Sep 4th, 2008 | survey

By definition of the US law, do you feel Obama is a Natural born US citizen?


Presidential office requires the person elected to be a natural-born United States citizen if the child was not born to two US citizen parents.

US Law very clearly stipulates: “If only one parent was a US citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16.”

Barack Obama’s father was not a US citizen, and Obama’s mother was only 18 when he was born, which means although she had been a US citizen for 10 years, his mother fails the test for being so for at least 5 years prior to Barack Obama’s birth.

In order for her child to have been a natural-born US citizen, his mother would have had to be 21 at the time of his birth.

In essence, Mrs. Obama was not old enough to qualify her son for automatic US citizenship.


By definition of the US law, do you feel Obama is a Natural born US citizen?


46 votes, 146 views , 12 comments
 
 

 
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Comments (12)
Bmccue7
(Reply)
Georgia, United States

posted Sep 7th, 2008 at 01:15 CDT

You're welcome. I have to work around right-wingers all day too.

Philgtaylor
(Reply)
Australia

posted Sep 5th, 2008 at 19:34 CDT

so just for clarification, the  “If only one parent was a US citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16” thing would ONLY apply if the person who it applies to was born OUTSIDE US territory.

Mack
(Reply)
California, United States

posted Sep 5th, 2008 at 17:17 CDT

Thank you!  This is total BS.  I've had to listen to idiot right-wing co-workers go on and on about this.

Drowlord
(Reply)
Texas, United States

posted Sep 5th, 2008 at 17:04 CDT

This issue plays on semantics.  If you interpret a question backwards -- as meaning "did you live in another country at any time in the last 10 years", a 9 year old could say that she lived in the US for the past 10 years.  I think that's the case for this question.

Scooter
(Reply)
New York, United States

posted Sep 5th, 2008 at 10:50 CDT

Well according to the definition that you gave here of a natural born US citizen, no he's not. But it doesn't really bother me. He has an interesting American success story, I love hearing him talk about it in his riveting speeches. I trust enough in the system that if he's made it THIS far, it should all be OK.

Bmccue7
(Reply)
Georgia, United States

posted Sep 5th, 2008 at 08:46 CDT

This is a hoax, invented intentionally to create an issue that does not exist. TruthorFiction.com does a good run-down on this eRumor, and a second variation of it. In fact the intro text that you copied and pasted is referenced on that site word-for-word, and is demonstrated to be pure fiction.

Ang
(Reply)
Texas, United States

posted Sep 4th, 2008 at 22:15 CDT

Well.....the law is the law I guess. I find it odd that the Democratic party has not addressed this issue up to this point. Maybe they thought nobody would notice or maybe they didn't know??? If anything, you would think that Obama wouldn't have taken a chance like this. :-/

Philgtaylor
(Reply)
Australia

posted Sep 4th, 2008 at 21:07 CDT

You are probably right... It makes me uncomfortable that such a good candidate (both McCain and Obama are massive improvements on Bush)  should be hamstrung by such a meaningless technicality.

Dnscal
(Reply)
Pennsylvania, United States

posted Sep 4th, 2008 at 21:04 CDT

If it is found that he is elected and should not be in office it could be a disaster protests could be bigger, it should be Officially clarified before it gets to voting day.

Philgtaylor
(Reply)
Australia

posted Sep 4th, 2008 at 20:58 CDT

Of course, you realise that if at this stage, Obama was disqualified, that would be MASSIVELY divisive... Whoever was elected would be seen as completely illigitimate by Obama supporters because he was disqualified on a technicality. It would make the protests following Bush's election (the first one, with the irregularities in the machines and ballot papers and purges in the electoral rolls in Florida) seem like a church picnic.

Dnscal
(Reply)
Pennsylvania, United States

posted Sep 4th, 2008 at 20:53 CDT

Yep, apparently its the law, so I respect that.- It's not my logic its the US constitutions logic

Philgtaylor
(Reply)
Australia

posted Sep 4th, 2008 at 20:49 CDT

So by your logic, nobody who has BOTH parents under 19 would be eligible to be president of the US... Sarah Palin's grandchild for example.

 
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