'Constitutional crisis' looming over Obama's birth location

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Bumpity bump bump.

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Try their Hot n Spicy...it's decent enough, especially as a Bloody Mary mix.
 
H n S is awesome when you add it to make beef stew in the crock pot! W/ potatos, carrots, onions, lite cabbage, beef.....etc.
 
Maybe what everyone needs is a little perspective. Some out-of-the-box thinking (even though I hate that term :D).

I did some research. I read Article II, Section 1, albeit an online copy from Cornell. Just to certify, I have not seen the original document, and I'm referring to the U.S. Constitution here. :D

But here is what I see.

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States.
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IMHO, it seems that the constitution may have been misinterpreted for the past few centuries. It looks like anyone who is a U.S. citizen may become president. I don't see how it is exclusive to only natural born citizens.

except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States
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I did search through the U.S. Code, or have been searching half the night, rather. I was trying to find a specific law that restricted the election of the president to only natural born citizens. Because the constitution doesn't.

I'm not defending Obama, here. But I am usually skeptical of what people tell me is true when they're trying to defend their side of an argument. So I researched, and read a part of the constitution, and several other parts while I was at it. And I thought it was interesting that no one here was raising the question about how the constitution was being interpreted. You know, just because 'everyone does it', doesn't mean it's right.

BTW, I only looked it up because Gonz posted a partial part of the paragraph about citizenship, and I was curious to find and read it myself.

And because he was defending that several-times-debated quote in this thread...
The Constitution bars those born outside of US territory from becoming President.
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Against Spike's "That bit isn't actually true by the way."

If you read the constitution, it's a partially correct statement. 'The constitution bars those born outside US territory who are not U.S. citizens from becoming president' is how I would word it. But that's only according to my interpretation which I have put forth here... which is not the interpretation currently in use by the United States of America. I only post it so that all of you may take into consideration an alternative perspective.

And I guess that means, in a way, I'm defending Spike. So I hope he doesn't let it go to his head. :D But who knows. Maybe this is exactly what he was trying to get someone to think of without actually telling them. Seven pages later, I can see how that plan failed, if that was his intent.
 
spike said:
Just like real Karma :D
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chcr said:
There's no such thing as "real" karma.
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nalani said:
Actually, I think you bring real karma on yourself .. wouldn't it be great if you could have these 'karma kards', positive and negative, and pass them out randomly to people? Ohhhhh .. I'm gonna invent that .. 'karma kards' .. ok .. don't steal my idea or I'm gonna sick some seriously gnarly negative karma on you :D
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Oh yeah, I wanted to post this. :D
Karma Ghost
 
pc_builder said:
IMHO, it seems that the constitution may have been misinterpreted for the past few centuries. It looks like anyone who is a U.S. citizen may become president. I don't see how it is exclusive to only natural born citizens.
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Since the United States hadn't had any "natural born citizens" at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, (the US didn't exist prior to that) the clause
at the time of the adoption of this Constitution,
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was added. To cover the first 35 or so years.
 
Gonz said:
(the US didn't exist prior to that)
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The US did exist before the constitution, under the Articles of Confederation. We had also been living here for at least a hundred years by 1787. Plenty of people were born who could be considered "natural born" citizens, to distinguish from the immigrants still coming to America, I'd guess.

at the time of the adoption of this Constitution,
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Just means that after the constitution is adopted, non-citizens are excluded from becoming president.
 
Under law, and the newly written Constitution, the United States of America did not exist prior to 1776. Since George Washington was not a natural born citizen of the USA, he would have been ineligible. He may have been a native born Virginian but he was not a natural born citizen. Only those born after the ratification of the Constitution could be considered so. (legalese)
 
That provision in the constitution which requires that the president shall be a native-born citizen (unless he were a citizen of the United States when the constitution was adopted,) is a happy means of security against foreign influence, which, wherever it is capable of being exerted, is to he dreaded more than the plague. The admission of foreigners into our councils, consequently, cannot be too much guarded against; their total exclusion from a station to which foreign nations have been accustomed to, attach ideas of sovereign power, sacredness of character, and hereditary right, is a measure of the most consummate policy and wisdom. … The title of king, prince, emperor, or czar, without the smallest addition to his powers, would have rendered him a member of the fraternity of crowned heads: their common cause has more than once threatened the desolation of Europe. To have added a member to this sacred family in America, would have invited and perpetuated among us all the evils of Pandora’s Box.
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interesting read on the sbuject
 
So that means none of our first nine presidents was legally eligible under the "natural born citizen" clause. John Tyler would be the first natural born citizen to take office, over fifty years later. That's pretty cool, though. It's not hard to learn something new from this forum. :D I don't know why some of the members here have such a hard time debating anything without it turning into a slap fight.

Edit: I found out about the early presidents because you prompted me to do more research, and hence, more learning. :D
 
Oh I get what they were trying to do now, with the "or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution" bit. Yeah it makes sense to me now. :D

Edit: And I'm reading that link you provided. It is interesting.
 
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