Monday, August 11, 2008
Dual Citizenship
Say what? Is this true? Should I care?
8 Comments:
By 
Dawnfire82, at
Mon Aug 11, 03:58:00 PM:
"Should I care?"
Not unless it's something that he pursued on purpose. But if it was simply granted because of his parentage, it isn't really important. After all, he has no control over the domestic policies of foreign powers.
He may need to renounce it, however. I know that you cannot receive a US security clearance if you possess dual citizenship, and I don't see why an exception should be made for the Presidency.
By 
, at
Mon Aug 11, 04:06:00 PM:
Yes, we should care a great deal. It is just another of too many mysteries about an empty suit. I don't know if his birth certificate is fake or not. I don't know if he is a Muslim or not. I don't know if he's lost his undergraduate thesis or not. What was his real relationship with Wright, Rezko, Dohrn, Ayers, Pfelger, Calypso Louie, (here's a good one) Arenda Troutman etc. Didn't he have any friends/associates who live in the burbs with two kids, a dog and an SUV? What about Larry Sinclair? Would the media want to know more about Obama's past drug use if he were a Republican?
No, we should care, especially after watching the media roll over on Edwards when it should have been doing it's job!
By , at
Mon Aug 11, 04:40:00 PM:
A comment on the topic at Gateway Pundit links to the Kenya High Commission section on passports.
Section 90 of the Constitution of Kenya states that:- A Person born outside Kenya after 11th December, 1963 shall become a citizen of Kenya at the date of his/her birth if at that date his/her father was a citizen of Kenya.
Q. If at the time of my birth one of my parents was not a Kenya Citizen and I was born in Kenya, is it possible that I have dual citizenship? If the answer is yes up to which age?
A. Kenya Constitution Section 97 (1) (6) (a) states that:
Any person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of another country other than Kenya shall cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date (6)(a) that is: twenty-three (23) years.
IOW, Kenya does not allow for dual citizenship after the age of 23. So, Barack cannot be a citizen of Kenya and simultaneously be a US citizen.
Gateway Pundit also has a comment by blogger Baldilocks, who like Obama has a Kenyan father and who was born in the US. She is no Obama fan, but considers the birth certificate issue to be nonsense.
Nonetheless, why doesn't Obama simply release his birth certificate? Perhaps because the longer he witholds it and then later shows a valid birth certificate he will gain "race card" points by being able to point to the birth certificate brouhaha as a "racist" attack on him.
By , at
Mon Aug 11, 04:53:00 PM:
BT ... I thought Obama was born before '63 ... does that changed the 'if' statements?
By Dawnfire82, at
Mon Aug 11, 05:23:00 PM:
He was born in 1961, apparently.
By Elise, at
Mon Aug 11, 07:02:00 PM:
I care about this only because it highlights how short a time Obama has been under scrutiny on the national level and how many gaps there thus are in my knowledge of him.
As for dual citizenship itself, it’s not all that rare and often happens without the holder wanting it. I remember a guy I knew years ago. His parents - both US citizens - were living in Brazil (I think it was) because of work when the guy was born. Brazil considered him a citizen and always would. I remember his parents talking about how he might never be able to even visit Brazil as a tourist for fear he’d be drafted. Weird.
Based on what I’ve read so far, I don’t see any reason to care in the Constitutional sense. That is, I don’t see anything in this that means Obama is not a US citizen and it looks like if he ever did hold dual citizenship, he no longer does.
I was going to post what I found about this matter here but it got to be awfully long so I put it up as a post on my own blog if you're interested.
By , at
Mon Aug 11, 09:06:00 PM:
Did Obama use his 'dual citizenship' to avoid registering for the draft?
I have seen the question of whether he registered.
Being a 'foreigner' would have helped his chances of getting accepted at Harvard.
Plus, there is the rumor, that he traveled to Pakistan in 1981 (Obama was 20 at the time.) not as an American Citizen.
By Count Grecula, at
Tue Aug 12, 02:46:00 PM:
Don't forget Obama is also a self-professed "citezen of the world". Kenya makes three!
