As we’ve noted recently, we’re in the somewhat boring days of summer – at least in terms of the campaign – and while we await fresh grist for the mill, many will be looking for something to fill the time. Cue the Right wing, with their “discovery” that Barack Obama may hold dual citizenship in Kenya. As James Joyner immediately noted, this is yet another “so what?” moment.
Whether Obama is actually a citizen of Kenya and/or Indonesia is interesting but ultimately irrelevant. There’s no reason to doubt his loyalty to the United States and, if he has citizenship elsewhere, it’s simply an artifact of their laws and not any choice he’s made.
So why would this story even make it into print? Going back to one of the readers at the Gateway Pundit, you can get a peek at the hopes and dreams of some of Obama’s more fierce detractors.
I wonder how the clingy, bible thumpin’, shotgun pumpin’, outhouse dumpin’, crowd in flyover country would respond to this gem. And, wouldn’t it be “special” to hear the “Wizard of Uhhs” stumble through an explanation of this fact, and why it hasn’t been aired out earlier?
Well, actually it has been “aired out” earlier, and repeatedly. But considering that some leftover artifact regarding the circumstances of Obama’s parentage has absolutely no impact on his U.S. citizenship, nobody cared enough to dwell on it. Obama may technically qualify for citizenship in both Kenya and Indonesia, but for this to generate any relevance, we would need to have seen him – as an adult, outside the control of a parent or guardian – either moving back to one of those countries, serving in their military, applying for a passport from them… something.
Click through to Joyner’s article for a full explanation of why U.S. law, in all its various forms, takes no interest in this matter, and neither should we. If you want to throw stones at Obama, talk to him about his healthcare plan and how he proposes to pay for it. If you keep clinging to hopes about Barack’s birth certificate, you’ll be using it as a hanky at the funeral for McCain’s presidential aspirations.
BONUS ROUND: Apparently somebody hasn’t done their homework. Via pandagon, it seems that the Kenyans don’t take kindly to dual citizenship and strip you of yours on your 21st birthday unless you jump through hoops to keep it.
A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some country other than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a person who was born outside Kenya. made and registered such declaration of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament.
So…
Obama, being an American citizen, is legally prevented from having Kenyan citizenship and has been for 26 years. You don’t renounce citizenship, you don’t apply to have it taken away – it just goes after you turn 21, unless you renounce your citizenship for the other country. Of course, Obama must now prove that he didn’t renounce his American citizenship with a Certificate of Still Being a Citizen and Christian.