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If Obama is a natural born citizen,

Posted By: sm on 2008-10-19
In Reply to:

then why doesn't he provide it to the court, along with his medical and educational background?  I don't think a scan of a birth certificate does it.  Give the evidence to the court.  Factcheck.org has the Annenburg connection, so it is not an objective source.


Does that not bother you that he will not do the right thing?  If he has nothing to hide, why is this buried in the legal system?  Get it over with and provide it to the court.


 


 




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Obama’s Friends Working to Amend the Natural Born Citizen Requirement...

http://countusout.wordpress.com/2008/11/28/obama-covertly-working-to-amend-the-natural-born-citizen-requirement/


His mother was a natural-born US citizen...sm
and lived in the US all her life before she gave birth at 18. Your statement only applied. to children born to naturalized citizens who are living outside the US, the purpose being someone who comes to this country and becomes naturalized, then after a few years moves to another country, cannot expect their children that are born in that other country be considered natural-born citizens with the right to run for president. I will double check with my brother tonight, but I am pretty sure that is how he explained it.
Correct, Arnold is not a natural-born citizen. sm
Neither of his parents were American citizens when he was born. He is a naturalized American citizen and cannot run for president unless there is an amendment to the US Constitution.
Obama is a natural-born American...see message
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html

Now you can sleep well. I'm not voting for Obama, but I can't stand it when people stir crap up that isn't true.
natural born does not mean you have to be born physically in the US -
My daughter was born in Germany, but because I am an American she is an American. She has no problems and is considered natural born - that just means you did not have to go through the hoops to become an American citizen.
It doesn't matter WHERE he was born. He was born to an American citizen so he is sm
a native American.
He was never a US born American citizen
Let me repeat - Never was an American citizen, never was, never happened, nothing to denounce. He was born a Kenyan, moved to Indonesia and became an Indonesian citzen. What part of that are you not understading. If you were never an American citizen to begin with there is nothing they can take away. CRIPES ALMIGHTY! How many more times do people have to post that. There are NO documents to ever prove he was. You just don't listen.
Yeah. They have to be born citizen, not
a naturalized citizen. Which is why "the Governor" will never be the Prez.
Obama was born in US, his FATHER was born in Kenya, check it out and sm
Do you really think the campaign would have gotten this far if he was born in Kenya? Did Hannity tell you that? LOL!!!!
Obama must be United States Citizen to be president!!!!

Until he proves to all the people of the United States that he was born a US citizen, how can anyone support him for president!  Are we all that desperate?


If Obama wasn't born in the US
then he shouldn't be president. Why? Because if we open that precedent, than anyone from any nation can run for president, and seeing as how many people will vote based on what they hear (or think they hear), all it would take would be a charismatic, young, exciting, progressive, man or woman from another country to come in with a hidden agenda and run for president and get voted in and then show us what he or she really had in mind for our country.

As for people who voted without any idea....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P36x8rTb3jI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovcdb6csHBE

On the second one not one person could really name any specifics, just regurgitated whatever they heard on the t.v., internet, speeches, etc. I especially love the one that said "he's beautiful!" I didn't realize that was a point for voting...

You can also listen to the Howard Stern interviews where they listed Mccain's platforms as Obama's and asked people if that is why they were voting for Obama and they all said "yeah! definitely!" I didn't want to paste those because of the language though.

I'm not saying all of his supporters were dimwits, but a lot of them just voted for him because he was new, young, "hip", black, and a smooth talker. Believe me, being a 22-year-old college student, he appealed to me at first too, until I found out the things he stood for.




Obama was born in Kenya, which makes him uneligible to be President...nm
xxxx
Obama blocked the Born Alive Infant Protection Act....sm
He said there was a law on the books in Illinois to protect these babies. In this article, he says there was a bill federally that he *would have* voted for. He killed the bill in Illinois by sitting on it as head of the Health and Human Services Committee. Which is it, Obama?

Excerpted from CNS News: Barack Obama is the most pro-abortion presidential candidate ever.

He is so pro-abortion that he refused as an Illinois state senator to support legislation to protect babies who survived late-term abortions...

...State and federal versions of this bill became an issue earlier this decade because of "induced labor abortion." This is usually performed on a baby with Down's Syndrome or another problem discovered on the cusp of viability. A doctor medicates the mother to cause premature labor. Babies surviving labor are left untreated to die.

Jill Stanek, who was a nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill., testified in the U.S. Congress in 2000 and 2001 about how "induced labor abortions" were handled at her hospital.

"One night," she said in testimony entered into the Congressional Record, "a nursing co-worker was taking an aborted Down's Syndrome baby who was born alive to our Soiled Utility Room because his parents did not want to hold him, and she did not have the time to hold him. I couldn't bear the thought of this suffering child lying alone in a Soiled Utility Room, so I cradled and rocked him for the 45 minutes that he lived."

In 2001, Illinois state Sen. Patrick O'Malley introduced three bills to help such babies. One required a second physician to be present at the abortion to determine if a surviving baby was viable. Another gave the parents or a public guardian the right to sue to protect the baby's rights. A third, almost identical to the federal Born Alive Infant Protection Act President Bush signed in 2002, simply said a "homo sapiens" wholly emerged from his mother with a "beating heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles" should be treated as a "'person,' 'human being,' 'child' and 'individual.'"

Stanek testified about these bills in the Illinois Senate Judiciary Committee, where Obama served. She told me this week he was "unfazed" by her story of holding the baby who survived an induced labor abortion.

On the Illinois Senate floor, Obama was the only senator to speak against the baby-protecting bills. He voted "present" on each, effectively the same as a "no."

"Number one," said Obama, explaining his reluctance to protect born infants, "whenever we define a pre-viable fetus as a person that is protected by the Equal Protection Clause or the other elements in the Constitution, what we're really saying is, in fact, that they are persons that are entitled to the kinds of protections that would be provided to a -- a child, a 9-month old -- child that was delivered to term. That determination then, essentially, if it was accepted by a court, would forbid abortions to take place. I mean, it -- it would essentially bar abortions, because the Equal Protection Clause does not allow somebody to kill a child, and if this is a child, then this would be an anti-abortion statute."

That June, the U.S. Senate voted 98-0 in favor of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act (although it failed to become law that year). Pro-abortion Democrats supported it because the following language was added: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to affirm, deny, expand or contract any legal status or legal right applicable to any member of the species homo sapiens at any point prior to being born alive as defined in this section."

Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer explained that with this language the "amendment certainly does not attack Roe v. Wade."

On July 18, 2002, Democratic Sen. Harry Reid called for the bill to be approved by unanimous consent. It was.

That same year, the Illinois version of the bill came up again. Obama voted "no."

In 2003, Democrats took control of the Illinois Senate. Obama became chairman of the Health and Human Services committee. The Born Alive Infant bill, now sponsored by Sen. Richard Winkel, was referred to this committee. Winkel also sponsored an amendment to make the Illinois bill identical to the federal law, adding -- word for word -- the language Barbara Boxer said protected Roe v. Wade. Obama still held the bill hostage in his committee, never calling a vote so it could be sent to the full senate.

A year later, when Republican U.S. senate candidate Alan Keyes challenged Obama in a debate for his opposition to the Born Alive Infant Bill, Obama said: "At the federal level there was a similar bill that passed because it had an amendment saying this does not encroach on Roe v. Wade. I would have voted for that bill."

In fact, Obama had personally killed exactly that bill. Source - CNS News
Now that's natural beauty....(NM)
x
This is a natural consequence

of electing a 'rock star' president.  I would not be surprised if tabloids begin referring to him as 'Barry' they way they do Brad, Jen, Angie and the rest. 


Barry rising from the waves......As guys over 40 go, he's okay, but could use some definition in the pecs and seems just a bit slack at the waist.  Not really a show-quality bod, even if he is America's fittest president.  Better not quit his day job.


the natural history of the trout
''Trout pout'' is a term to describe the weird fat lips of people who've had collagen injections. The lips get all poochy like fish lips.

As for the ''racism,'' just a little joke--I was getting tired of all the monkey business in those other threads, so moved on to other animals!
You are right, and I am hoping this may be the natural evolution......sm
of politics in this country. Back in Colonial America, there were the Federalists versus the Rebublican-Democrats, which turned into the "party" system we now have (love your comment about "party!"), big business and big money will always be in bed with the politicians, and that will keep propagating and feeding this political mess, but I have to think if the Libertarian or Independent parties were to have a strong enough candidate with a really well-crafted, timely, imperative platform, we could all vote with our pockets, one voter at at time, to strengthen a three or four-party system over time? Am I just wishing and praying, because I am seeing way too much back-scratching payola going on on BOTH SIDES of the aisles in Congress!
Anchor babies are natural citizens... sm
by virtue of being born on American soil, just as the babies of Chinese immigrants or German immigrants or any other nationality are citizens of this country if they are born on US soil. Granted, the influx of illegal aliens from Mexico has created a problem in that it has burdened the welfare system in this country, but that is not the issue here.

The issue is that Obama cannot produce proof that he is a natural born American citizen. The birth certificate floating around the internet purported to be real is a fake. You can find anything on the internet these days, true or not. Just the fact that liberals shoot down every article posted in support of a conservative's point of view as being "not a credible source" is proof of that.

Mr. Obama is well aware of the questions being raised concerning his birth certificate. If he had a REAL birth certificate, why would he just not produce it and put an end to all the speculation? Because he can't, plain and simple. He flew to Hawaii to see his ailing grandmother and "coincidentally" his "birth records" were sealed at the same time. Isn't that interesting?

Mr. Obama lived for 5 years in Indonesia, a country that does not recognize dual citizenship, therefore nullifying his American citizenship IF it ever existed in the first place. There are no records on file where he ever applied for citizenship after returning to the US.

We have to produce birth certificates for our children to attend school today. Why shouldn't the man who would be POTUS have to show his?

Barack Obama is not even legally a black American. He only has one black great-great-grandmother on his father's side while the other 7 were Arab.

That makes him 50% white, 43.75% Arab, and 6.25% black. 12.5% is the minimum required to legally claim any racial status in America.

Obama would qualify as the first Arab-American president, NOT the first black president. That is why they keep saying "African-American" and NOT black because they know he is African Arab and not African black.

Why would you want anyone who has any kind of questionable background leading our country? Would you allow persons of questionable background to teach your children in school? What if that person was suspected of having an inappropriate relationship with a child but it could not be proven? Would you want to run that risk?

I agree that America has more pressing problems that whether the man about to take the helm is a natural born citizen, but do you want someone who is not even an American leading us through these problems?

I've heard that natural gas heating costs are expected to TRIPLE this winter!

I have gas heat, and so does my daughter.


Your mother is fortunate to have you and your sisters to help her.  Makes me worry about all the elderly people barely scraping by on Social Security who have no family.  I guess they and the other poor people are just considered to have no value and are disposable.  I guess someday I'll be disposable, as well.


I totally agree with what Putin said.  Of ALL the places in the world to force change upon, the Middle East is probably the worst one!  Change does have to come from within.  Their culture is so different from ours, and I believe we should respect all cultures that are different from ours.  Sometimes I wonder who would win an election in Iraq if Saddam was suddenly back on the ballot. When Bush debated Gore in 2000, Bush claimed to be against nation building (though he said Cheney was in favor of it, which leads me to believe that Cheney really IS running the administration, as has often been alleged).


I always watch closely when Putin and Bush have press conferences.  Putin should be called Pukin because he's always got this look of disgust on his face, as if he's about to run out of patience with Bush and his idiocy. 


I remember when we first began to brag that the Cold War is over.  I always thought that was a stupid thing to say, because it's never over till it's over.  History will be the judge of that.  I often wondered how a country full of people who were accustomed to having their vital needs met by their government as a RIGHT, rather than a privilege, could possibly survive in the dog-eat-dog, sometimes unscrupulous atmosphere of capitalism.  As far as I know, Putin isn't all that enamored with capitalism, and I'm just waiting for Russia to once again become communistic or maybe socialistic.  I guess time will tell. 


that's because he is a U.S. citizen
x
This is exactly why a citizen who
has the right to a voice won't use it for fear of being ridiculed and/or totally shredded by the coverage. In some cases, he or his family may find themselves under attack. Shameful. But I am sure we are all equally protected by HIPPA!!!
a citizen of the

bustling metropolis of Zberg uses a "fancy" word like rhetoric - town must be proud of their new mayor. Yee-haw!


 


How can you vote if you are not a US citizen?
You say you will vote for McCain if Hillary is the dem nominee. Then you say you will never become an American citizen if she is elected president. Color me confused...
Yes, and I believe Sarah is a least a US citizen.
nm
Only if every citizen gets $75,000, homeowner or not!
If you give $75,000 to every homeowner to pay their mortgage, you better give $75,000 in cash to each and every citizen who is not currently a homeowner. By the way, I notice that the right-wing posters are all for this pay-my-mortgage idea. What happened to the right-wing mantra about the democrats wanting everything for free? It looks like you guys will be the first in line to get your mortgage paid!
Arnold is a citizen but
He can't run for president because he is not a natural citizen.
No-bama, No-citizen...
Pennsylvania lawsuit alleging that Barack Obama is not a “natural-born citizen” of the United States took an unusual twist this week, after a federally mandated deadline requiring Obama’s lawyers to produce a “vault” copy of his birth certificate expired with no response from Obama or his lawyers.


The lawsuit, filed by former Pennsylvania Deputy Attorney General Philip J. Berg — a self-avowed supporter of Hillary Clinton — alleges that Barack Obama was born in Kenya and is thus “ineligible” to run for president of the United States. It demands that Obama’s lawyers produce a copy of his original birth certificate to prove that he is a natural-born U.S. citizen.


Berg's suit and allegations have set off a wave of Internet buzz and rumors, though Obama could easily have put the matter to rest by providing the federal court with the basic documentation proving he is eligible to take the oath of a president. But Obama has apparently decided to deny the court and the public that documentation.


The Constitution provides that any U.S. citizen is eligible to become president if the person is 35 years of age or older and is a natural-born citizen; that is, born in the territorial United States.


By failing to respond to the Request for Admissions and Request for the Production of Documents within 30 days, Obama has “admitted” that he was born in Kenya, Berg stated this week in new court filings.


Berg released a long list of “admissions” he submitted to Obama’s lawyers on Sept. 15, and asked that they produce documents relating to Obama’s place of birth and citizenship.


Instead of responding, lawyers for Obama and the DNC asked the court to dismiss the case. But Judge R. Barclay Surrick of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania has issued no ruling in the case that would have given Obama’s lawyers more time.


“There are lots of legal ways to stonewall,” a well-placed Republican attorney told Newsmax, who was not authorized to comment officially on the case. “But failing to respond is not one of them.”


“The first thing they teach you in law school,” he added, “is don’t put a complaint like this in a drawer. That’s how a nuisance case can become a problem.”


The 30-day deadline for defendants to comply with a discovery request is set forth in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedures.

“It all comes down to the fact that there's nothing from the other side,” Berg said after he filed a motion on Thursday for summary judgment.


“The admissions are there. By not filing the answers or objections, the defense has admitted everything. [Obama] admits he was born in Kenya. He admits he was adopted in Indonesia. He admits that the documentation posted online is a phony. And he admits that he is constitutionally ineligible to serve as president of the United States.”


In a contentious case, lawyers on both sides will haggle over the production of documents, and will frequently go beyond the deadlines, several lawyers told Newsmax.


“The rules are more often complied with in the breech rather than the observance,” a senior trial attorney who has close ties to the Democrat Party, but is not involved in the current case, told Newsmax.


“Lawyers frequently do not return telephone calls or meet discovery deadlines because of sheer inadvertence. Therefore, we do not consider a failure to respond as a ‘violation,’” he said.


Allegations surrounding Obama’s place of birth have been swirling for months. Earlier this year, the Obama campaign sought to put down the rumors by making available a computer-generated Certification of Live Birth, issued in 2007 by the State of Hawaii. [See the Certification of Live Birth — Click Here.]


Respected conservative blogger Ed Morrissey called the Berg lawsuit a “conspiracy theory” that had been put to rest by the Obama campaign over the summer but ”has arisen like a zombie yet again to suck the credibility out of the conservative blogosphere.”


However, the 2007 document produced by the Obama campaign omits key information that normally appears on birth certificates in the United States, including the name of the hospital where he was born, the size and weight of the baby, and sometimes the name of the doctor who delivered him.


In addition, the critics of the 2007 document note that Obama's father is described as “African,” a term used today. The formal language in official documents at the time — 1961 — would have identified his race as “Negro” or “Colored.”


The Web site snarkybytes.com has produced a vault copy of a Hawaii Certificate of Live Birth from 1963, issued by the Hawaii Department of Health. [See the vault copy — Click Here.]


In addition to naming the hospital and more details about the baby, the 1963 vault copy also includes the “usual residence of the mother,” and the “usual occupation” of the father. None of this information appears on the 2007 Live Birth certificate produced by the Obama campaign.


Berg has been a perennial political candidate in Pennsylvania, having run in Democrat primaries for attorney general, lieutenant governor, governor, and other offices without success. He served as deputy attorney general of the State of Pennsylvania from 1972-1980.


His credibility was tarnished by work he did for the far-left “9/11 for the Truth” campaign, which alleged in a federal lawsuit that the collapse of the twin towers in New York was caused by “controlled demolition” ordered by the president of the United States.


Nevertheless, in recent weeks, lawsuits have been filed in seven additional states demanding that Barack Obama produce an original vault copy of his birth certificate, to dispel the rumors that he is not a natural-born United States citizen.


The latest suits have been filed in state and federal courts in Hawaii, Washington, California, Florida, Georgia, New York, and Connecticut to compel Obama to release his birth records.


Lawsuits in Washington and Georgia are seeking state superior courts to force the states’ secretary of state, as the chief state elections officer, to require Obama to produce original birth records from Hawaii, or else decertify him as a candidate for the presidency.




Ironically, Obama mentions his birth certificate in passing on Page 26 of his 1995 memoir, “Dreams of My Father.” “I discovered this article, folded away among my birth certificate and old vaccination forms, when I was in high school,” he wrote.


Lawyers for Obama and the DNC did not return calls for comment on the current status of the case, or explain why the Obama campaign did not simply put to rest the whole controversy by releasing the birth certificate that Obama apparently cherished as a teenager.


In the past, questions about Sen. John McCain's legal status have arisen. McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone at a U.S. Army hospital. McCain had legal experts vet his constitutional qualifications, and he also disclosed a copy of his birth certificate.


born in Kenya folks.......not born in the USA!

Okay, I get it. You are for a private citizen....
being subjected to a background check for asking a question. That says more about you than what you say about Joe.

The difference between you and me is...I would be as outraged by this if had been done to someone who asked Obama and a question and was subjected to this. But of course, we know that isn't going to happen, now don't we?

So much for liberals championing civil rights. What a joke that has become!!
His MOTHER was a U.S. citizen

Good Lord, this gets more ridiculous every day.


700 billion dispersed to every citizen would only come to
.
His father was a Kenyan citizen. We all know that. What is ...sm
your point. He was not adopted by his Kenyan father. The point is that his mother was an American citizen. It doesn't matter where he was born. What is it that you don't understand about that? Mexicans and Canadians, as well as students and others from many other foreign citizens give birth every year and their children are American citizens. If what you say is true, and I do not believe it for a minute, why would you think that an American citizen giving birth in a foreign country would not automatically convey citizenship onto her baby? Get real. This is not what the constitution intends. This is just a diversionary tactic by desperate people.
Ummm....I am a concerned citizen. What he does now...
affects we the people directly. He HAS the job. Someone has to scrutinize him...his faithful certainly aren't going to. This choice just shows he intends to continue his Chicago connections. All that denial...little white lies? Now that he has the job...he doesn't care. So far not feeling really trustful toward the O.
I know it does - his mother was underage citizen
Hence his citizenship then went to his father's nationality. He was still born in Kenya. Doesn't change anything.
If he is not a bona fide citizen, he

CANNOT be president. Only American CITIZENS can become president. Don't you understand that?


It doesn't matter if his mother was an American, he married an American, his kids were born in America. If he was born in another country, he cannot be president. He can't serve in the Senate either, but evidently, his credentials weren't checked that close when he became a senator.


I wish he would produce his original bc and get this over with.


Yeah, he won! Who cares if he is a citizen?!
nm
This should disturb every honorable citizen

Our own government won't even let us be free.......


http://52.thelastoutpost.com/video-4/police-state/cia-embedded-in-every-state-government.html


 


Here is a comment made by a citizen in

At least the person making the comment actually knows what the problem is in this country.......the illegals and all the wonderful freebies they take at our expense but having no business getting them in the first place, while legal citizens do without.......... I see this with my transcription ALL the time. 


 


"I work for a doctor's office: majority of Medi-Cal patients are non-english or limited english speakers, so I can assume they haven't been here long -- - lots of Medi Cal patients seem from India & Iran & Mexico. We have kids who have Healthy Families plan -- most those kids translate for us to their parents who are from Mexico or Russia -- & invariably, they've got 4 siblings crowded around. Daily we get several hard-luck calls from people (who have no accent at all) who don't have insurance & need to be seen but can't afford to pay . . . I don't understand how you can be new to the state or country & receive all those fabulous benefits, even though you haven't contributed taxes or usefulness to the state . . The 'big guys' working for the state still get their bonuses . While State of California workers get $75 toward a new frame and basic lenses with a big co-pay, State Assembly & Legislature can choose up to a $400 frame, with no copay. NOT FAIR!"


Here is a comment made by a citizen in

At least the person making the comment actually knows what the problem is in this country.......the illegals and all the wonderful freebies they take at our expense but having no business getting them in the first place, while legal citizens do without.......... I see this with my transcription ALL the time. 


 


"I work for a doctor's office: majority of Medi-Cal patients are non-english or limited english speakers, so I can assume they haven't been here long -- - lots of Medi Cal patients seem from India & Iran & Mexico. We have kids who have Healthy Families plan -- most those kids translate for us to their parents who are from Mexico or Russia -- & invariably, they've got 4 siblings crowded around. Daily we get several hard-luck calls from people (who have no accent at all) who don't have insurance & need to be seen but can't afford to pay . . . I don't understand how you can be new to the state or country & receive all those fabulous benefits, even though you haven't contributed taxes or usefulness to the state . . The 'big guys' working for the state still get their bonuses . While State of California workers get $75 toward a new frame and basic lenses with a big co-pay, State Assembly & Legislature can choose up to a $400 frame, with no copay. NOT FAIR!"


If you are a US citizen, he is YOUR president - sorry about that chief - nm
X
So then you think every citizen should have unlimited visits with the President? sm
Gee, 280 million people in the United States.  24 hours in a day.  Yeah, that will work.
As a citizen/poster from hurricane country
nm
445,000 per citizen is the bill for the bail outs.
And what then? The govt will own our homes and regulation will take on a whole new meaning.

This is called fascism.
Yes, it IS a free country, and he is an AMerican citizen...
and should have the right to ask a Presidential candidate a question without fear of reprisal. That is not what happened. Just because you don't like him, you don't think he has rights? Do you know what that sounds like? Put on your jackboots and sleeve ornament and stand up for the right to quash any kind of freedom if it doesn't help the big "O." Good grief!! This is ridiculous!

Bottom line: NO ONE forced Obama to answer the question, and NO ONE forced him to give a socialist answer. Is there a part of that that escapes you?
I am a concerned citizen too. You can call it "sore
nm
And Chicago Citizen of the Year in 1997
1. Was Ayers the leader of a terrorist group?

The FBI labeled the Weather Underground "a domestic terrorist group" whose members took credit for bombings of the U.S. Capitol, Pentagon and other government buildings. The bombings were designed to cause property damage, not hurt people. Ayers never has been accused of killing anybody.

But three Weather Underground members accidentally killed themselves while making bombs in New York City in 1970. In 1981, two police officers and a security guard were killed when other members of the group committed an armed robbery.

2. How long was Ayers "underground"?

Ayers and his wife, Weather Underground member Bernardine Dohrn, were on the lam 10 years before surrendering in 1980.

3. Were they ever convicted of "terrorism" charges?

No. Ayers faced federal riot and bombing-conspiracy charges, but those charges were dropped because of illegal wiretaps, break-ins and mail interceptions by authorities. Dohrn served less than a year behind bars for non-bombing activities tied to the group.

4. How are Ayers and Dohrn viewed now?

At least before this campaign, they were mainly seen as respected college professors. After getting his doctorate in education at Columbia University, Ayers joined the University of Illinois, where he gained a national reputation pushing innovative -- some say controversial -- approaches to educating at-risk youth. Dohrn has a national reputation for pushing reforms of the juvenile justice system. Ayers has published 15 books. He sits on civic boards with Mayor Daley, who in 1997 awarded Ayers the city's "Citizen of the Year" award. Ayers and Dohrn live in Hyde Park, not far from the Obamas.

5. So how well do Ayers and Obama know each other?

Ayers and Obama served on separate boards associated with the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, an education-reform group that Obama began chairing in March 1995 and continued to work with through 2000. Ayers served on the Chicago School Reform Collaborative, which made recommendations to the board on grant awards during those years. Ayers and Obama occasionally would see each other in those roles.

Also, Ayers served alongside Obama between December 1999 and December 2002 on the board of the not-for-profit Woods Fund of Chicago. That board met four times a year, and members would see each other at dinners the group hosted.

The RNC's statement that "Obama's first campaign was launched at a gathering at Mr. Ayers' home" stems from a 1995 "meet-and-greet" coffee that Ayers and Dohrn held for Obama at their home when Obama was making his first run for the Illinois Senate. Obama's presidential campaign has described the event as an opportunity for Ayers and Dohrn to introduce Obama to their neighbors.

In 2001, Ayers gave $200 to Obama's campaign. A year ago, the two met walking through the neighborhood where they both live.

6. How does Ayers respond to the Republicans' charges?

He doesn't. He has declined to comment to the Sun-Times or any other media since Sen. Hillary Clinton first raised him as a potential problem for Obama in April during the Democratic primary.

7. What does Obama say about Ayers?

During a primary debate, Obama underplayed his relationship with Ayers: "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who's a professor of English in Chicago, who I know, and who I have not received some official endorsement from," Obama said. "He's not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. The notion that somehow, as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old somehow reflects on me and my values, doesn't make much sense."

8. Is it fair for McCain to criticize Obama on this issue?

Factcheck.org has this take: "Voters may differ in how they see Ayers, or how they see Obama's interactions with him. We're making no judgment calls on those matters. What we object to are the McCain-Palin campaign's attempts to sway voters -- in ads and on the stump -- with false and misleading statements about the relationship, which was never very close. And Ayers is more than a former 'terrorist,' he's also a well-known figure in the field of education."

9. Has Ayers ever apologized for what he did with the Weather Underground?

Not exactly. In 2001, Ayers told the Sun-Times he regretted that "people were hurt, that three of my dear friends were killed, that we were stupid, immature, intolerant and unwise. I regret that I hurt people's feelings." He did not regret "throwing myself as wholeheartedly as I could figure out into opposition to war and to the system of racial injustice."

A review of Ayers' memoir Fugitive Days that appeared in the New York Times on Sept. 11, 2001, quoted Ayers saying, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." Three days after the terrorist attacks, Ayers clarified: "My memoir is, from start to finish, a condemnation of terrorism . . ."

10. Are all former alleged terrorists/radicals shunned?

No. Former IRA bomber Gerry Adams is welcomed at the White House as a peacemaker. Former PLO leader Yasser Arafat was too. Former Students for a Democratic Society member and Ayers friend Tom Hayden was elected to the California State Assembly. Former Black Panther Bobby Rush is a congressman representing Chicago, as is former Puerto Rican independence activist Luis Gutierrez.
Canadian citizen just on the news stating how its
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Yeah well, Bush was President and you were a citizen...
there were wars on several fronts and you darned well wanted to know every little thing he knew including who he saw in the White House, but you don't demand the same out of your godlike hero the great and powerful O. What is WRONG with this picture? You know what the scary thing is? You don't SEE what is wrong with this picture. lol.
Not true, No one can give up the citizenship of a child who is a US citizen. nm
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There's one born every minute.
You seem to have bought the Dem's propaganda hook, line and sinker. What a sucker.

There is none so blind as he who will not see.
You know, not everyone was born in Boston...
and not everyone expresses himself/herself in the way you wish they would. That does NOT diminish their abilities. You still come off as sounding very condescending. I don't live in Boston and I don't have a master's degree, and I know a lot of "Joe six-packs." Who, incidentally, are very fine and not uneducated people. She does have a degree in journalism. She is not uneducated. Obama does not have a depth and breadth of experience, no more than she does. She has executive experience, he doesn't. He doesn't have foreign policy experience; that is why he has Joe Biden and 300 foreign policy advisors. She has balanced the state budget and has had surpluses which she returned to her constituents. She is very honest and open...much more so than Obama OR Biden.

Funny you should mention God...have you looked into black liberation theology?
Born-again believers
can't vote for Obama but they can vote for McCain, an admitted adulterer, proven liar, a man of proven poor judgment (Keeting-5 not to mention Gov Airhead)?  They'll vote for McCain because he "says" he is against abortion?  We know this how?  I for one do not believe in abortion...for myself.  I further believe that is an issue not for the government but between a woman, her doctor and her God.  If she has no God, of course, she is not bound by His laws.