'3 in 10 Americans believe Obama foreigner'

President Obama

Three in 10 people in the United States believe President Barack Obama is a foreigner, according to a new poll from an international leader in market research who asked residents about their beliefs regarding the president's birthplace.

The survey was done by Angus Reid Global Monitor, a division of Vision Critical Group, which leverages "the world's most advanced online research technology for interactive surveys, custom panels, private communities and virtual retail environments."

The results of the survey, released today, said 70 percent of the respondents believe Obama was born in the U.S., "while 30 percent do not."

"While only 13 percent of Democratic Party supporters believe Obama was not born in the U.S., the proportion rises to 25 percent among Independents and 51 percent among Republican Party backers," the report said.

The issue is significant because, while Obama secured a majority of the Electoral College votes in November 2008 to be installed as president, Article II of the U.S. Constitution establishes "that only 'natural born' American citizens are eligible to become presidents."

The U.S. Constitution even provides that if an elected president is not qualified for the office, the vice president shall stand in for him until he is qualified.

"Last year, the Obama campaign team released a Certification of Live Birth, which states that Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on Aug. 4, 1961. The state of Hawaii only allows for the release of an original birth certificate under 'extenuating circumstances,'" the survey report said.

Just weeks ago, former House majority leader Tom Delay discussed his views on Obama’s birth, saying, "Why wouldn't the president of the United States show the American people his birth certificate? You have to show a birth certificate to play Little League baseball. It's a question that should be answered. It's in the Constitution that you have to be a natural born citizen of the United States to be president."

The poll interviewed 1,009 American adults Oct. 15-17 and has a margin of error of 3.1 percent, officials said.

The question was: "As you may have heard over the last few months, there have been groups demanding to see President Obama's birth certificate. Do you believe that Obama was born in the United States of America or not?"

All respondents had a 70-30 division with the majority believing Obama was born in the United States. Among Democrats, 13 percent believe he is not born in the U.S., a figure that was doubled among Independents. Among Republicans, the figure doubled again.

The organization is the largest Canadian-owned market research enterprise and has been conducting surveys since 1995.

In addition to offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Toronto and Montreal, the company also operates in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, London, Paris and Sydney.

WND reported earlier on its own survey, done by public-opinion research and media-consulting company Wenzel Strategies, that affirmed 51.3 percent of the people across the U.S. were aware of the dispute over Obama's constitutional eligibility for office.

But that survey was weeks ago, when only 18.7 percent said no, and 30 percent said they were unsure. Since then several lawsuits over the dispute have been in the headlines, including a case in California that currently is scheduled for trial in January.

Pollster Fritz Wenzel said at the time, "Our polling shows that the questions surrounding Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president clearly strike a nerve across America, probably because it is a problem that everybody understands.

"Every American citizen has a birth certificate, and once in a while we all have to produce them to get a drivers license or gain entrance to school. Everyone understands the simple rules – if you don't produce it, you don't get in. And while Obama did get in to the White House, nearly half the country's adults – 49 percent – are troubled by this issue and still want him to produce his official long-form birth certificate," he said.

The earlier survey found that when asked what their view of the question was, 41.5 percent of respondents answered that Obama should release all relevant documents, including the long-form birth certificate. Another 7.8 percent said they were "troubled" by the question.

WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, 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."

Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born. Others argue one cannot be a "natural born" citizen without two citizen parents.

Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums exceeding $1 million to avoid releasing an original long-form state birth certificate that would put to rest the questions.

WND also has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.

Because of the dearth of information about Obama's eligibility, WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a campaign to raise contributions to post billboards asking a simple question: "Where's the birth certificate?"

"Where's The Birth Certificate?" billboard at the Mandalay Bay resort on the Las Vegas Strip

The campaign followed a petition that has collected more than 475,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question.

The "certification of live birth" posted online and widely touted as "Obama's birth certificate" does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same "short-form" document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true "long-form" birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.

Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.

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