The state of Arizona moves to keep President Obama off the 2012 ballot

   What is it with the state of Arizona?  Aesthetically, the state is gorgeous.  I have visited Arizona several times and I have been awed by the state’s beauty.  As beautiful as it is to the eye, the politics of the state seemingly resembles a black eye.

   In order, Arizona was the last state to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr. Day as a national holiday.  It was only after several organizations boycotted doing business within the state, including the NFL moving Super Bowl XXVII from Tempe, Arizona to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, that the state relented and recognized the national holiday.  On April 23, 2010, Governor Jan Brewer signed into law Arizona SB 1070 making it making it a state crime for illegal immigrants to not have an alien registration document and requiring police to question people about their immigration status if there is reason. It also makes it illegal for people to hire illegal immigrants for day labor.  Opponents of the bill alleged the bill was simply state sponsored racial profiling.   In October 2010 in an effort to close Arizona’s projected $825 million budget deficit, Governor Brewer decided to defund Medicaid organ transplants for low income Arizonans.  The cuts to the program saved the state $1.4 million, one-tenth of one percent of its $825 million budget deficit.  Two people on the transplant list have died as a result of the decision to defund the program.  Not to mention the massacre in Tucson that saw six people murdered and eighteen others wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle (Gabby) Giffords.  So, again, the state of Arizona is no stranger to controversial politics.

   Which brings us to the Grand Canyon State’s latest political controversy.  Arizona State Representative Judy Burges, a Republican, introduced a bill that would bar presidential candidates who do not prove they were born in the United States from appearing on the ballot in the Grand Canyon state.  Representative Burges is a birther … those who believe that President Obama is not a citizen of the United States and therefore is not CONSTITUTIONALLY qualified to be president.  According to a story by David Corn of Mother Jones, this legislation is more than symbolic.  For the birthers, it's part of a well-orchestrated campaign to deny President Barack Obama reelection.  Similar efforts are under way in Pennsylvania, Missouri, Montana, Georgia and Texas.  (See the Chris Matthews, Howard Fineman and David Corn discussion on "HARDBALL")

   The Arizona bill could prove to be a model for those states to follow.  The idea is to establish a strict standard for presidential candidates to prove natural-born citizenship before being allowed to appear on the ballot in Arizona.  The birthers obviously presume President Obama could not meet that standard.  It is still difficult to understand how, after winning a national general election where he got 69, 456,897 votes in route to being elected President of the United States, there could STILL be a significant number of people who BELIEVE that Barack Obama, President of the United States, IS NOT an American citizen.  How can it be that in a state that has a projected budget deficit of $825 million an elected official would introduce such legislation?  How does this proposed bill close the deficit gap?  Will this proposed legislation produce any JOBS?

   This is a lot to process.  A state within the UNITED STATES of America has proposed legislation to keep a democratically elected sitting President of the United States off of the state’s ballot in the 2012 general election.  Never in the history of our republic has such a thing been considered.  Why now?  What is this REALLY about?

   Are you OUTRAGED?  I sure am.

Peace, peace in the Middle East.

Craig Riggins

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