Probably not. I was referring to the Constitutional mandate: "No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President."
My assumption has always been some agency of government guaranteed this before the person was allowed to be placed on the ballot. If an idedpendent verification body does not exist, it certainly should be instituted.
There is no independent mechanism for determining eligibility. That’s the problem.
We voters don;t vote for a candidate, we vote for an elector, and essentially, we vote for a political party.
Anyway, that detail aside, your assumption is not a good one.
Plus, now we have the wide-open issue of definition of Natural Born Citizen, and nobody wants to touch it. 100% of Congress has opened the door to anchor-baby presidencies.
Some have, some have not. I believe Eisenhower did, although I don't feel compelled to look it up again just now.
No previous presidential aspirant has had as many (still unanswered and highly pertinent) questions surrounding their life narrative though, and that is a fact. Come to think of it, I can't remember the last one to put up forged identity documents, either. Of course, asking this guy to present bona fides to establish his eligibility to hold the presidency would be raaaacist, right?
"Probably not. I was referring to the Constitutional mandate: 'No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President.'
My assumption has always been some agency of government guaranteed this before the person was allowed to be placed on the ballot. If an idedpendent verification body does not exist, it certainly should be instituted."
Part of qualifying for the office is to meet the eligibility requirements for said office. For all we know, "Obama" may actually be able to qualify to hold the office that he currently enjoys. He just hasn't actually demonstrated that he does, since his status as a NBC is absolutely in much doubt.
IF "Obama" is telling us the truth about his origins, then he is not a Natural Born Citizen and is therefore ineligible due to potential divided loyalties to hold the presidency and cannot possibly qualify for office. Even if he is somehow capable of qualifying for office, he hasn't done so yet, meaning it would appear that technically, Biden is at the helm of USS BS.
The 20th Amendment: 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.
It doesn't matter if the various Secretaries of State allowed him on their State's ballots, that the general voters and the Electoral College voted to award him the job or even that he's been allowed to exercise the levers of power of the Executive all this time. These do not trump the Constitution.
The man has failed to demonstrably qualify for the office he currently occupies.
Like you Art, I too assumed (see what happens?) that there was some established, uniform and legal mechanism by which each and every presidential aspirant provide as a matter of formality even, a standard set of legal credentials establishing their eligibility for office.
Instead, it's more akin to a ride at an amusement park where the sign says riders must be a certain height to board, and depending on the operator (legal controlling authorities), they can use any kind of subjective standard they wish in granting access to the attraction. Most sane operators would put the would-be fun goer up against a yardstick before allowing them on.
Pinging a few people better versed than I on the constitutional (and historical and other legal) aspects of NBC and eligibility.