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Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 15:49:22 PM EDT
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| Excuse us as we casually wade into tinfoil-hate topics like birth certificates. But really, does anybody care whether you were born here? Did anybody ever care? Did anybody ever check? Many sources point to no.
Wake up Ahnold, your dream could well come true. Should you produce a plausible storyline that you were actually born on American soil before being whisked off to spend your youth in Austria, only to return to your mother land of America for opportunity, you too could become her leader.
If you can convince enough people, you'll never need proof. Because no bureaucrat actually checks your birth certificate. All the "papers" filed to run for president are financial disclosure forms, according to this Slate explainer article:
A lot. The bureaucratic campaign begins when a candidate first gets together an exploratory committee. In general, candidates register their committees as not-for-profit corporations. Giuliani's filing in New York describes his corporation as one that will "conduct federal 'testing-the-waters' activities under the Federal Election Campaign Act." (Click for a PDF.) In many cases, these activities don't amount to very much beyond polling, traveling, and making phone calls, until the exploratory committee gives way to a "campaign committee" later on.
Once the committee decides the waters are warm, it's time to file a Statement of Candidacy. This includes the candidate's name and address, the name and address of his or her principal campaign committee, and little else. Technically, you don't need to fill out the paperwork until you've raised or spent $5,000 on your campaign; after that, you have 15 days to send the form to the FEC and the opposing candidates. A candidate gets another 10 days to fill out a Statement of Organization, which registers his or her principal campaign committee with the FEC. The document designates a treasurer and a custodian of records to oversee money in and money out. |
| catfish :: Birth Certificate Never Checked for Presidential Run |
In fact, by the time you've got enough buzz to be a viable candidate for president, it's just assumed you were born here, you're at least 35 years old, and you meet all the technical job requirements. State by state, your name gets on that ballot. You think they stop Hillary Clinton or John McCain 50 times to ask for their finger prints or driver's license or passport? Massachusetts doesn't:
There are three ways for the names of presidential candidates to be placed on the presidential primary ballot:
* Candidates may file nomination papers with at least 2500 certified signatures. For primary ballot placement, signatures of at least 2,500 voters must be certified by local election officials and subsequently filed with the Secretary of the Commonwealth.*
* The Secretary of the Commonwealth may place candidates on the ballot who have been generally advocated or recognized in the national news media.
* The chairperson of each party's state committee may designate names to be listed.
As for the other states, I am looking them up one by one.
But it's been Arnold Schwarzenegger's dream to some day become president. His office displays busts of Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy. I may not agree with my governor on many things, but he loves this country and would one day like to lead it. I have a right to vote against him, but maybe he has a right to run for the highest office in the land. After all, nobody really verify you were born here.
UPDATE: This diary is also a response to TexasDarlin, who has been wearing herself out trying to prove Obama's birth certificate is fake. It could be a cartoon, but it wouldn't matter, because there is no single bureaucrat that checks a candidate's certificate of live birth.. |
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"Always aim high, work hard, and care deeply about what you believe in. When you stumble, keep faith. When you?re knocked down, get right back up. And NEVER listen to anyone who says you can't or shouldn't go on."
Hillary Clinton - June 7, 2008
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