvania called Philip Berg (supported by Bob Shulz of the We the People Foundation, a nutty anti-tax organization) says Obama isn't a natural born American citizen, complains that he is actually a British subject (because Obama, he says, was born in Kenya when that was still a British possession) AND an Indonesian citizen because of his adoption by his stepfather, his mother's second husband.
Well the Supreme Court decided not to grant a stay to the Electoral College vote, which Berg wanted. Berg also complained that John McCain, born to American parents in the Panama Canal Zone, was also not a natural born citizen and was therefore also ineligible to be President. How non-partisan. And utterly stupid. (For what it's worth, there isn't anything in the Constitution precluding a dual-national from being President. But Obama is a mono-national, only an American citizen of the natural-born variety. McCain, too. Although personally I think we SHOULD allow naturalized citizens to run for the Presidency. This isn't 1788, we don't have to worry about England or France trying to impose a monarch upon us.)
Just a nut? Or as Dana Milbank writes, is this the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy back in business?
Well, assaults on Barack Obama's legitimacy are already underway. So far they appear to be confined to the nuttier elements of the conservative world. Some lawyer from Pennsylvania called Philip Berg (supported by Bob Shulz of the We the People Foundation, a nutty anti-tax organization) says Obama isn't a natural born American citizen, complains that he is actually a British subject (because Obama, he says, was born in Kenya when that was still a British possession) AND an Indonesian citizen because of his adoption by his stepfather, his mother's second husband.
Well the Supreme Court decided not to grant a stay to the Electoral College vote, which Berg wanted. Berg also complained that John McCain, born to American parents in the Panama Canal Zone, was also not a natural born citizen and was therefore also ineligible to be President. How non-partisan. And utterly stupid. (For what it's worth, there isn't anything in the Constitution precluding a dual-national from being President. But Obama is a mono-national, only an American citizen of the natural-born variety. McCain, too. Although personally I think we SHOULD allow naturalized citizens to run for the Presidency. This isn't 1788, we don't have to worry about England or France trying to impose a monarch upon us.)
Just a nut? Or as Dana Milbank writes, is this the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy back in business?
Labels: politics
posted by Don Q Blogger at 4:12 AM
1 Comments:
I can't believe that this is still hanging on. I had to tackle it myself today.
Not that anyone listens to me. But I had to say something.
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