Getting back the election.....

If McCain is trying to distance himself from Bush, this is not the way to do it:  http://www.politico.com/blogs/jonathanmartin/0508/McCain_Bus h_to_appear_together_in_Phoenix_for_fundraiser.html

I didn't realize that the "natural born" clause had such a wide definition. Every time I've encountered it in the past, the definitions given have insisted that you had to be born in the US or on US bases or territories. Having parents who are citizens (or even just one parent who was a citizen) was specifically stated as being insufficient.

If this definition is true, I must have gotten some serious "Garbage In Garbage Out" infromation. To be honest, it never made sense to me that being the child of US citizens  was not enough.

Some more detailed information on what is a natural born U.S. Citizen

Currently, Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in those gaps. 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)
• A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.

Anyone falling into these categories is considered natural-born, and is eligible to run for President or Vice President. These provisions allow the children of military families to be considered natural-born, for example.

If this rumor is true, what impact will it have?

http://politicalkudzu.com/2008/05/16/michelle-obama-whitey-v ideo/

If the Republicans really do have such a video, I would think they would wait to use it once Clinton was out of the way.

The only way to brunt this attack and gaff is to get out in front of it and deal with it now so that it's old news by September through November.

Looks to me that they're giving the story time to percolate before they release the "offensive" tape. And when it gets out it will first leak as a edited snippet with only the supposedly offending remark. The whole tape will probably come out days later and be ignored by the media, even if it shows the context to be innocuous.

I think if there is a tape (and I'm not convinced there is) the Obama camp needs to be ready for it.

I also think that if the tape was really bad on its own merits, it wouldn't need this build up with rumors and innuendo. Usually that tells me that they're trying to work people into a frenzy, then put a drop of blood in the water and watch the sharks feed on eachother. These things can turn very ugly before somebody wakes up and goes "hey, you promised us the USS Indianapolis and all we got was a drop of blood."

Can't really have an opinion on something that I don't know is real.

But, for the sake of arguement - I've always been a firm believer in the factor of the power structure - because the black man in America has no leverage or power, he can say whatever he wants in terms of whitey or cracker - so what?  What does it matter?   The worst that would happen is, what?  Someone's feeling might be hurt?  Really?  (Cause, speaking as a guy who is kind of white - mine sure wouldn't be.  But then again, I'm Irish/Hispanic, so, I don't really like to line up with my white oppressors too much..)  Are the words coming from a person in power? 

Well, this time it would be.  So, that makes a difference.

Except... it's the first lady, not the President.

The First Lady has less power than the gardner at the white house.

And remember - our current first lady?  She killed a guy while drunk driving.  I think if America can get over that, they would get over someone saying something silly...

Which we don't even know if it's true or not.

Bit of a moot point.

Again - I wash my hands of it all.

And remember - our current first lady?  She killed a guy while drunk driving.

According to Snopes, neither she nor the other driver were drinking.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/bush/laura.asp

According to Snopes, neither she nor the other driver were drinking.According to Snopes, neither she nor the other driver were drinking.

*************************

True.

But she did cause his death.

Drunk or not, she killed someone and got off for it.

So did Ted Kennedy. What's the point?

So, killing someone is a lot worse than calling them whitey, which we don't even know if Michelle Obama did.

That's the point, Bob.