Barack Obama Citizenship Conspiracy Theories
rating: 0+x

Basic Information

U.S. President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, on August 4, 1961, and is thus a U.S. Citizen.

A ton of conspiracy theories have popped up alleging that he was born in Kenya, or has Kenyan citizenship, or has joint US-UK citizenship, or once flew to Pakistan and that somehow magically makes him a foreigner. These allegations have been disproved time and again. For details, see the Wikipedia and Snopes articles listed below.

See Also:

Sources

Bibliography
1. Wikipedia - the article lists many allegations, and the ways they are refuted or disproved.
2. Four different articles at snopes dot com exploring and explaining how these theories are baseless and easily proven false.
3. factcheck dot org - has photos of the President's full Birth Certificate from his birth in Hawaii, and the announcement of his birth in a local paper (the Honolulu Advertiser) from 1961.

Game and Story Use

As with other topics (like Alternative Science, to give an example) sometimes the best gaming does not come from the truth. So, assuming (for the sake of gaming) that there was some truth to these allegations, what impact and uses could it have in gaming?

  • Given the current administration and political climate, it's unlikely a Revolution or Civil War would come from this - the next 5 people in line to the Presidency are members of Obama's Political Party.
  • If the conspiracy theories were proven true before the election, things would play out a little differently. It could have given a win to John McCain, but since he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, and not the United States proper, some of the same citizenship issues could have troubled him. So, it's possible both major candidates could have been disqualified in the weeks leading up to the 2008 election, and we could be looking a President Biden, Pelosi, or even Palin in a contemporary Alternate History.
  • However, if a similar problem came up in a slightly different era, who knows where things might go.
  • Similar doubts and challenges came up in regards to Herbert Hoover, who had not been living in the US for the 14 years prior to his election in 1928. (The requirements of being U.S. President, as outlined in Article II of the U.S. Constitution, are that you need to be a natural-born citizen, be at least 35 years old, and have been a resident of the US for 14 years.)
    • Given the backdrop of the Bonus Army, the Business Plot, and the Great Depression, there's some serious potential for a radically divergent history if Hoover's Presidency were nullified half-way through his term.
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License