Arizona’s Ken Bennett, the secretary of state for the state (yes, that super-enlightened patch of real estate in the middle of the desert), is refusing to place Obama’s name on the general election ballot until he produces a long form of his birth certificate. Bennett demands that Hawaii, Obama’s birthplace, provides a long-form birth certificate.
This despite the fact that the White House released the document last year. But, spurned on by just 12,000 anonymous Arizona residents who emailed him about their concerns over the authenticity of Obama’s birthplace, Bennett gathered up the intestinal fortitude to ask for the long-form birth certificate again.
In a radio interview with KFYI’s Mike Broomhead, Arizon’s Ken Bennett said he would consider keeping the president off the ballot if the state failed to answer his request.
Arizona’s Ken Bennett is a classic conservative politician who is kowtowing to his fanatical base. Bennett is also preparing for a gubernatorial run in 2014, so that no doubt played a part in his
decision to try to overcome his deserved obscurity in his own state. Laughably, Bennett denied being a birther himself, and said that his action was not a move to gain favor with fringe elements in Arizona. He claimed it was a standard response to pressure from over 1,200 Arizonans who had emailed him with concerns about the president’s eligibility and the authenticity of his birth certificate.
“I’m not a birther. I believe the president was born in Hawaii — or at least I hope he was,” Bennett told Broomhead. “But my responsibility as secretary of state is to make sure that the ballots in Arizona are correct and that those people whose names are on the ballot have met the qualifications for the office they are seeking.”
Okay, right. Whatever you say, Ken.
— terry shropshire
