This is great; I haven't seen a good Matthews Takedown in a while.

What the real argument should be is WHY THE HELL DOSE IT MATTER WHAT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION SUM ONE WAS BORN .

OH HANG ON IS IT BECAUSE AMERICANS ARE RACIST AND XENOPHOBIC ?

>> ^westy:
What the real argument should be is WHY THE HELL DOSE IT MATTER WHAT GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION SUM ONE WAS BORN .
OH HANG ON IS IT BECAUSE AMERICANS ARE RACIST AND XENOPHOBIC ?


Are you sincerely asking? It's part of the constitution. Were the writers of the constitution racist? Of course! The constitution directly codified slavery (3/5ths compromise, restriction from banning the import of slaves until 1808).

But the "natural born citizen" term in the constitution is not born out of racism. Here is the likely history of how it came to be, from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_born_citizen

"July 25, 1787 letter from John Jay to George Washington. John Jay wrote: "Permit me to hint, whether it would be wise and seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expressly that the Commander in Chief of the American army shall not be given to nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen." There was no debate, and this qualification for the office of the Presidency was introduced by the drafting Committee of Eleven, and then adopted without discussion by the Constitutional Convention."

The framers of the constitution had to include it because their young republic faced a real risk of being controlled by the larger powers. Today, it seems to be just a historical technicality.

Not that the crazies will ever believe any evidence, of any sport but, http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/obamabirth.php

Actually, it really DOESN'T matter where BHO was born, since there's no debate about who his mother was, and what her citizenship status was.

You didn't see so much smoke blown around McCain on this subject and it's widely known he was not born in the United States. Nobody even claims otherwise.

^ I think the whole thing is part of the classic Karl Rove playbook: project your own weaknesses on your opponent.

There's a legitimate case for questioning McCain's natural-born status? Let's just raise questions about Obama's natural-born status, and force the conversation to be about that instead.

Good interview.

If this bill isn't about Obama, which it clearly is, then the guy could clear that up pretty quick by saying "Obama is clearly a natural born citizen - and this bill is about preventing this kind of controversy in the future".

But, as everyone involved understands, that's exactly the opposite of what this idiot is trying to do.

I was watching this live. Good on Matthews - it HAS been awhile since he make a fool of someone other than himself.

I can't believe how long that guy hedged and how reluctant he was to come out and clearly say that Obama is an American citizen. In fact, he still never comes out and says that Obama is a constitutionally acceptable candidate for the Presidency. It's both sad and scary, I can't decide which is greater though.

Ugh, he's so fucking slimy!

This is bullshit! I'm pro-Obama, left wing, liberal, whatever. But what's wrong with wanting a system to make sure that future presidents are constitutionally allowed to serve office?! It makes sense to, you know, check it out. Hell, the two big parties in the US are going to have is-the-VP-nominees-daughter-knocked-up checks in future, why not actual is-the-possible-president-legit checks? I don't know what this interview was about and I don't know the context, but Matthews just seems to shout down the congressman. "Nice try"? The congressman asked a perfectly reasonable question. Unless this question was it's self avoiding a question (which isn't clear in the clip), then Matthews is the scum bag who dodged it, and who was rude in the process.

It looks to me like the D's are trying to stop legislation on purely partisan grounds - not because it's a bad idea, but because they feel unfair attacked. And yes, we are being unfairly attacked, but that doesn't mean checking out someone before giving them the most important job in the world is a bad thing. Especially as it would quickly become clear that Obama would have passed such a check.

If this was O'Reilly and a D congressman, the reactions from most people here would be the complete opposite. I thought we were better than this.

McCain was born in Panama. Obama was born in Hawaii. Both were citizens at birth due to having citizen parent(s) regardless of the location of birth. Even if Obama weren't born in the USA, he would be in the same boat as McCain. But all the actual evidence indicates that obama WAS born in the USA.

So even if the bullshit that the Birthers say was true, they would still be applying a racist double standard, because they supported McCain.

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