Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C. |
WASHINGTON – A Democrat leader in the House blames racism for swirling questions about Barack Obama's eligibility and wonders aloud why no one asked for Sen. John McCain's birth certificate in 2008.
In an interview with McClatchy News Service, House Assistant Democratic Leader Jim Clyburn said: "I don't know why anybody didn't ask for John McCain's. He wasn't even born in this country."
In fact, as documented in Jerome Corsi's "Where's the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama Is Not Eligible To Be President," McCain's eligibility issues were a source of major media controversy in 2008 and ultimately resulted in a hearing in the U.S. Senate and a unanimous resolution affirming he met the constitutional standard of "natural born citizen" because both his parents were U.S. citizens.
No major media questioned Obama's eligibility in 2008 and, as Corsi's book documents, no controlling legal authority in America vetted him as a "natural born citizen," despite the fact that he claimed his father was a citizen of Kenya.
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"You know, I'm 70 years old," Clyburn said. "And I can tell you; people don't like to deal with it, but the fact of the matter is, the president's problems are in large measure because of the color of his skin."
Clyburn noted that he himself got hate mail, racist phone calls and offensive faxes on a regular basis. Asked how that relates to the president, Clyburn retorted: "We have the same skin color; that's how it relates to him."