The birther strawman.

[Requia ☣]

I was flipping through the constitution and came across this.

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 to the office of 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.

Which means the birthers are crazy from the word 'go'.  Even if Obama was really born in Kenya, his mother is from Kansas, and under US law anybody born to an American citizen is a Natural born citizen themselves.

Why the hell are we even arguing about the birth certificate, we should be beating them over the head with a copy of the constitution.

[Remington]

Why the hell are we even arguing about the birth certificate, we should be beating them over the head with a copy of the constitution.

but but but

He was born in Kenya and he's an atheistic Muslim!

[Captain Utopia]

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 to the office of 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.

Google failed to answer this, does anyone know offhand why they picked that strange number? Was it a write-in for someone individually favoured among the group?

[Requia ☣]

Hmm, at a guess, I'd say 21 was the voting age, which implies that someone resident in the US for 14 years would have had the same US political experience as expected of a 35 YO.

Just conjecture though.

[Iason Ouabache]

I was flipping through the constitution and came across this.

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 to the office of 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.

Which means the birthers are crazy from the word 'go'.  Even if Obama was really born in Kenya, his mother is from Kansas, and under US law anybody born to an American citizen is a Natural born citizen themselves.

Why the hell are we even arguing about the birth certificate, we should be beating them over the head with a copy of the constitution.

They get around all of that by point out that his mom was only 18 when she had him. I don't remember why this matters. Something about her not being a US citizen long enough. It doesn't matter, it's all bullshit anyways. I can't keep their talking points straight anymore.

[Cain]

Because its not about where Obama is born, its about explaining how Obama has crazy, dangerous anti-American views, despite his mother coming from "tEh hEaRtLaNd", thrown in with partisan posturing and hyperbole.

And a little bit of racism, too.

[Requia ☣]

Only a little?

I'm more curious why none of the counter arguments point this out.  Especially from supposedly neutral types like Lou Dobbes.

[Cain]

I suspect because either

a) they know its bullshit and don't want it to grace the airwaves longer than necessary, or
b) they're pretending to be neutral in order to further push the agenda, by having thousands of programs about it, and then shrugging at the end instead of debunking it, as a nod and a wink to their new Birther viewers.

Also, and I'd just like to point out, its worth nothing how the Birthers and Truthers have been treated quite differently by the press.  Both are crazy, but it seems one form of crazy is privileged over the other...I wonder why that might be?

[Iason Ouabache]

As someone else pointed out, it is almost entirely a Southern white thing.  Kinda like Young Earth Creationism if you think about it. I'd love someone to do a poll correlating those two. I'm willing to bet that over 90% of Birthers also think that the earth is only 6000 years old.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I was flipping through the constitution and came across this.

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 to the office of 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.

Which means the birthers are crazy from the word 'go'.  Even if Obama was really born in Kenya, his mother is from Kansas, and under US law anybody born to an American citizen is a Natural born citizen themselves.

Why the hell are we even arguing about the birth certificate, we should be beating them over the head with a copy of the constitution.

They get around all of that by point out that his mom was only 18 when she had him. I don't remember why this matters. Something about her not being a US citizen long enough. It doesn't matter, it's all bullshit anyways. I can't keep their talking points straight anymore.

Has to do with a really poorly-worded law that was oriented toward immigrants and was abolished in 1966 or something like that. In other words, completely irrelevant. Legally, there is no way Obama is not a natural-born citizen.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

BTW, I don't have my original birth certificate either, nor is there any way for me to get it, even if I become President, because I live in Oregon, one of the many States where that shit gets archived who-knows-where and it would take an act of divinity to find it. I have the State-issued certificate everyone else gets.

I think all Birthers should be required to come up with their ORIGINAL birth certificate before they're allowed to challenge Obama's. Just try dealing with archivists, bitches. Just try.

[Cramulus]

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 to the office of 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.

Google failed to answer this, does anyone know offhand why they picked that strange number? Was it a write-in for someone individually favoured among the group?

according to Jon Stewart's book

Early Americans were afraid of electing a new king.
I mean what if they won the war, established independence, and then during a harsh and desperate winter elected King George?

Stewart says the minimum age is 35 because of the short average lifespan. If they elected a tyrant, at least he'd only have ten years or so before kicking the bucket.

And that the minimum of 14 years residence is probably to keep someone who is born in the States but loyal to England off the roster.

[Captain Utopia]

Stewart says the minimum age is 35 because of the short average lifespan. If they elected a tyrant, at least he'd only have ten years or so before kicking the bucket.

And that the minimum of 14 years residence is probably to keep someone who is born in the States but loyal to England off the roster.

I guess I meant something more along the lines of "okay, so.. let's make a minimum residence requirement of.. say.. 15 years?" and someone like James Wilson might have popped up and said "Well, I've only been resident for... 14 years, so that'd suck for me!"

It be quite useful if the reason for picking a strange number like "14", was for something as arbitrary as that.

[Cramulus]

Shot in the dark: I bet that number is the result of a compromise or some other haggle/barter.

Other possibility: To be president at 35, you'd have to have lived in the US since age 21 (14 years of residence). So it could have been based on 21 as the "age of majority" or something

[fomenter]

14... 1 + 4 = 5   = lo5 they were discordians obviously..