NEITHER CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT IS CERTIFIED

It is unfathomable that two candidates could be running for our nation's highest office with no formal certification of their basic constitutional qualifications to hold that office.

It is quite certain that both candidates are qualified, but the New York Times has questioned John McCain's overseas birth. Moreover, Barack Obama has produced a birth certificate that is clearly phoney, perhaps fraudulent. Further, Obama has not made his medical records public as McCain has.

Do your job, congress, provide a formal certification of these two candidates to hold the office of President of theUnited States!

Congress is the place to challenge McCain’s or Obama’s qualifications to be President

The New York Times has twice run articles questioning whether John McCain’s birth in the Panama Canal Zone would disqualify him to be President based on Article II of the U.S. Constitution:

“No Person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President”. “Natural born” is not defined. The blogosphere is ripe with speculation that Obama may also fail to meet the qualification, since his supporters posted online an inauthentic copy of a birth certificate purporting to be for Barack Obama.

The allegations have raised the specter of a challenge to either candidate's eligibility to be President.

Congress, not the courts are the constitutionally correct place to determine whether a President elect meets all of the qualifications to hold the Office of President. The place to challenge the qualifications of any Presidential candidate who wins the election would be in the United States Congress.

The Constitution gives Congress the authority to oversee the counting of the electors’ ballots and to deal with cases where there is no clear qualified winner.

Both Article II Section 1 and Amendment XII of the US Constitution call for President of the Senate to count the electors votes. There are procedures for Congress to make the choice if no one has a majority.

Amendment XX has procedures for dealing with a situation where “the President elect shall have failed to qualify”. All the duties surrounding the issue of counting the electors ballots and selecting the President if no clear winner exits are designated to Congress, the courts have no role to play.

It is not spelled out but if a challenge to a President’s qualifications were made at the time the electors’ votes are counted, Congress would have to deal with the issue.

Evidence could be presented and testimony heard, then a decision would have to be made. There is nothing in the Constitution giving the courts authority to make the decision; lawyers think the courts are always the place for making decisions so they don’t think of other options that fit better with the structure of the Constitution.

It does not matter whether the challenge is to the election of McCain, Obama or anyone else, the process would be the same.

If the defect in the President’s qualifications were to come to light after the President was sworn in then the procedures for impeachment would be appropriate, since running for office in violation of the constitutional requirement for being a “natural born Citizen” would be high Crime or Misdemeanor.
The Senate has already expressed the opinion that McCain is a “natural born Citizen” and eligible for the Office of the President. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) introduced the resolution during April of this year after the first New York Times article.

There is no way that Congress is going to deny parents serving overseas the possibility that their children can become President so John McCain is safe.

Obama might be required to present a Birth Certificate if his qualifications were challenged and then the issue would be resolved.

For this election I don’ t think either candidate has anything to worry about but there needs to be a way to determine the qualifications of a President elect just to be certain that someone ineligible does not sneak through.

All of the authority for counting the electors and dealing with a President elect who fails to qualify rest with Congress. Congress is the appropriate place to determine the President’s qualifications.

There was a best selling book about how the Secret Service had to deal with the Clintons and the fact that Bill couldn't have gotten clearance to even go on a White House tour with his background.

I don't know how much of a security risk he was before he was elected (the Secret Service usually exercises an ABUNDANCE of caution), but he sure has heck was responsible for the Chicoms getting our outdated missile guidance systems, taking campaign funds and he's still too hot for Hillary to be the Veep, as his dealings with the Middle East are somewhat suspect.

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