Amazing number want to know candidates' eligibility

Just as Barack Obama's 2012 presidential campaign is hitting high gear, a new poll indicates that a strong majority of Arizona voters wants affidavits from presidential candidates affirming their eligibility.

The results are from the Arizona State University-based Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

The poll shows 6 of 10 Arizona voters "would support a 'birther bill' requiring presidential candidates to sign an affidavit affirming they are American citizens."

"Support is highest among registered Republicans (76 percent support the idea) while 58 percent of Democrats oppose it," said the Morrison Institute's report of the poll results, which were released Thursday.

"The legislature passed the bill in 2011, but the governor vetoed it, saying that such a law 'could lead to arbitrary or politically motivated decisions," the report said.

Sign the petition now to show members of Congress just how many Americans demand constitutional integrity.

The poll asked: "How about the so-called 'birther bill' that would require presidential candidates to come to sign an affidavit that they are an American citizen?"

Thirty-four percent strongly supported the idea; another 26 percent supported it and 11 percent opposed it. Twenty-five percent strongly opposed it and 4 percent were uncertain.

The results reveal growing concern over Obama's eligibility, even though the poll question reflected the mainstream media's general misunderstanding that the issue is Obama's "citizenship." The concern actually is over Obama's status as a "natural born citizen," a special requirement in the U.S. Constitution for a president.

The Founders probably would have considered a "natural born citizen" to be the offspring of two citizens. Some of Obama's critics say by that standard, he would be ineligible, because his father was a Kenyan citizen.

The Morrison Institute's survey also found 84 percent of Arizona voters oppose allowing religious organizations that provide health insurance for workers to ask female employees if they use birth control. In addition, support is split on a requirement that abortion businesses post notices that it is against the law to coerce a woman into having an abortion. Also, three-quarters of Arizona voters oppose allowing people to carry firearms in public places such as libraries, and 40 percent support the idea of an "armed volunteer citizen militia to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border."

The poll was assembled through 488 live telephone interviews April 10-14 and 16-20. The results were weighted to be 36 percent Republican, 30 percent Democrat and 34 percent independents. It carries a margin of error of 4.4 percent.

It comes just as a petition to Congress to investigate Obama's constitutional eligibility is surging forward.

Spurred by the findings of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who has found probable cause that the birth certificate posted one year ago on the White House website is a fraud, the petition represents a last-ditch effort to clear the air on Obama's legitimacy before the November election. Nearly 60,000 people have sign on so far.

"Can you believe Obama is still playing games with his identity six months before the next presidential election?" asks Joseph Farah, chief executive officer and editor of WND. "As I have long predicted, no court in America is going to take this hot potato of a case. It is the sworn duty of Congress to uphold the Constitution and hold the executive branch accountable to the people. It's time to turn up the heat on the timid, fearful Republicans and the see-no-evil Democrats."

Arpaio himself, whose office has conducted the only law enforcement investigation of Obama's birth documents and eligibility, has asked for assistance from Congress. But his requests have fallen on deaf ears.

Arpaio recently told WABC radio host and WND senior staff reporter Aaron Klein that the media and politicians alike are afraid to touch the issue.

"Why didn't someone investigate this? I mean, where is everybody?" Arpaio asked Klein. "How come the federal agencies aren't investigating? We're dealing with federal issues here. So everybody's hiding, and they're still hiding."

The few members of Congress who tentatively have broached the subject of the constitutional eligibility of the president retreated when the establishment media pulled out a well-worn repertoire of "birther" jokes.

WND reported that Jerry W. Mansfield, an information research specialist in the Knowledge Services Group of the Congressional Research Service, issued a memo to prepare members of Congress to rebut and defuse questions constituents were asking regarding Obama's presidential eligibility under the natural-born citizen requirement of the Constitution.

Many members of Congress were found to have quoted from the memo to turn away inquiries about eligibility.

Arpaio said to Klein that he told his Cold Case Posse team his aim was to settle the matter.

"My instructions were this: 'I want you to clear the president. I want to get to the bottom of this and get it off the table forever,'" he said. "Didn't happen that way."

The dispute has been around since before Obama was elected in 2008, when the first cases were filed in courts, based on a long list of missing documents and other evidence.

The petition cites Arpaio's investigation into Obama's documentation.

It's addressed to "All members of the U.S. Congress" and states:

Whereas, the first official U.S. law enforcement investigation into Barack Obama's legal eligibility for the presidency, led by Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio and involving a six-month investigation by three professional criminal investigators and two attorneys, established "probable cause" that the document released with great fanfare by the White House April 27, 2011, as Obama's "long-form birth certificate" is a forgery;

Whereas, specifically, these investigators, after interviewing dozens of witnesses, examining hundreds of documents, and taking numerous sworn statements from witnesses around the world, including multiple document experts, concluded that said "birth certificate" did not originate in a paper format, but was created – that is, forged – as an electronic file on a computer;

Whereas, the Arpaio-led law-enforcement investigation cited numerous experts demonstrating that an additional fraud was allegedly committed in the forgery of Barack Obama's Selective Service registration card;

Whereas, the investigation also found that, according to a sworn affidavit by the longtime mailman for the parents of ex-Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers, Ayers' mother enthusiastically claimed she had helped pay for the Harvard Law School education of "foreign student" Barack Obama;

Whereas, Arpaio's lead investigator Michael Zullo explained at a March 1 press conference that the 1961 Hawaiian newspaper "announcements" of Barack Obama's birth confirm nothing, since the investigators "can prove beyond a doubt" that these newspapers also announced arrivals of foreign babies as well as native-born; and that the investigators even possess "documented evidence of two adopted individuals who were breathing three years prior" to their supposed Hawaii "birth" and subsequent newspaper "birth announcements";

Whereas, the investigation determined that immigration files in the National Archives recording overseas arrivals into Hawaii are missing from one particular week – the week of Obama's birthday, August 4, 1961;

Whereas, , lead investigator Mike Zullo also said his team believes the Hawaii Department of Health has engaged in a systematic effort to hide from public inspection any original 1961 birth records for Obama it may have in its possession;

Whereas, investigators have advised Sheriff Arpaio they believe at least two crimes of fraud were committed: 1) The White House allegedly created a forgery it claimed was an officially produced governmental birth record; and 2) the White House allegedly presented to the residents of Maricopa County, Ariz. – and to the entire American public – a forgery represented as "proof positive" of President Obama's authentic 1961 Hawaii long-form birth certificate;

Whereas, Sheriff Arpaio said March 1: "The president can put all this to rest quite easily. All he has to do is demand the Hawaii Department of Health release to the American public and to a panel of certified court-authorized forensic examiners all original 1961 paper, microfilm and computer birth records the Hawaii Department of Health has in its possession";

Whereas, Arpaio concluded: "Absent the authentication of Hawaii Department of Health 1961 birth records for Barack Obama, there is no other proof he was born anywhere within the United States";

Whereas, despite a virtual media blackout on the issue, repeated national polls show that almost half of registered U.S. voters remain unconvinced that Barack Obama's birth certificate is authentic:

The signatories demand that Congress launch an investigation, because "not to finally resolve this monumental and unprecedented constitutional issue would be intolerable, and would constitute the most extreme disrespect and contempt for the U.S. Constitution."

See the image released by Obama:

In the Phoenix Times, a headline noted that the issue "is a favorite of Arizonan Voters."

The progression of interest in Obama's eligibility, as tabulated by various polls, has been clear. Just weeks ago, A WND/Wenzel poll by Wenzel Strategies showed almost 40 percent of registered voters think the nation is facing a constitutional crisis because of a lack of documentation regarding Obama's eligibility.

Nearly 26 percent of respondents say they strongly agree with the statement that the country now is facing a constitutional crisis on the issue of Obama's eligibility. Another 13.7 percent say they somewhat agree.

The poll showed 11 percent of voters are very familiar with the conclusions in Arpaio's report, and another 19 percent are somewhat familiar. Nearly 70 percent were not very or not at all familiar.

The poll also showed that because of Arpaio's report, 40 percent now concede they are more likely to believe Obama in ineligible to hold the office of president. Another 20 percent said they weren't able to express an opinion on the question.

Also, more than 46 percent said they agree that now there needs to be more extensive investigative work done into Obama's eligibility to determine the facts, while 39 percent said they disagreed.

And then there was the key question about the nation facing a constitutional crisis.

At issue would be consequences such as the fallout of court decisions made by judges appointed by Obama. There are two new U.S. Supreme Court judges, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, who owe their lifelong appointments to Obama.

But if Obama was ineligible from the beginning, what would happen to the decisions in which the justices have participated?

Respondents also are divided over the minimal media coverage. About 30 percent say the coverage of the Arpaio report was favorable to Obama and another 25 percent say it opposed him. Significantly, 30 percent are "not sure."

Other recent polls have indicated that 37 percent of Republican primary voters in Ohio, 38 percent in Georgia and a startling 45 percent in Tennessee don't believe Obama's affirmations of eligibility.

Some 1 in 5 cannot say for sure they believe him.

The results were obtained by Public Policy Polling, which asked "Do you think Barack Obama was born in the United States, or not?"

Freshly updated! Find out what Obama's story truly is, in "Where's the REAL Birth Certificate?" by Jerome Corsi. Or join in the billboard campaign that seeks the answer to "Where's the Real Birth Certificate?"

When the Iowa caucuses were being held, a Public Policy Polling report noted that 1 in 3 Iowa GOP members did not believe Obama was born in the United States – an indication of their disbelief about his eligibility to be president.

WND reported that another poll showed half of registered voters would like to see Congress investigate Obama's eligibility. It also showed that nearly that many believe the definition of the constitutional term "natural born citizen" means both parents must be U.S. citizens.

Just days after the White House released the "birth certificate" image, Gallup reported that only 47 percent thought Obama was definitely was born in the U.S. and 18 percent said he "probably" was.

It was only a few months after Obama's inauguration that a WND/Wenzel Poll showed that 51.3 percent of American voters said they were aware of the questions raised about Obama's constitutional eligibility for office. Only 18.7 percent said they were not and another 30 percent were unsure.

At that point, 58.2 percent of Republicans said they were aware of the controversy.

Polls later revealed Americans to be increasingly skeptical of Obama's official narrative:

A survey by Angus Reid Global Monitor, a division of Vision Critical Group, in October 2009 found three in 10 people in the U.S. believed Obama to be a foreigner."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.

Then in January 2010, another WND/Wenzel Poll showed on the one-year anniversary of Obama's inauguration that fully one-third of Americans refused to believe Obama was a "legitimate president," with another 15.8 percent saying they were not sure. Barely half the voters, 51.5 percent, said they believed the president legitimate even though he had not produced documentation proving his constitutional eligibility. Even 14.6 percent of the Democrats said they did not consider him legitimate.

In May 2010, a WND/Wenzel Poll showed that 55 percent of American voters wanted Obama to release all records relating to his childhood and his education, including "college records, Harvard Law School papers, passport records, travel records, and other similar documentation." Asked what should be done should it be found that Obama does not meet the qualifications to be president, 59 percent said he should be removed from office, and 35 percent said all bills signed into law by Obama should be repealed," the poll's analysis revealed.

By June 2010, other media were beginning to put their toes in the waters of the controversy. A "60 Minutes"-Vanity Fair poll showed only 39 percent of respondents believed Obama was born in Hawaii as he claimed in his book. But that figure included those who said they believe he was born in Kansas or some other unknown state, which still would conflict with Obama's story.

In later 2010, a poll by CNN said 6 of 10 people were uncertain Obama was born in the U.S. The poll said only 42 percent believe Obama "definitely" was born in the U.S. The CNN report said, "Hawaii has released a copy of the president's birth certificate – officially called a 'certificate of live birth.' And in 1961 the hospital where the president was born placed announcements in two Hawaiian newspapers regarding Obama's birth."