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Thursday, November 27, 2008
More from Alan Keyes on his Obama citizenship suit
On November 14th, Matthew Johnston reported that Alan Keyes, who opposed Barack Obama as the Republican nominee in the 2004 Illinois Senate Race and in 2008 as the presidential nominee of America's Independent Party (a splinter party formed primarily by the California affilliate of the Constitution Party after Keyes lost the party's nomination to Chuck Baldwin) "filed suit in California Superior Court in Sacramento seeking to stop Secretary of State Debra Bowen from certifying the election results until proof is produced and verified showing that Senator Obama is a “natural born” citizen of the United States, and does not hold citizenship of Indonesia, Kenya or Great Britain."
In an interview with the African-American women's magazine Essence, Keyes explains why he feels questions about Obama's citizenship have not been adequately addressed and why he thinks it necessary to pursue the suit:
ESSENCE.COM: What exactly do you want to accomplish with this lawsuit?
ALAN KEYES: I had read a little bit about the issues that were being raised about Obama back during the primary season. At first I thought, like a lot of people, "There's nothing to this. It's just a matter of fact. You can establish what the facts are." The Constitution specifies that a citizen who is naturalized, rather than born into the status of being an American citizen, cannot be president. That was done in the beginning because people feared a foreign takeover of the United States government by the process of immigration. Staid as it is, we again are in a situation where a lot of foreign entities have influence or control over U.S. policy.The reason an issue has been raised about Obama is because of the simple question, which can be answered with a birth certificate that shows he was born in the United States, or born to parents who had the capacity to transmit U.S. citizenship. When the question was asked, he danced around it. If the most important office of the federal government can be occupied by someone who is not qualified under the United States Constitution, that destroys the authority of the Constitution. I think it's something that needs to be dealt with in a clear, straightforward way. Eventually the case will get to the Supreme Court, establish the facts, and clear the air. It's really all very simple. [...]
ESSENCE.COM: To a lot of people, your lawsuit looks like a case of sour grapes because you lost. Your response?
KEYES: I think politics is irrelevant to this, actually. I don't see how it is showing fondness for Barack Obama to let him enter into office with a question that could be raised. He should not have to operate under that burden. I think the officials need to clear the air for his sake. From my point of view, it is a bad idea to have a president of the United States enter office with a cloud hanging over his head, where every time he tries to do something, he would end up frittering away time because of that objection. So let's get it over with. Let's resolve it and move forward with a clear an undisturbed mandate for the new president.
Read the rest.
In an article for the Western Standard, Mark Steyn called Keyes "the magnificently conservative African-American speechifier;" for a lively battle between two brilliant orators, take a look at some video from a 2004 debate between Barack Obama and Alan Keyes after the break:
Opening statements:
On race:
On Christianity:
On homosexuality:
On abortion and the death penalty:
Posted by Kalim Kassam on November 27, 2008 in U.S. politics | Permalink
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Comments
Funny how the suit was filed by a black man.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-11-27 10:52:53 PM
If I had to vote on consience it would have been Keyes. Sour grapes? Oh yeah because you know Keyes was just 3 or 4 states away from clinching the election from Obama. LOL
Posted by: Faramir | 2008-11-27 11:19:44 PM
Funny how the suit was filed by a black man.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 27-Nov-08 10:52:53 PM
Funny why? Funny how? Ha-ha funny...curious funny?
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2008-11-27 11:21:50 PM
Sour grapes? Oh yeah because you know Keyes was just 3 or 4 states away from clinching the election from Obama. LOL
Posted by: Faramir | 27-Nov-08 11:19:44 PM
Perhaps people think Keyes is still bitter about his landslide loss to Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate Race, in which case the grapes would not only be sour, but also rotten.
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2008-11-27 11:25:38 PM
I'd expect whites to object, not blacks.
Posted by: Zebulon Pike | 2008-11-28 12:17:56 AM
Best explanation (following 2 you tube videos) I’ve seen for the total media blackout of what is the single greatest news event and domestic threat — let’s call it OBAMAGATE — since the outbreak of the American Civil War and for the sincere prayers of the American people that the United States Supreme Court — let’s call it OUR LAST HOPE — now to have the courage to save our great nation as we have come to know it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spPrzvYWRI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8b_usFyLHQ
Posted by: Ted | 2008-11-28 1:30:57 AM
Ted,
I'd never heard of "James David Manning Ph.D" before I watched those videos, so I decided to look him up on Wikipedia. This line tipped me off that something is a little off:
"Manning also holds a Doctor of Philosophy degree from his own ATLAH Theological Seminary, an unaccredited educational institution."
In any case, the one actual argument he presents about Obama among all the heated rhetoric (namely that he traveled to Pakistan in 1981 on an Indonesian passport) is not accompanied by any evidence. Where is this evidence which "everyone in government" supposedly knows about?
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2008-11-28 1:56:02 AM
Am I missing something here? Can't this story be put to bed by someone going through the public records office in Hawaii and producing a copy (or not) of Obama's birth certificate?
Posted by: John Chittick | 2008-11-28 10:01:54 AM
On Dec 5 the Supreme Court will either allow or disallow the usurpation of both the Constitution and the Government of the United States — easily the most pivotal decision since our nation’s founding — and the silence of the news media is deafening (if not downright scary).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqH7rSHcvgU
Posted by: Ted | 2008-11-29 5:56:13 PM
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