re: If Obama wasn’t a legitimate candidate he should have been disqualified during the long, LONG period he was running for the nomination.
On what grounds? The constitution states “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.” The Constitution is silent on who can run for the nomination for president.
Whether or not Obama is a legitimate candidate or not, he is free to seek the nomination of a party, to accept that nomination, to run a campaign. The Constitution does not preclude any of that.
It’s only that, at the end of all that campaigning, if he is not a legitimate candidate, that he will not be eligible for the office of President. He can do whatever he wants up to that point.
That’s pretty clear to me. What’s also clear to me is that, if before, during, or after the inauguration, Obama turns out not to have been a legitimate candidate, and either becomes, or continues to be, president, then THAT would really tear the country apart. If Obama is not a legitimate candidate, then denying Obama the nomination of a political party will turn out to be, in my opinion, a relatively small story that would blow over in a few years. On the other hand, if Obama is, in fact, not a legitimate candidate, then allowing him to become, or remain, president would, in my opinion, be the foundation of a full-scale constitutional crisis. Members of every branch of our government from the Congress to the Supreme Court to the Executive Branch, including the military have all sworn to protect and defend the constitution. Contravening the constitution so directly would probably lead to more than a few deciding that their oath of office precluded them from accepting an illegitimate president.
Just my guess.
If a Michelle tape surfaces, or Obama is exposed as a hopeless flip-flop artist, or has yet unrevealed ties to criminals like Rezco, he'll lose and his supporters, though bitterly disappointed, will accept it.
But what is being attempted here, is a racially motivated - I'll repeat that - racially motivated attempt to disqualify him on the most chicken-shit grounds imaginable. Similar in every way to the old voting laws used in segregated states a half century ago.
You're not fooling anybody but yourselves.