To Be--or NOT To Be--The President (Corrected)
Nov 19, 2008
The election of Sen. Barack Obama earlier this month raises some interesting possibilities for the future of America. Here is a thought in view of the lawsuit by former Attorney General of Pennsylvania, Philip Berg, who is trying to force Obama to present his Birth Certificate to prove his eligibility under the Constitution to be President.
(To see Berg's explanation of his court actions, see him on the following 30-minute video.)
First of all, I personally would quickly dismiss the Birth Certificate issue, if it were not for the simple fact that Obama's attorneys got the Supreme Court to dismiss the case on October 24, rather than show the world Obama's Birth Certificate. They missed their golden opportunity to settle this once and for all to show that all of this "conspiracy talk" is totally groundless.
This is a lot like pleading the 5th amendment, instead of showing the evidence that proves one is innocent. All it does is to confirm peoples' suspicions.
Obama did post a "Certificate of Live Birth" from Hawaii, but this is not the same as a Birth Certificate. Anyone who has tried to get a passport using a Certificate of Live Birth knows that it will not work. The government officials will reject their Certificate and tell them to get a Birth Certificate. If they have lost it, they can get another in a few days.
Philip Berg has now filed a Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court to obtain Obama's Birth Certificate. The Wikipedia gives this definition:
Certiorari (IPA: [ˌsɚʃioʊ('rɛri, 'rɑri)]) is a legal term in Roman, English, Philippine and American law referring to a type of writ seeking judicial review. Certiorari ("to be searched") is the presentpassive infinitive of Latin certiorare, ("to search"). A writ of certiorari currently means an order by a higher court directing a lower court to send the record in a given case for review.
Obama has until December 1st to do so.** (see below) It will be interesting to see if his attorneys remain secretive and thus continue this drama and raise more suspicions. Of course, there is always the possibility that the attorneys are making an issue of it in order to keep themselves busy and earn more legal fees for themselves.
My guess is that the elusive Birth Certificate will NOT be produced, either by some legal maneuver, or simply because they CANNOT produce it without showing the world how to spell KENYA.
The Electoral College votes for our next President on December 15. So far, America's popular vote has only established certain DELEGATES to the Electoral College, who are the real ones voting for our presidents. These delegates may or may not vote for the man expected. If it is reported in the mainstream media that Obama was not really born in Hawaii, but in Kenya, the Electoral College will be required to vote for someone else--most likely Sen. Clinton.
But I suspect that the mainstream media will NOT report this controversy at all, regardless of what happens on December 1st, and that the Electoral College will vote for Obama.
IF SO . . . . America could see some unusual times ahead.
First off, this controversy would only grow and would turn into an extremely rancorous issue, because at least 1/3 of the voters are hardcore Republicans, 1/3 are hardcore Democrats, and 1/3 don't know what they are and generally change with the winds. That means at least 1/3 of the people are always going to be strongly opposed to the president.
So Obama already has 1/3 of the people who feel very strongly negative about him, and these people will not change their views, regardless of what he does. These will not allow the issue of Obama's Birth Certificate to go away. In fact, many of them will feel that Obama is an illegitimate president, and they could simply refuse to recognize him as their president. That could be quite a volatile situation and may even lead to a full-blown declaration of martial law.
The point is that we already have the makings of a long and bitter presidency, if Obama is elected and remains president for four years.
With that said, here is my point . . .
What if the Supreme Court ultimately declares (say, in the year 2011) that Obama is not eligible to be president of the United States? What would this do to any treaties or bills that he may have signed as "president"? It seems possible that in such a case, it would be declared that America had no legitimate president since Bush left office in January of 2009. It would be like having no president at all.
We have had 42 men as president (Grover Cleveland was president twice). The biblical number 42 is significant as an endpoint. So it is possible that in the end Bush could indeed prove to be our final president--at least under the existing order. I had thought that a woman or a non-white male would be the next president in order to mark the change from 42 to 43. But now I see the possibility that we will actually not have a president at all--even if we APPEAR to have a legitimate president for some years.
Like I said, these are just things to ponder for the moment. Obviously, we will have to be watchful to see how this all turns out. My only piece of advice: don't be angry, and don't be a trouble maker; be a prayerful watcher.
**CORRECTION: Philip Berg is ASKING the Supreme Court to force the lower court to review this case instead of just dismiss it altogether. A reader sent this:
There is a lot of misinformation concerning the nature of what Berg has filed. Some are repeating rumors that "Obama has until Dec. 1st to produce a valid copy of his birth certificate"... That is absolutely untrue. What Berg has filed is commonly called a PETITION for Writ of Certiorari, which is essentially him requesting or asking the court to even HEAR the case. Thus, the merits are not even the issue at this point....only whether the Supreme court will even hear the case at all. What Obama, et al., must respond to, if at all, is to argue that the court does NOT need to hear it and why the lower court ruling should stand. They won't even address the merits of the case yet, which is why it is ludicrious for anyone to suggest that Obama has to produce a copy of his birth certificate as part of his response.... because that is clearly, "the merits".