134 of 205 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well-researched, but a little dry, May 26, 2011
This review is from: Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President (Hardcover)
First of all, I bought the book and have read the whole book. Nothing irritates me more than reviewers who haven't even read the book they are reviewing - regardless of how many stars they assign the book.
I pre-ordered the book some weeks ago - before the long-form birth certificate was released by President Obama. Since that seemed to answer the theme posed in the title, I wondered about the relevancy of the book. Well, I am glad that I bought and read the book. The lack of long-form birth certificate at the time the book was written is only a small part of the book.
The basic question is that the US Constitution has requirements for the various offices contained therein - minimum ages for Representatives, Senators and Presidents as well as residence and citizenship requirements. For example, the requirements for US Senator are: (Article 1, section 3, paragraph 3) "No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen." Pretty simple. The House allows younger people with a shorter time as a citizen.
But the Presidency requires that (Article II, section 1, Paragraph 5)"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; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."
And that is the subject of the book. As you can see comparing the requirements for a Senator with those for President, the key difference is being "natural born". This phrase is not the same as being a simple citizen, which is the citizenship requirement for Congress. The author, multiple best-selling author, journalist and PhD from Harvard, Jerome Corsi, explains what this means and then spends 300 pages, with an additional 100 pages of sources and appendices, pointing out the many problems with President Obama's eligibility.
The conclusion is that, even if Obama was born in Hawaii, he is not eligible to be President of the United States under the Constitution and current U.S. law.
That statement should shock you, as it did me. But after reading this closely reasoned book, I must conclude that Corsi is right.
More than half of Americans agree with Corsi, according to current polling. Thus, it is a mystery why President Obama doesn't just open up his records (originals and not faux internet-created electronic documents) and set the record straight. After all, for better or worse, he is the President of all of us - not just the people who support him without caring about his eligibility. What kind of a President spends 2 million dollars (and counting) concealing information that the U.S. Constitution requires and has over half of his people doubting his legitimacy?
I gave the book only 4 stars for two reasons: 1) I found the prose style halting and had a hard time following a couple of the book's many points. (Which may well say more about me than the author, I realize.) 2) The release of the long-form birth certificate was not covered in the book and so parts of it were incomplete.
While neutral experts are multiplying that call this electronic document a forgery (and rich guys like Trump are not who I would use as a judge of this kind of thing), that is not the subject of the book, nor of my review, so I won't cover that at all. But for those reading this who think the long-form birth certificate appearance settles the question, please note the following. Most Obama supporters, including Hawaii Health Department Spokeswoman Janice Okubo, insisted for years that there was no long-from birth certificate and even that it was no longer possible to get one. And then one appears. Was Okubo and the Hawaiian state government lying? Could all these government officials and supporters really be that incompetent?
Let's face it; many of us find President Obama to be a socialist bent on destroying the fabric of society as well as our country. Many of us don't, but find him to be a sincere, caring President trying to bring America into the 21st Century as a more fair and just society. We all naturally carry biases, beliefs and knowledge of varying degrees of legitimacy into any debate on a subject such as the eligibility of President Obama. But if we hold the principles dear that are contained in the founding documents of our Republic, we should insist that these principles, contained in the US Constitution, be followed. Else why even bother to have a Constitution?
The first part of this book is actually about the travails of Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate for President who lost to President Obama. Senator McCain's birth certificate and eligibility were also in doubt. Briefly, McCain was born of two American citizen parents, outside of the United States in a US territory, the Canal Zone. This was a major news story for months. McCain not only provided his birth certificate and other documents, but the US Congress held hearings and a vote that granted that McCain was indeed eligible to be President under both United States law and the US Constitution. Why, then, wasn't then Senator Obama also put through the same process?
Briefly, for those unfamiliar with the particulars, President Obama was said to be born in a US state, Hawaii, of a British citizen of Kenya and an American mother. Does this qualify him as a "natural born" citizen? No, it doesn't according to the author. And if Obama was born elsewhere he is also disqualified due to US law which requires 2 American citizens as parents or one American citizen as a parent who then fulfills certain residency requirements - which Obama's mother didn't. Anyway, the point is, I highly recommend that you read this book for the evidence of this and then make your own mind up.
Other chapters of the book go into detail about what a "natural born" citizen means as well as other information about Obama that questions his eligibility. Why was Obama's current social security card issued from Connecticut where he never lived, and issued years after Obama started working? Under what passport did Obama travel to Pakistan at a time when few Americans went to that country? Did Obama carry the passport of another country, thus making him ineligible to be President? Is Obama hiding all his school records, from Kindergarten on, because they show him to be a foreign citizen? Obama lived 4 years in Indonesia with his mother and step-father and attended a school that only an Indonesian citizen could attend, remember.
Well, the list of questions goes on and on. All I can say is read this excellent book for detailed information and decide for yourselves. There are also nearly 100 pages of photos of the various documents cited in this book.
Overall, this book ia a well-researched blockbuster that claims that President Obama is ineligible to serve in that office. I found a few minor problems as I noted earlier, but gave the book 4 stars and highly recommend that you read it.
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4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Meditate on this, February 14, 2012
This review is from: Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President (Hardcover)
Oh, Mr. Corsi, where should I begin? How many other Presidents, besides Jimmy Carter, have had a public demand they show their birth certificates? Mr. Corsi, could it just be that you're a conservative Catholic with an antiquated opinion of African Americans? Well, I'm sorry to break it to you, Jerome, we live in an integrated society where any naturalized American can hold political office. I bet you have nightmares about a Latino president or an Asian secretary of defense. Your book is atrocious, a hate mongering tome that could have made it's point in ten pages. In fact, that is exactly what happened. In the first ten pages of text, I didn't need to read anymore, but I did. I read until my ears bled. I wonder if Obama picked on Corsi when they were kids. If you believe in a multiracial society where no one questions someone else's honesty because of the color of their skin, skip this book. If you think Rick Santorum should be president or that we should invade China (that is the conservative hot topic, isn't it?) then this book is for you.
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305 of 493 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Authoritative Book on Birth Certificate Issue, May 18, 2011
This review is from: Where's the Birth Certificate?: The Case that Barack Obama is not Eligible to be President (Hardcover)
Although it does cover other peripheral issues, the heart of this book is Obama's birth certificate. Those following the contemporary politics are familiar with the the birth certificate issue, which surfaced on and off since Mr. Obama announced his candidacy back in 2007. There have been numerous personalities who staked their personal interest in this subject, including an attorney in California who filed various lawsuits, an Army medical officer who refused deployment on this basis and a real estate mogul who hired a private investigator and promised the public a stunning finding on the issue.
Every public official who examined the birth certificates released by Mr. Obama (both versions) has announced it binding and authentic, including elected Republican officials. Every judge who had the "birther" case before him or her threw it out as being meritless. The Army medic was stripped of his pension and was dishonorably discharged. Virtually every prominent Republican politician and conservative mainstream media personality have denounced "birthers" as being delusional.
Yet I still believe.
I believe that Mr. Corsi knows more about the intricacies of constitutional and election laws than judges, countless trial attorneys eager to make a name for themselves and GOP attorneys who would have pounced on the subject had it an iota of room for an argument. I believe that Mr. Corsi is in better position to validate the authenticity of the certificates and other various legal documents than government officials. I believe that Mr. Corsi is more motivated to uncover the truth than other political candidates who could have been the president if Mr. Obama was unqualified and his current political opponents eager to discredit him any way they can. I believe that Mr. Corsi is credible, even though his theory requires a conspiracy involving virtually everyone in the country except those who agree with him, including every judge, every prominent media personality, every law enforcement official, every politician in both political parties, the military, other foreign governments who could easily destablize the U.S. by hiring agents in the country to publicize this fact, and even Mr. Trump, who has decided to withhold his amazing revelation on the subject.
Because I so believe, I will give Mr. Corsi and his publisher my hard-earned money and give him five-star review on Amazon.
And if you disagree, you are part of the conspiracy.
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