Huckabee: No need for birth-certificate legislation

Gov. Mike Huckabee

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee told a radio host today there is no need for legislation to make future presidential candidates prove their birthplace to determine eligibility for office, fearing such a bill would be seen as "a swipe" at Barack Obama.

Huckabee, who sought the Republican Party's presidential nomination in 2008, was speaking to WND's Jerusalem bureau chief and investigative reporter Aaron Klein on Klein's WABC Radio program.

"For 2012, so that there is no controversy in the future," Klein asked Huckabee, "do you personally support some form of legislation that would call for every presidential candidate – putting Obama aside, just in general, every presidential candidate – to prove his place of birth?"

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"For the most part, Aaron, I don't even think it's necessary," Huckabee responded. "We pretty much have our biographies. The news media is going to delve into everything imaginable. I think sometimes that piece of legislation might look like a swipe at Obama.

"I don't believe Obama was born overseas, I believe he was born in Hawaii," Huckabee continued. "I have no doubts about his Hawaiian birth."

Huckabee's statement occurs at approximately the 7:00 mark of the following audio file:

In the interview, Huckabee also spoke about his newly released book, the role of family in America, public employee unions and tumultuous events in the Middle East.

Huckabee asserted that "Israel has a right to a secure future" and blasted Obama's foreign policy toward the Jewish State.

"Why on Earth would they be pushing Israel to come to the table with people who don't think that Israel should even exist?" Huckabee said. "We put more pressure on Israel to stop building bedrooms for Israeli families than we have for Iran to stop building nuclear bombs that would be pointed not only at Israel but also against the United States."

When Huckabee said eligibility legislation might be considered "a swipe" at Obama, he was referring to the ongoing controversy over the sitting president's birthplace, which arose even before he was elected president, when his status as a "natural born citizen" under the requirements of the U.S. Constitution was questioned. A multitude of lawsuits have sought unsuccessfully to clear the air on the issue, and there are several court cases that continue.

States have reacted by proposing legislation that would require a presidential candidate to provide documentation of his constitutional eligibility, and similar legislation even has been proposed in Congress.

But as WND has discovered, Huckabee's assertion that the media would "delve into everything imaginable" in regards to a candidate's past hasn't held true for Obama, who has not yet been compelled to disclose several key documents, including his actual birth documentation, 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, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records.