The media’s Constitutional double standard
Which does the mainstream media hold in higher regard: the Constitution or Democratic party interests? After reading Jerome Corsi’s latest article exposing the media’s double standard on presidential eligibility, it would appear to be the latter.
The same media outlets that sounded the alarm in 2008 over McCain’s eligibility are now marginalizing the growing concerns whether our current president is constitutionally qualified to hold office.
When McCain became the Republican nominee, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, FactCheck.org, Snopes.com, the Times of London, and many other media outlets questioned his eligibility to serve, as he was born in the Panama Canal Zone.
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states that “No person except a natural born citizen … shall be eligible to the office of President.” But according to U.S. law, McCain was in fact eligible to serve, as he was born on a Navy base to American parents.
McCain appeared before Congress with his actual birth certificate (not a “Certification of Live Birth,”, which Obama and the media wrongly portray as a birth certificate), thereby averting a possible Constitutional crisis. However, FactCheck.org still maintains that “If McCain wins the presidency, the constitutionality of these congressional statutes could be challenged in the courts.”
Why didn’t Congress also bring in Obama, who has sealed nearly all of his records, to testify as McCain did? Obama’s refusal to release the very documents that would resolve the matter has cost an incredible $1.7 million in order to fight requests to release the information according to World Net Daily. If our president has nothing to hide, then why doesn’t he release his actual birth certificate as McCain did? After all, there aren’t separate versions of the Constitution for Republicans and Democrats.
My view is that the media was right to investigate McCain’s eligibility. But they should have given candidate Obama the same scrutiny. While the media – and these supposed “fact-checking” websites – wrote piece after piece questioning the validity of the Republican candidate, those who questioned the Democratic candidate were – and continue to be – attacked and smeared by the same. Their efforts to label concerned citizens “birthers” and “racists” is nothing more than a diversionary tactic to shift the focus from where it belongs.
Whether you think the so-called “birther” movement is nuts or not, what is truly ridiculous is that our president has allowed this controversy to continue for nearly two years. Government officials swear an oath to “support the Constitution,” not to selectively apply the law when it is politically expedient for them.
In my opinion this is what the small portions of the republican party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” have brought you. They are good at “Follow the Leader” of their dullard leaders, they listen to Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush and Savage and the rest of the Blowhards. Are you surprise at what they do when you know what they think? The world is complicated and most republicans (Hamiliton, Lincoln, Roosevelt) believe that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now its about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. Although most republicans are trying to distant themselves from this fringe they have a long way to go.
Re: “it’s about a president who has spent nearly $2 million to hide his records. ”
Answer. Total Baloney. There was never a lawsuit against Obama just for his birth certificate or just for records. The vast majority of them were to stop the election. After the election, the vast majority of the lawsuits were to stop the Electoral College from voting, stop the Congress from confirming the election, or to stop the Inauguration.
Re: “John McCain wasn’t born to a father who had dual citizenship. ”
NO, but the citizenship of the father does not affect Natural Born Citizen status. If it did, McCain or Hillary would have said so during their campaigns. All US citizens at birth are Natural Born Citizens. The original meaning of Natural Born was simply “born in the country except for the children of foreign diplomats.’
Re: “McCain didn’t list himself as an Indonesian citizen when he went to school. ”
Neither did Obama. You are referring to Obama’s parents in an unsigned application to an Indonesian school. Do parents lie from time to time to get their children into a good school? Answer: YES. In any case, both the Indonesian government and the US State Department have said that Obama was never a citizen of Indonesia.
Re: “McCain didn’t travel to countries during time periods that U.S. citizens weren’t allowed into the country.”
Neither did Obama for the simple reason that Pakistan was never on any “no travel list” and it never barred US citizens from visiting. Obama went to Pakistan on a US passport, which any US citizen could do at the time. He had a US passport from the time that he left Hawaii to go to Indonesia.
Re: “The document McCain disclosed was his actual birth certificate…”
Unfortunately, you are wrong. McCain never posted his actual birth certificate. He never posted any birth certificate. The document that is still on line is a forgery and not made by McCain’s campaign but by an enemy of McCain. It says that McCain was born in Colon Hospital, while he says in his biography that he was born at the family hospital on the Naval Base. In any case, no birth certificate was ever posted by the McCain campaign or shown to any court.
Re: “not a document that can be obtained merely by a statement of a relative that the individual was born in the U.S..”
Simply not true. There is no way to obtain in Hawaii a birth certificate that says on it “born in Hawaii” (as Obama’s does) unless there is proof that the child was born in Hawaii, and in Obama’s case, the facts on his posted birth certificate (which by the way is the officials birth certificate of Hawaii, and the only one that Hawaii currently issues) were confirmed twice by the two top officials of the Department of Health of Hawaii. Hawaii’s Certification of Live Birth, which is the document Obama posted and showed to Politifact and FactCheck, is accepted as proof of birth in the USA by the US State Department and the branches of the US military.
Re: ‘I bet the rent that if a Republican refused to prove his status as a natural-born citizen…”
Obama HAS proven that he is a Natural Born Citizen due to his birth in Hawaii. He received 69 million votes to McCain’s 59 million. He received 365 Electoral Votes, and not one of them changed her or his vote despite a campaign by birthers to encourage them to vote against Obama due to their allegations. The same holds for the Congress, which confirmed Obama unanimously.
Here again, more diversionary tactics. The problem isn’t about how you perceive Corsi’s wording, it’s about a president who has spent nearly $2 million to hide his records. John McCain wasn’t born to a father who had dual citizenship. McCain didn’t list himself as an Indonesian citizen when he went to school. McCain didn’t travel to countries during time periods that U.S. citizens weren’t allowed into the country. The document McCain disclosed was his actual birth certificate, not a document that can be obtained merely by a statement of a relative that the individual was born in the U.S..
I bet the rent that if a Republican refused to prove his status as a natural-born citizen, the country would have gone nuts – and rightly so. Since it is a Democrat, why should it be different?
Jerome Corsi lies, as usual. By saying that FactCheck “conceded” that McCain was a natural-born citizen, he implies that it somehow had purported otherwise. It never did. It as strongly explained McCain’s credentials as it did Obama’s. The notion of a difference or bias is entirely in Corsi’s imagination.
Oh, that it “smidgeon of uncertainty.. could be challenged in the courts”? Well, everything can be. Corsi shows how far he will strain when he attempts to use that as part of his spin.