Barack Obama: Son of the Fifty-Seventh State

At long last, after years of inquiry, Barack Obama has finally put to rest accusations that he was not born a citizen of the United States of America, which would have disqualified him under the Constitution from holding the office of President. Given the significance of the presidency as the most powerful office in the country–and, by extension, the world–one would think proving one’s qualifications to hold that position should be mandatory. But just as we have learned over the past two years that it is not necessary to actually prove that a president will “to the best of (his or her) ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States” as long as they simply claim they will, it is also not necessary to produce proof that a president was born in the USA. We are instead asked to merely take their word for it, or be labeled as insane, racist, conspiracy theorists.

The angle that makes this topic interesting isn’t the physical evidence of the location of the President’s birth–which should have been a given–but rather the intense effort on the part of the media and the Democratic Party to avoid having to actually provide proof of the circumstances of the President’s birth. Indeed, Obama could have settled the matter within days of the question being raised, but instead chose to keep the debate at the forefront of his presidency. That would be entirely understandable if he did have something to hide, but is all the more baffling in the face of legitimate citizenship. A lack of closure on the issue has only stirred suspicion among many who had not originally questioned the matter, until what might have been just a formality or a conspiracy theory instead became a major issue and even the key policy point of one potential Republican presidential contender. Barack Obama ran on a campaign promising to lead the most transparent administration in the history of our nation and to bring the divided citizenry together, yet his handling of his own birth certificate–what should have been a non-issue–served to accomplish just the opposite. By the time Obama finally disclosed his birth records, the fact that he was born in the United States means he has some explaining to do.

The way in which Obama’s supporters are now celebrating his victory of actually having been born in Hawaii serves to demonstrate just how desperately his administration needs a political win. The President has spent the past twenty-eight months botching everything that came across his desk, often with results that were either tragic or hilarious. This is like an Olympic athlete trying to use a urine test proving he did not use steroids as a means to distract from the fact that he tripped and fell on his face during his event. While Obama makes light of the matter of his birth records–a frivolous issue only made significant by his previous unwillingness to address it–a startling number of truly important issues continue to escape focus as they compound in urgency. The economy is in shambles, gas prices are skyrocketing, the Middle East in on fire, and America in general is on the path to global decline. Obama’s handling of all of this borders on criminal negligence, and his allowing the matter of his birth records to eclipse any of it is further demonstration of the sense of entitlement and disconnect which surrounds his administration.

Whatever one might have previously believed about the location of Obama’s birth, there was always cause for suspicion and reasonable doubt. His family was splintered across continents, no one within the United States seems to remember associating with him during his early years, there are few photographs, and he is known to have spent a large part of his time actually living overseas. This might not be enough to call “overwhelming evidence,” but it is certainly enough to cast a shadow. The equivalent in a murder investigation would be a suspect who had motive, was caught with the murder weapon, and had no alibi. DNA evidence–or in this case, a birth certificate–could have easily proved his innocence, but for some reason, he refused to subject himself to the testing which might clear his name. Given these circumstances, as more time passed, it became less reasonable to believe the man wasn’t hiding something.

As much as Obama and his hangers-on in the media scoff at the notion that he should have to provide documentation of anything, the average American citizen is entirely accustomed to having to prove his or her legal standing on matters which are nowhere near as serious. The next time a bartender asks to see some identification before allowing you to buy a drink, tell him to just take your word that you’re over twenty-one and see how far you get. Chronological age is–at best–an inefficient and unreliable method of proving our level of maturity, and yet we are legally required to present documentation when we buy tobacco, rent a car, or even purchase a ticket to an R-rated movie. If we are required to provide satisfactory evidence of our legal standing to even vote for a president, should a presidential candidate not be held to at least that standard? If a person must prove their age to demonstrate aptitude and maturity, then surely it is not too much to ask a president that he provides proof of his citizenship before entrusting him with the wellbeing of the nation.

As always, the media provided ample evidence of their own political bias throughout their handling of the matter. In a time when information is easier to gather than at any point in human history, Barack Obama is undeniably the least-vetted presidential candidate since the founding of our nation. The media has been willfully inept at investigating his past and exposing the man for who he is, taking the approach that there were some things they just didn’t want to know, and the things they did know were things they didn’t want us to know. Meanwhile, within hours of John McCain selecting Sarah Palin as his running-mate, these same intrepid reports were hopping jets to Alaska and digging through her garbage cans, desperately hoping to find something to embarrass or discredit her. The woman has been so thoroughly investigated that we can get an account of what she had for breakfast on any given morning, and yet no one knows the topic of Barack Obama’s college thesis. While Obama, who once claimed to have campaigned in “57 states,” received softball questions about his favorite sports teams during the campaign, Palin was subjected to examinations of her knowledge of the power structure of the isolated tribes of the Brazilian jungles, and pounced upon if there was an answer she didn’t know. Had anyone suggested Sarah Palin was not American-born, the investigation would be updated regularly on the nightly news and the front page of the New York Times. And let us not forget, this is the very same media which actively worked to downplay the documented connections between Obama and his America-hating pastor, as well as domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. We can only assume that this week’s news of the President’s birth certificate was met with an enormous sigh of relief by the left wing media, because they themselves had probably long-suspected it did not exist.

In line with his numerous ties to shady characters, the matter of his birth certificate is the least in a long line of topics which Barack Obama must account for. This is a president which has worked to undermine the United States of America at every step. Obama has spent the past two year apologizing to America’s enemies, bowing to dictators, driving down the US economy, dismantling the American health care system, alienating our nation’s allies, crippling domestic oil drilling, arbitrarily involving us in military matters which are not our concern, and spending our country into debt for generations to come. And that’s just the short list. It is not a stretch to assume that most Americans would have taken Obama at his word concerning the circumstances of his birth if only he could satisfactorily explain how any of his policies thus far have been driven by the best interests of the United States.

After all this time, we can finally agree Barack Obama is technically an American. Now perhaps it is time for him to start acting like one.

Travis Sedars
Mason City, Iowa

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