A different question about the President's citizenship

Why is the President an American citizen? By this, I mean why is he not a Kenyan, English, or Commonwealth realm citizen? It seems like he should have duel if not triple(is that even possible) citizenship. Did he personally have to choose between his choices? If so, when did he make his choice?

reply to post by thinline


As far as i understand it due to the president being in charge of the armed forces the fact of him being a citizen of another country could cause problems if for example the USA decided to invade Kenya for example as it would put the commander in an impossible position, so thats why the job is a US citizen by birth only job (unless they have used a time machine to take his mother back in time before a certain date to give birth then he could of been a person of multiple citizenships i guess)

reply to post by thinline

Not sure about the US but some countries do not allow dual-citizenship, such as my native UK and Holland. Also, some countries have laws stating that people who hold (some) public functions such as Judges and Premiers must be a citizen of the country in question. The owners of the countries get worried when they think a foreigner might be able to wield (in their eyes) unwarranted opinions and ideas while in office. I think...

The real question is why does it matter?

Even if you stumbled upon overwhelming proof that Obama isn't a natural born American citizen, he would not get impeached over it. Why? because he's already committed many impeachable offenses, as did Bush, and neither were impeached over such offenses. Basically, the people who have to keep him in check aren't doing their job (I mean, congress has about a 9% approval rating, there really isn't anything they are doing right).

On the bright side we only have 8 more months of Obama before we can start worshiping Warlord Romney.

reply to post by thinline

Why is the President an American citizen? By this, I mean why is he not a Kenyan, English, or Commonwealth realm citizen?

Because he was born in Hawaii?

Originally posted by DestroyDestroyDestroy
The real question is why does it matter?

Even if you stumbled upon overwhelming proof that Obama isn't a natural born American citizen, he would not get impeached over it. Why? because he's already committed many impeachable offenses, as did Bush, and neither were impeached over such offenses. Basically, the people who have to keep him in check aren't doing their job (I mean, congress has about a 9% approval rating, there really isn't anything they are doing right).

On the bright side we only have 8 more months of Obama before we can start worshiping Warlord Romney.

This is America, where the only impeachable offense is getting serviced in the oval office..

Our political system is in a shambles .. I'm not sure it hasn't always been though..

Originally posted by LightSpeedDriver
reply to post by thinline

 

Not sure about the US but some countries do not allow dual-citizenship, such as my native UK and Holland.

I dont know about Holland, but the UK absolutely accepts dual citizenship.

www.ind.homeoffice.gov.uk...

OP-In fact, A LOT of countries allow multiple citizenship. Obama, being born in the US, has US Citizenship. If his father had UK citizenship, by birth, I believe he would have had the option, until about a decade ago, to move to thr UK for a small period of time and officially claim a UK citizenship, but it wouldnt be automatically granted.

But if his father was a UK citizen not by birth, then I dont think his son, if not born in the UK, would have that option. I could be wrong, but all this info is available at the British consulate.

As for as Kenya, or whatever, I dont know much about their citizenship programs over the past 50 years, but I bet they are not very formal.

reply to post by stanguilles7

My bad, it's been a while since I had to worry about UK laws.
ETA It can get quite complicated. I looked briefly here at the pro's and con's of changing my nationality to Netherlandian. From what I could see it gave me no more benefits or rights than what I have now, except it costs money and as a foreign national I may not vote in Dutch national elections. It's not high on my priority to vote so I don't miss that privilege.

I think the price was around 500 euros to swap nationality. Or maybe even guilders (guldens). Anyway, it seemed like money for nothing to me so I just register as a foreigner every 5 years with the immigration people here. It's quite painless. Well, so far it has been.

reply to post by thinline


He lost his dual citizenship by default when he did not officially obtain it at the age of 21 or something.

That said...you are asking the wrong question. The USA recognizes it's own citizenship as trumping foriegn definitions of dual citizenship. So it is not neccessarily a legal state of consequence in the USA to be a 'dual citizen"...If the USA subjected it's definition of citizenship to other countries definition it would not work.

Example...During WW2 Hitler announced that German Citizenship laws extended to 2nd generation Germans in the USA. German law was that if your parents were born in Germany, you are a German Citizen...thus he claimed US born children of German Immigrants as "German Citizens" and Hitler called on all "German Citizens" in the USA to rise up and attack the USA government!

See the issue? By the way...german-americans enlisted in record numbers to fight for their motherland (the USA) And the US Gov said...we don't care about what claims other countries put on our citizens, they are ours first.

I disagree on a couple of counts. WW II, America threw American citizens of Japanese descent into constant ration camps. Has 't Michelle said, on atleAst two occasions that her husband is from kenya. You German example shows that Obama and the people around him should not say anything about Kenya. If America put her nationality first, there wouldn't be duel citizenship only American because America wouldn't care about the other claim

Originally posted by thinline
Why is the President an American citizen? By this, I mean why is he not a Kenyan, English, or Commonwealth realm citizen? It seems like he should have duel if not triple(is that even possible) citizenship. Did he personally have to choose between his choices? If so, when did he make his choice?

When his father was born in British controlled Kenya his father had citizenship of the British Commonwealth. Since Obama was born in Hawaii before Britain gave up Kenya, he also had Commonwealth citizenship at birth since his father was a citizen. However when Britain gave up Kenya all Kenyan Commonwealth citizens automatically became Kenyan citizens, Kenya's new constitution however does not allow for dual citizenship. So when Obama turned 18 and did not renounce his US citizenship he lost his Kenyan citizenship.