Associated Press
Just when it seemed Arizona Republicans couldn't go much further, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett (R) is now questioning President Obama's citizenship and isn't sure whether to allow the president onto the 2012 ballot.
Bennett's comments came in an interview late Thursday with conservative radio talk show host Mike Broomhead on Phoenix station KFYI.
Bennett said he was following the lead of the state's eccentric Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a fellow Republican who ordered an investigation into the president's birth certificate last year and concluded the document released by the White House is a forgery. Bennett said he is now trying to get verification from state officials in Hawaii that the certificate is authentic.
In doing so, Bennett caved to a fringe group of activists and writers who believe in a conspiracy theory that just never seems to die no matter how much proof they get.
After denying being a Birther, Bennett said, "I believe the president was born in Hawaii -- or at least I hope he was. But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking."
And in this case, Bennett -- the public official in charge of running Arizona's elections -- isn't sure if the president should be on the ballot.
He's also said Obama's birth certificate isn't good enough to meet Bennett's standards, and it's "possible" he'll exclude the president from the ballot, though he says he doesn't want to.
So, to recap, it's been over a year since the White House, hoping to end the borderline-racist garbage once and for all, released President Obama's "long form" birth certificate. But just over the last couple of months, three members of Congress -- Reps. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), Cliff Stearns (R-Fla.), Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) -- have all publicly questioned Obama's citizenship status. Now, Arizona's Secretary of State is stuck in the fever swamp, too.
Why are there so many polls showing so much confusion about basic tenets of reality? In part because we have public officials like these folks spewing nonsense.
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The man has been President for 3 and a half years. Please can people stop entertaining this nonsense conspiracy theory. It's making everyone who's still talking about it look bad, move on!
If you want to take issue with Obama's politics and his policies, take issue with them. Don't invent some ludicrous nonsense theory to take issue with. Is it really too much to ask that elected officials focus on reality rather than stuff people made up because of racism or desperation?
It is out in the open now...
All of the mainstream, every day, ordinary folks who generally don't speak or behave in bigoted ways but have usually voted Republican - and who got very offended when I called out fellow Republicans for racism - I kept saying if you turn your eyes away from evil; you are also complicit in evil. Now, deal with it.
"...Bennett said, "I believe the president was born in Hawaii..."
Once again people, Hawaii became the 50th state in the Union August 1959 - ergo, someone born in Hawaii IS A CITIZEN. Next talking point.....
Bennett added with respect to Obama's place of birth, "or at least I hope he was" born in Hawaii. One cannot deny being a birther while at the same time questioning whether Obama was born where his birth certificate says he was born.
If I were the HI Sec. of State, I would hammer Bennett on this and question all Arizonans' citizenship.
I think they need to take a gieger reading on Bennett. He's radioactive.
The circular reasoning that the birthers would use against that argument is that if he isn't a citizen, then his policies don't matter, cause he's invalid and none of what he did should be allowed to stand. Which really, is just crazy talk for, "LA LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOU! LA LA LA LA"
Arizona is a completely inhospitable environment, filled with dry prickly creatures.
It can be nice to look at from afar, but then you get there, and you quickly start to realize how utterly bleak it is. Dusty, isolated and unyielding.
Oh,and when you get past the people, it's also a desert.
@Echo- I think you are probably right. The sad thing here is that wouldn't that also mean they are stating that the laws passed by the US Congress are equally non-applicable?
So, Mr Arizona Secretary of State, will you be demanding similar proofs of qualification from Mitt Romney? No? Didn't think so, you lying hypocritical sack of elephant dung.
Obama's long form birth certificate has been proven to be a photo shop forgery. All we want is a real document instead of a poorly forged one. Why isn't that something everyone wants??? If there is a real not forged one.... why is it so difficult to get it? Why not just present it and make the doubt go away?? Why fight it so hard? Why wont he prove who he is....hint... He was born Barry Soetero and not Barack Obama.
Sam, read the post directly abouve yours. Will this guy leave Romney off because his birth certificate says W.Mitt Romney, or Willard Mitt Romney?
Didn't think so. How do you make an emoticon face with hand with index finger motioning circle around ear?
:o(
It's out there for all to see, just some choose to keep this craziness alive. I have no delusions of convincing someone so obviously biased and I'm pretty sure you'll declare the validation a conspiracy, but in case you can't search on your own:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/barackobama/a/obama_birth_certificate.htm
When I was a kıd, adults joked that the reason Calıfornıa had so many nuts runnıng around loose was because, every few years, someone gave the east coast a good shakıng and all of the goofballs rolled west. Now, ıt seems, that they all end up ın Arızona.
Remember: You can't have crazy without AZ!
But you're very right about shaking the map and having all the nutballs roll to Arizona. There are so many immigrants from a cold climate who retire and move here that they overshadow everyone else. Sadly, they don't have any real skin in the game, so they couldn't care less about Arizona kids or the poor in the state.
Haddie Nuff I think you make a good point in retirees moving to Arizona and not caring about the kids and poor in the state. I'd be willing to bet the same goes on in Florida.
Its painfully obvious that NONE of you are either living in or are from the fine state of Arizona. There is something in the judicial system thats called burden of proof.... Obama's regime has tendered a forged(poorly) long form birth certificate. Its a very poor job and it is immediately visible. We still have had ZERO proof of citizenship.... But yet there is a pamphlet from 1985 that has him listed as born a Kenyan but raised in Hawaii.... The "birther" controversy remains because he has FAILED to present real proof...
Keep telling a lie long enough and you can get more people on the racist bandwagon.
It is obvious, stupid is impossible to fix.
What was the Jack Nicholson line?....
...go sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here!
Yup, we got our fair share of prejudice people. If you look close and cover half this mans' face you will see for yourself the problem we have here...this man is insane. He believes that if you are a different color you are different, he is afraid of anyone who is not white or who does not look like him. He is a bottom feeder. I also see the fear in his eyes. My High School Motto "Carry on, love is coming to us all." My son will never lose that number. I have wondered in the desert for almost 40 years and I'm either crazy or I just want to be where the brains of the operation is located.
It used to be that when public officials made insane/offensive statements like these, there would be calls for their resignation not only from their local newspapers, but from the leaders in their own party. But welcome to the Fox News coup of the American psyche.
Who needs a bunch of right wing ideologues anyway? I implore all Arizonans with unlaundered brains to leave the state immediately and start populating battleground states ASAP. President Obama probably doesn't need the votes this year, but it would give Hillary a great head start in 2016!
Trust me, I'm working on it.
PS Grump: the place in NM is in the path of the eclipse for Sunday, with center passing over ABQ. And here I am stuck in Phoenix with a car I can't trust for long drives.
I'm not leaving my Grand Canyon.
You are not even remotely close to the truth. I have lived in Arizona most of my life and all I can blame on this state politically is that we still have a bit of the old west at heart... you know... the feeling of civic pride.... the" dont take @!$%# from no one" kinda attitude. We dont take kindly to malfeasance in our politics and we arent afraid to stand up and cry foul when it needs to be done. we arent the mindless sheep that all the "battleground" states claim as a population. We prefer to think for ourselves thank you. None of your propaganda for us thank you...
We have a lot of ranchers in our history... maybe thats why we can smell bull @!$%# a mile away.
So disgusted by this. It's the latest in a long list and I'm just amazed at the craziness and vitriol that the first black president has smoked out of the woodwork. Can't wait to read President Obama's thoughts when his next book comes out.
If you are amazed at the craziness and vitriol, you must have been living a sheltered life.
I live in
The Mississippi of The MidwestIndianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. There is a white flight county to the east. There is a white flight county to the south. There is a white flight county to the west. And, to the north there is a wealthy white flight county.There are multiple communities surrounding Indianapolis where driving while black is still an offense. As an older, white male, it is still obvious that racism is alive and well. To deny otherwise is probably because of willful ignorance.
SadOldVeteran, you might want to remind your neighbors of this poem:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me--and there was no one left to speak for me.
See once the powers that be finish demonizing: Unions, women, gays, African-Americans, non Christians - unless your neighbors have enough income to qualify as the 1%, their whiteness won't save them. They'll just become the new po' white trash.....Divide and conquer is alive and has been working....
What a time to chose to be an idiot leader. These people don't have the guts, stamina, or willingness to tackle the real issues, but because there's a lucrative paycheck involved, they won't step away from the table and let someone more competent lead. And here's another one babbling on about anything but our real issues.
I am too old to believe that this bunch of idiots will be weeded out of leadership positions any time soon, but I want to keep hoping that there will be some turn-around in our trend of electing incompetent fools before this nation's current critical issues become insurmountable.
Actually we the people of the great state of Arizona have ASKED him to represent us because of the forgery that was foisted on America as the supposed "proof". we dont like forged presidential birth certificates and we hold our elections seriously.
HIS standards?
Funny, I thought that it would have been the standards of the state of Arizona.
Cheap headlines for this nobody that we'd never heard of before.
That "nobody" counts the votes in Arizona.
He is also next in line to be governor of Arizona should anything happen to Gov Brewer... YOU may have never heard of him, but rest assured, those of us who live here know him well...
Do you know the name of YOUR states Secretary of State?...
Arizona... It's a DRY Hate.... (c)
I think JJ's point was that this guy is intentionally calling out PBO's birth place in order to get attention he otherwise would not be getting....
This is probably an indication that Bennett would like to seek higher office outside of AZ politics. Usually when crazy @!$%# like this happens it's the politician's way of signaling "I want to run for national office." And no, I'm not pretending that it makes sense in the real world to run for office by stating that the POTUS is somehow not a US citizen. But I'm sure in the far fringes of Republican land it does.
"The negro has no rights which the white man is bound to respect."
Wake me when it's a civil war because that's where we're headed, again...
We are already there... but most people are just like you... wake me when were done...
The government is rife with corruption and malfeasance. sleeping through it is why we are in such bad state to begin with. Thanks for your contribution to the problem.
What's the matter with Arizona?
Several decades ago, I was stationed in Virginia in the Army. I thought that Virginia was/is a lovely and beautiful state. I came to the conclusion that the only thing needed to make Virginia a wonderful state would be to depopulate it and start over again.
Same conclusion can apply to Arizona!
That's what we've been doing in Northern Virginia, and it seems to be working. :-)
I have never, ever seen Mitt Romney's birth certificate. He could easily be faking his life story. I propose that Willard M. Romney must have been born in Mexico! Fight fire with fire, because the rank idiots in the Republican Party -- really racists, bigots, anti-Americanists and pure knuckleheads -- are not going to stop with this birther nonsense anytime soon. This buffoon in Arizona currently represents the mainstream of the GOP. Birtherism is the leading platform of this party. They know nothing else. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
He's an anchor baby! Eeeek!!
B.S. to TheActivist...
Birtherism is the leading platform of this party.
The leading platform of Mitt's party is too repair the damage done to their economy by Obama.
The economic mantras of Mitt's party are:
- The wealthy do not have enough wealth
- We have too large and an unsustainable middle class
- The poor do not pay enough taxes
I defy all to argue that this is not the Mittens' party platform. I defy all to argue that Mittens does not address these economic problems.
Why are they even allowed to vote in the Arizona Territory? Residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and American Samoa cannot vote for President!
What? You say Arizona is a State? Since when ? So-called 'president' Wm Howard Taft allegedly signed them into statehood, in 1912, but I don't believe it. I want to see the document. And, no forgeries, please!
Here's the simple answer to this conspiracy theory that I'm amazed I haven't heard anyone make: "It doesn't matter." Even if Obama was born outside the US (which I don't believe), it doesn't matter. US law (Title 8, section 1401, paragraph G) states
Obama's mother was a naturally born US Citizen. Therefore he would be a naturally born US citizen, regardless of where he was born. Case closed.
And you know this because the birth certificate says so.
Oh, wait ...
Nice one, DC. That's the thing with people who don't accept reality: no evidentiary chain is ever long enough to suit them.
Ferengi rule of acquisition # 223: Beware the man who doesn't make time for oo-mox. Looking at Ken Bennett's photo, he hasn't made time for oo-max.
Repubs don't really like Democracy. they know they can't win on their ideas so they resort to cheating and stealing elections
For anyone to argue that Obama is not an American citizen presupposes the following:
- In the early 1950's in Hawaii, white doctors and white hospital administrators conspired to create a fake birth certificate for a half white, half black baby.
- In the early 1950's in Hawaii, multiple white reporters and editors for multiple white owned newspapers conspired to print fake birth announcements for a half white, half black baby.
To believe these are true, all that is needed is to completely ignore the history of the United States in the 1950's. Just was never going to happen, regardless of what the wack-jobs want to believe.
some problems with your comment.... Obama was born in 1964, so it really doesn't matter what white folks were doing in Hawaii in the early 1950s... particularly since Hawaii didn't become a state until 1959. And as others have posted, it *also* doesn't matter because Obama's mother was a US Citizen and therefore her baby is automatically a natural-born US Citizen. I'm pregnant, I was born in Ohio. If I went up to Canada (where my husband has family) and gave birth there, my baby would still be a natural born US Citizen. It would just also be blessed with being a Canadian citizen also. My husband has three citizenships - Canadian from being born there, Chinese because his parents were Chinese citizens staying in Canada at the time of his birth, and US because his parents naturalized to the US when he was 12 (automatically naturalizing him & his brother, as minors). My father is an immigrant, he came to this country when he was a toddler. His parents didn't naturalize until after he turned 18 so he had to go through the naturalization process as an adult himself even though he didn't even speak the language of the country of his birth. Citizenship has fascinated me all my life because of that knowledge, so it's something I've actually looked at. The birthers are totally out of their minds. EVEN IF Obama's mother had been on vacation in Kenya meeting her in-laws when Barack Jr was born, he'd STILL BE A NATURAL BORN US CITIZEN BECAUSE SHE WAS.
It's one of those cases of getting defensive and projecting one's insecurities onto others.
Y'see, Arizona's own birth as a state was a little sketchy:
So, Bennett is a liar and a bad liar at that. How not surprising that we have one more Republican doing the exact same thing, desperately afraid that their delusion of an idyllic totally white America is crashing down around them.
Interesting. If Obama's birth certificate (long form) isn't good enough proof then it isn't good enough for Romney either and therefore he needs to be removed from the ballot as well. Ball's in your court wingnuts.
Actually, Bennett should raise the question whether Romney was born in the US or in Mexico since his family fled to Mexico. They played cross-border swaps a few times I believe!!! Wasn't Romney's father born in Mexico or was that Mitt??
Things that make you go Hummmmmmmm!!!!
(I couldn't resist as there is the issue that the family State hopped and fled to Mexico. There are still some relatives living there in the 'Compound'!!!)
I am amazed and disgusted by these newly elected Repubs, but the photo made me LOL. Bennet looks like he just remembered that he forgot his tinfoil hat.
There should be dire consequences if he continues to put forth such treasonous actions. Next thing you know, citizens will have to dip their fingers in ink to prove that they voted. Free thinking Arizonians need to start planning an escape now.