The sweeping republican victories in the November, 2010 elections may result in President Barack Obama being declared ineligible for re-election in the 2012 general election.
The republicans won dramatic victories in the U.S. House of Representative, gaining 62 seats and re-claiming the majority in that chamber. They enjoyed some success in the U.S. Senate as well, narrowing the democrat majority in that chamber to 53-47. But nationwide republicans gained 700 seats in state legislatures. They took control of 19 previously-democrat controlled state legislatures and now control 55 of the nation’s 93 legislative chambers (some states having only one legislative chamber). Additionally, republican state governors now outnumber democrats 29-20 (with one independent).
This has troubling implications to democrat hopes for future elections as many congressional districts will undergo redistricting in the next few years as a result of population changes highlighted by the 2010 census. Redistricting will re-apportion congressional seats based on the current population figures, but it is the state legislatures that draw the new district lines. They usually draw those new district boundaries to favor the electoral chances of the party in power, which is now the republicans.
But in recent weeks, another implication of the national republican victory has emerged. Arizona, and at least four other states, are considering passing laws that will require future presidential candidates to prove that they are eligible to hold the office of the presidency before allowing their names on the ballot. This, of course, stems from the discussions relating to Barack Obama’s citizenship. Mr Obama claims to have been born in Hawaii, but has not produced evidence of that event, to date. Article II, section 1 of the U.S. Constitution states that, “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 for the Office of the 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.”
Mr. Obama and his supporters have derisively referred to anyone who questions the authenticity of his citizenship as “Birthers,” with the clear implication that their sanity should be questioned due to their obviously poor judgement. But with republicans in charge of many state legislatures and governor’s offices, the chances are pretty good that Mr Obama will have to actually produce a long-form birth certificate to get his name on the ballot in several, perhaps many states for the 2012 presidential election.
All of this would be unnecessary, of course, if there was a vigorous, objective national press corps performing their constitutionally protected function; digging up facts and actually reporting news. If we were not possessed of a corrupt, derelict, lap dog media made up of hopeless sycophants breathlessly carrying Mr Obama’s water, some fearless “journalist” would have made his claim to the Pulitzer Prize and discovered the truth about Mr. Obama’s arrival in this life. Clearly, if he had nothing to hide, we'd have seen the proof by now. If Mr Obama was a republican, we would know every detail of his birth, and every unsavory moment of his life since.
