by Rick Fontes

Created on: November 27, 2008

President-elect Barrack Obama promised change. Who could have suspected that his "change" would involve dismantling the Constitution of the United States?

Article two, Section one, of the constitution sets forth the qualifications for an individual to serve as president of these United States and there are serious, unanswered questions as to whether or not Mr. Obama meets these qualifications. If he does, in fact, meet the qualifications, it would seem to be a simple matter to prove his eligibility.

The state of Hawaii says that it cannot release his original birth certificate data to any but a person who has direct involvement in the event. No one would have more direct involvement than Barrack Obama himself. He has but to obtain the original document and release it to the press in order to allay suspicions on that front.

To dispel rumors that he entered college using the name given to him in Indonesia, his registration papers could easily be made available. His return to the United States from indonesia required him to have some sort of passport in his possession. Records of that travel and it's documentation have almost certainly not disappeared into the ether.

The web has been flooded with claim and counter-claim concerning Mr. Obama's citizenship, and his eligibility to hold the highest office in the land. Unfortunately the document that so many of us turn to as the final word on matters of political law, the Constitution, is silent on the subject of requiring proof of eligibility from political candidates. It is left up to their respective parties to nominate only those who are eligible to serve.

Mr. Obama is not the first candidate to be questioned about his right to hold office under the natural born citizen clause. Everyone remembers John McCain having to address this question during the recent campaign, but he and Mr. Obama are not the only ones to be so questioned. Barry Goldwater was born in the Arizona Territory, in 1909, three years before it became a state. He faced the same challenges as Barrack Obama and it was conceded at the time that he did, indeed, meet the citizenship qualifications. George Romney was born in Mexico. The question of eligibility came up when he ran in 1968 but was never put to a test. President Chester Arthur was plagued with rumors that he had been born in Canada, not Vermont, and was therefore an illegal president. There was even a popular book at the time, "How a British Subject became President of the United States" by Arthur

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