High-level Kansas birthers question Obama's eligibility
Barb ShellyThree of Kansas’ top elected officials have just provided fodder for another chapter in the “What’s the Matter With Kansas” annals.
Kansas, it seems, has something called the State Objections Board. Right now it consists of Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer. It goes without saying that all are Republicans, since just about all Kansas officeholders are.
This State Objections Board met Thursday to consider, well, an objection. It comes from a citizen named Joe Montgomery, who claims that President Barack Obama should be removed from the November ballot because his father was from Kenya and because Montgomery still finds his birth certificate suspicious.
So the distinguished members of the board politely explained to Montgomery that the matter of Obama’s eligibility for the presidency has been resolved upteen times over, right? And surely it crossed their minds how dumb the state would look if word got out they were even considering this as a legitimate topic. Right?
Wrong. Not only did the board give Montgomery’s objection due consideration, they actually postponed making a decision until Monday. Apparently they want more documentation on the birth certificate question, and they want a member of the Obama campaign to come and answer questions.
All this makes a little more sense when you consider that Kobach pals around with people like Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff who craves attention and gets it by harassing Latino citizens and questioning Obama’s citizenship.
Kansas is certain to go for Republican candidate Mitt Romney, so Obama doesn’t have to worry about losing electoral votes should he be booted off the state’s ballot.
But this dance along the nutty fringe should have some other people worrying. Just what is the matter with Kansas?
Johnathon Busby
9 months, 1 week agoIt’s about the economy!
Wait, it’s about God!
Wait, it’s about foreign policy!
Wait, Obama isn’t really American!
The right can’t come up with a viable attack line, so they keep shaking the etch a sketch Willard.
Johnathon Busby
9 months, 1 week agosighs and wishes there was a time based edit for grammar Delete the word Willard, it was part of a point I chose to skip.
Mark Hastert
9 months, 1 week agoThree of Kansas’ top elected officials have just provided fodder for another chapter in the “What’s the Matter With Kansas” annals.
….Secretary of State Kris Kobach, Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer,
Nuff said…
John Stolte
9 months, 1 week agoBarb Shelly’s expectation that a lie told often enough should be believed is disgusting. It is also disgusting that she attempts to discredit the members of the board because of their association with honorable men like Joe Arpaio. Barack Obama is NOT the perpetrator of a fraud. He is honest about the origin and citizenship of his father. The perpetrators of the fraud are the members of the media and the people who voted for and who support him. A natural born citizen does not have a father born in Kenya who was never a US citizen. This is NOT a “Birther” issue. This is a “natural born citizen” issue. Read our Constitution!
Robert Copher
9 months, 1 week agoJohn, its more basic than that. Its about showing some integrity and respect for a President that has been elected with valid and adapted solutions that the poeple have voted on and selected and recognize the message the people are trying to make. The birther question is moot. Now Kobach is questioning the intelligence and rights of the people that have already spoken thru their President. And being disrespectful to most of the Nation with his sense of correctness. Republicans are having a hard time killing the message that the Democratic socialist agenda is “uniting” and the Republican Social agenda is “dividing” and right now the people and the country needs uniting, and Republicans need to stop beating the crap out of these dead horses and non-issues to continue these efforts to divide. John you say read the Constitution, and I have, but I can’t remember the wording. You can look it up, but it says something to the effect that we shouldn’t be letting Kobach collect support for what so far has been attempts to intentionally plot against the constitution and his legislation has been found to do so by three different federal courts so far. So I’m of concern about treasonous intents myself, and you seem to support that effort. So there are very diverse angles which this could be viewed from. Check the Constitution and let me know if I’m wrong. After seeing both Party’s convention conduct votes that clearly did not show respect for the voice of the delegates, how can the average American not conclude that these are both selected agenndas being forced onto the public. If you can draw another conclusion, I’m all ears. Narcisists are phenominal manipulators. Thats all I’ll say.
Mark Hastert
9 months, 1 week agoUnderlying the Birther movement is an attempt to depict Obama as “the other”, undeserving of the office he won on some technicality. These fearful people look an America that is changing and want to find a way, any way at all, to delude themselves. The term “natrual born” is not defined in the constitution but has come to mean
“The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term “natural born” citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship “by birth” or “at birth”, either by being born “in” the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizenship “at birth”.
Joe Jones
9 months, 1 week agoI see..so…calling people “Birther” someone discredits them?
Please go to the White House site and read the birthplace on the Birth Cert posted there –it names “Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital” as the birthplace.
According to the website of the HOSPITAL NAMED ON THE CERTIFICATE–there was NEVER A HOSPITAL BY THAT NAME; from the website http://www.kapiolani.org/women…
Direct cut and paste from the site: “This is the story of two hospitals: Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital and Kapi‘olani Maternity Home.”
Concerned about the welfare of Hawai‘i’s mothers, Queen Kapi‘olani held luau and bazaars to raise the $8,000 needed to open Kapi‘olani Maternity Home in 1890. She endowed her legacy with “Kulia i ka nu‘u” or “Strive for the highest.”
“In 1908, Albert and Emma Kauikeolani Wilcox donated $50,000 to start a children’s hospital. The community, concerned that two of every seven infants in Hawai‘i did not live to see their first birthday, rallied to match the Wilcox’s gift. A year later, Kauikeolani Children’s Hospital opened.”
“The two hospitals joined in 1978 to become Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children. Staying true to its mission, the non-profit hospital has played a vital role in the health of Hawai‘i’s women, children and adolescents. It is staffed with highly skilled, compassionate physicians and nurses, dedicated to providing the finest care for Hawai‘i’s families”
Stephen Platt
9 months, 1 week agoBarb, they are government administrators doing a thorough job to answer a citizen’s question. At the end of the day after reading the clause in the constitution closely and reviewing the precedence (or lack thereof) it will be decided that “natural born” citizen is not defined by the constitution. Certainly there have been Presidents in the early years of the democracy whose parents were not born in the country. We all know INS didn’t exist so a formal naturalization process was available and constitutional clarification of the parental requirement has not been made. Who cares. Even though it is a civic lesson about how citizenship is obtained, it is all about a reminder that Obama’s father was from Kenya and not a US citizen. Obama was born in August, the product of a “murky” marriage in the preceeding February. The old saying is the second child comes after 9 months but the first can come anytime. By virtue of being born in the US, Obama would be a citizen. Have a good laugh and a pleasant day.
Phil Cardarella
9 months, 1 week agoDid Kansas run out of creationists who think cavemen rode on dinosaurs and The Flintstones was a documentary? Is it up to birthers now to keep the Red State red with embarrassment.
No Alum should give a dime to UMKC until it publicly apologizes for the discredit it gave our degrees when it gave that demagogue Kobach legitimacy by hiring him as a professor.
Johnathon Busby
9 months, 1 week agoThe three stooges of Kansas dropped their objection to Obama’s citizenship. …largely because of how it exposes the backwards nature of Kansas on a national level.
Well, that changes everything! Now Obama gets Kansas in November (ha ha ha, what’s he poll in KS, maybe 30%?)
Ray Cyst
9 months, 1 week agoJohnathon, when you are old it will occur to you that a government giving away your money to the worhless is not a sustainable plan.
Raymond James
9 months, 1 week agoJohn do you have any idea where MItts father was born? Mitts father was born in Mexico of parents who had given up there citizenship by fleeing the United States. They went to Mexico rather than give up plural marrage. Many of Mitts relatives still live in Mexico and clam not to practice plural marraige any more.
What difference does it make a President who has a father born in Africa or a a president who has a father born in Mexico?
The only foriegn born canidate in the last presidential election was John McCain who was born in Panama.
So John lets recap Obama born in the US of an American mother= Amerian Citizen.
Mitt born in the US of a American mother=American Citizen.
Oh and No one made of issue of Mitts father being born in Mexico when he was running for president.
Johnathon Busby
9 months agoRaycyst; I’m very much in favor of cuts to the gov’t budget, so long as we start with the military and never stray far from it until it is a domestic defense force again. So there’s my tip of the hat to conservative fiscal responsibility.
Raymond: …uh, yes. I agree. Both are US citizens, Obama and Mitt.