Just Delete It!

By: George A. Crocker Jr./Eyewitness News 9 | WNCT
Published: June 25, 2008

In this week's Just Delete It, we take a look at whether Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee is elegible to be elected President of the United States.

The e-mail currently populating inboxes worldwide states among other things that Barack Obama is ineligible because both his parents weren’t citizens of the United States.

First a little background on the e-mail…

It says that Barack’s father was not a U.S. citizen and his mother was too young at the time of his birth.

It goes on to say that Barack is disqualified because he’s a naturalized citizen as Hawaii was not a state at the time of his birth.

Furthermore, the e-mail says that Obama is not eligible due to the number of years he spent abroad in Indonesia.

Just Delete It!

Folks, this e-mail gets it wrong on several accounts…

First of all, the Fourteenth Ammendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.”

Regardless of whether both parents were or were not citizens, Barack Obama was born in Hawaii which became a state almost two years before his birth.

The minimum qualifications for presidency include:

A person must be a natural born citizen of the U.S;

They must be at least 35 years old; Obama is 47.

And they must be a resident for 14 years.