Establishing Presidential Eligibility

Last fall, American voters were given a choice of two major candidates for the presidency — John McCain and Barack Obama. Both of them faced questions about their constitutional eligibility to serve.

McCain was not born in the United States. He was born in Panama to two parents, who were U.S. citizens, his father serving in the Navy. To make his case for eligibility, he submitted all required paperwork to U.S. Senate investigators.

Obama's story was different. He claimed to have been born in Honolulu. He provided to select news organizations and an outfit called FactCheck.org, associated with a former Obama employer, the Annenberg Foundation, a copy of what he claimed was a Hawaiian "certification of live birth," an unsigned document that provided no information about the hospital in which he was born and the doctor who supervised the birth.

The U.S. Senate found, in a unanimous vote, that McCain was eligible because his parents were both U.S. citizens. But no investigation was conducted by the U.S. Senate or any other official government agency into the eligibility of Obama. Instead, Obama was found to be eligible only by FactCheck.org and the select news organizations provided with the documentation by the Obama campaign.

In other words, it was a total breakdown of the electoral system. Nobody asked Obama to prove he was eligible. He was indeed certified as eligible by one prominent government official — Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, not acting in her official role, but rather acting in her private role as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee.

There was simply no mechanism in place to establish Obama's eligibility. He wasn't asked for proof by any of the states in which elections were held. He wasn't asked for proof by the Federal Elections Commission. He wasn't asked for proof by the Electoral College. He wasn't asked for proof by Congress. He wasn't asked for proof by the Supreme Court or any other court.

McCain was certified by the U.S.

Senate. Obama was certified by FactCheck.org and Nancy Pelosi. This is why there are still questions about Obama's fitness and constitutional qualifications for office today. And they are not going away.

Since the system obviously broke down, the American people have been asking Obama to prove his eligibility to them — the ultimate arbiters, along with the Constitution, of whom is fit to serve in the highest office in the land. Obama has been stonewalling them. He refuses to release the one innocuous document that could begin to unravel this mystery: his birth certificate.

And, yet, clear-thinking, Constitution-observing Americans who continue to ask for the release of that document as a beginning of clarification of his "natural born citizen" status are ridiculed, mocked, caricatured, publicly humiliated, jeered, treated with contempt, disdain and disparagement by some of the very people who failed to do their jobs in the first place — those in government and the press.

Barack Obama has a birth certificate. He refuses to show it to the people. Why?

The document he has shown is one subject to fraud. The state of Hawaii refuses to confirm it was even official issuance. It does not provide the kind of details we expect a birth certificate to offer, such as the birth hospital and independent eyewitnesses. It is not a suitable document with which to obtain a U.S. passport, let alone establish constitutional eligibility for the presidency.

All these things have been said before, but they are worth repeating.

It's time for the media and official stonewalling to stop. All Americans have a vested interest in establishing, without doubt, the constitutional qualifications of the president. If you love Barack Obama, you should want to do this. If you can't stand Barack Obama, you should want to do this.

It begins with the birth certificate. No, it doesn't end there. There are many other questions that need to be answered. There are many other documents Barack Obama should release. But if we cannot pressure him to release the birth certificate, what chance is there to pressure him to release other important papers solely under his control?

To find out more about Joseph Farah and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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