Know your candidate

Last week the nation was treated to another "breaking" news report, the president released his birth certificate, the long form...with signatures, that says he was born in Hawaii.

I'm not sure if I am more amused that politics has come down to this, or disappointed.

If it had been me running for president, the very first time the issue came up, I would've said, "Here's my birth certificate, I know my name is NOT the typical all American name, so I expected this, thanks for caring enough about your country to ask, but *insert grin here* really, I was born here, see *hold up the certificate*...next question?" Wouldn't that have been easier?

I guess I never doubted that our president was indeed born in America, so for me it wasn't an issue...of course I believed that to be put on a presidential ballot probably you had to provide a birth certificate.

So why isn't it just routine that when a person applies to be on the ballot for president, that this is a required document, that becomes public record? After all, it's a requirement for the job.

In light of the illegal immigrants that we know are here, it SHOULD be required.

It won't be long before "Juan Sanchez" (not a real person, well he probably is, but he's not the guy I'm talking about here) will want to run, and there would be the same questions raised...where you born here or in Mexico?

If the job REQUIRES you to be born here, make that part of the preliminary paperwork.

The same is true for any political race.

Locally we had another legal issue with a political candidate.

Part of the requirements were that you haven't been a felon, so why isn't part of the procedure before placing ANYONE on a ballot is to make sure they meet the requirements? Yes, it's more work, takes a few hours, but as we've seen, if you don't do the extra work, it causes so much time wasted everywhere.

Politicians are people. People sometimes can't be trusted. Because a few people take advantage of our good hearts, we are living in a world where you can trust, but need to verify.

We probably check out the educational backgrounds on folks much more often than their rap sheets or other paperwork.

Of course, now that the birth certificate has been released, there are still those out there saying it's a fake.

To those folks, really? Do you seriously have nothing better to do than assume that this document is not real? At this point, I believe it's time to look in the mirror and ask, "Do I need to see a doctor?"

In both these incidents, probably our government does not require this paperwork, so no one does the extra work...AND if anyone in these offices did go beyond their job and check, they'd get in trouble for looking further.

Is it really too much work to make sure, the folks we are trusting to make public decisions, are really who they say they are?

If it's loopholes that we are looking at, at some point we are going to have to close them.

With the technology we have today, a few strokes of the keyboard will give you the answers you need. So let's start making these extra keyboard strokes a requirement before anyone is placed on a ballot from our national candidates to our local candidates.

Of course to make this happen and creater a new law, we have to depend on our elected officials...

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RS May 5, 2011, 1:55 pm Something that is missing from this whole debate is a common mistake which is made here as well,\"If the job REQUIRES you to be born here, make that part of the preliminary paperwork.\" The law is that a person needs to be born with at least one parent being a citizen of the United States no matter where they are born. Think about it for a second, someone in the military has a child in Germany whether or not the other parent is a US citizen or not, or where the child was born is irrelvant. The child and future adult is considered a citizen and could run for president. Senator John McCain was born in Panama. The physical birthplace is not relevant. Former Govenor Arnold Schwarteneggar could ba a Governor but not President because neither one of his parents were American citizens when he was born and he became a naturalized citizen not born as an American. The point being that even if President Obama was born in Kenya, his mother was a citizen from Kansas and the President could still be president. The \"birthers\' have been hitting into the wind with this and I don\'t know why no one has made this known. Below is documentation to this effect: Title 8 of the U.S. Code Section 1401 defines the following as people who are \"citizens of the United States at birth:\" Anyone born inside the United States * Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person\'s status as a citizen of the tribe Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S. Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21 Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)

Opinion : Know your candidate

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