Thread: Obama, the 'birthers' -- and Chester A. Arthur USA TODAY

Aug 17, 2009

Obama, the 'birthers' -- and Chet Arthur

The president's critics seek to undermine him by suggesting he is foreign-born, and therefore ineligible to live in the White House.

Yep. That's the rumor that dogged Chester Alan Arthur, president from 1881-85.

More than a century before the "birthers" began challenging Barack Obama's citizenship, Arthur's enemies claimed he had been born in Canada. The folks who maintain Arthur's real birthplace in Fairfield, Vt., discuss the controversy with the Associated Press here.

If anything, Arthur was an easier target than Obama. He was truly an accidental president.

At the 1880 Republican Party convention, backers of James Garfield put Arthur on the ticket in an attempt to unite a fractious party. Arthur, ignored during the early months of the Garfield administration, ascended on Sept. 22, 1881, after the president died from an assassin's bullet.

A frustrated office seeker shot Garfield. And Arthur made his mark as president by signing the bill that created the Civil Service Commission, making most government jobs subject to competitive written exams.

Arthur, however, failed to unite the Republicans around him, and he failed to win the presidential nomination in 1884 -- the last sitting president to suffer such an embarrassment.

(Posted by David Jackson)
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So this means that Obama is still the first 1/2 black president

but he might not be the first foreign born president?

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

So this means that Obama is still the first 1/2 black president

but he might not be the first foreign born president?

Obama is not foreign born. I wonder where all these people were BEFORE Obama was elected. It seems this became an issue after he was elected. If Obama was foreign born, the Republicans would have been all over it during the campaign. He was born in Hawaii.

Originally Posted by redpony353

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

So this means that Obama is still the first 1/2 black president

but he might not be the first foreign born president?

Obama is not foreign born. I wonder where all these people were BEFORE Obama was elected. It seems this became an issue after he was elected. If Obama was foreign born, the Republicans would have been all over it during the campaign. He was born in Hawaii.

The key word in my statement is "MIGHT". It was tongue in cheek.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

Originally Posted by redpony353

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

So this means that Obama is still the first 1/2 black president

but he might not be the first foreign born president?

Obama is not foreign born. I wonder where all these people were BEFORE Obama was elected. It seems this became an issue after he was elected. If Obama was foreign born, the Republicans would have been all over it during the campaign. He was born in Hawaii.

The key word in my statement is "MIGHT". It was tongue in cheek.

Oops. I didnt read that very carefully did I?