The South in Doubt: Obama and the Birther Movement
I have been pretty captivated by the growing birther movement in the United States surrounding the legitimacy of Barack Obama's birth certificate. A horribly outdated and hypocritical rule (look at Governor Arnold in California), in order to qualify as President of the United States, one must be born on U.S. soil. According to an article in the Washington Monthly, a new Research 2000 poll conducted for Daily Kos asked people if they thought Obama was born in the United States, with either a yes, no or I don't know response. Here are the results graphically by region. I'll leave this post with a great quote from an article on the subject by Bill Maher in the Los Angeles Times:
"So far, the reaction from Democrats is to laugh this off, and I understand why. If you seriously believe that President Obama is an African sleeper spy, get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead.
But we live in America, and in America, if you don't immediately kill arrant nonsense, no matter how ridiculous, it can grow and thrive and eventually take over, like crab grass or reality shows about fat people....
But we live in America, and in America, if you don't immediately kill arrant nonsense, no matter how ridiculous, it can grow and thrive and eventually take over, like crab grass or reality shows about fat people....
Lou Dobbs has been saying recently that people are asking a lot of questions about the birth certificate. Yes, the same people who want to know where the sun goes at night."
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A horribly outdated and hypocritical rule (look at Senator Arnold in California), in order to qualify as President of the United States, one must be born on U.S. soil.
I don't know. To me it sounds like a sensible one.
People have seen his birth certificate and they're still not happy. No amount of proof is going to change that.
P.S. Arnie is the Governor of California, not Senator
P.S.
Thanks shafiq for that correction, i think i was typing too fast! i edited it. Well, i have dual citizenship, and one of mine is American, but I was not born in the United States. So, from where I am coming from, I guess I have a bias to think its a dumb rule, cause it negatively affects me, but you are right. It is debateable.