Formative Years-Barry to Barack

There is and will continue to be a lot of conversation concerning Barack Obama's birthplace and whether or not he is a US citizen. I find this conversation astonishing as it eminates from the Right and the Left. Those who declare him not to be a citizen insist that if he was born in Kenya and has not been forthcoming with an actual birth certificate he must, in fact, be a naturalized citizen and not permitted to sit as POTUS. What these folks forget is that his mother, indeed, was a citizen which makes Barack a de-facto citizen, regardless of his birthplace.

Numerous people are not old enough to remember, or do not have the recall concerning George Romney, who was Governor of Michigan and the CEO of American Motors. His American born parents were living is Colonia Juarez Mexico when he was born, near the turn of the 20th Century. When he ran for for President in '64 or '68 there was a brief insistence that he was not a life long citizen, primarily from his opposition. The 14th Amendment addresses this issue as does some defining legislation:
"All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." But even this does not get specific enough. As usual, the Constitution provides the framework for the law, but it is the law that fills in the gaps. The Constitution authorizes the Congress to do create clarifying legislation in Section 5 of the 14th Amendment; the Constitution, in Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4, also allows the Congress to create law regarding naturalization, which includes citizenship."
Title 8 of the U.S. Code fills in the gaps:

• Anyone born inside the United States *
• Any Indian or Eskimo born in the United States, provided being a citizen of the U.S. does not impair the person's status as a citizen of the tribe
• Any one born outside the United States, both of whose parents are citizens of the U.S., as long as one parent has lived in the U.S.
• Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year and the other parent is a U.S. national
• Any one born in a U.S. possession, if one parent is a citizen and lived in the U.S. for at least one year
• Any one found in the U.S. under the age of five, whose parentage cannot be determined, as long as proof of non-citizenship is not provided by age 21
• Any one born outside the United States, if one parent is an alien and as long as the other parent is a citizen of the U.S. who lived in the U.S. for at least five years (with military and diplomatic service included in this time)
• A final, historical condition: a person born before 5/24/1934 of an alien father and a U.S. citizen mother who has lived in the U.S.

My belief is that much of this "ado about nothing" is a smoke screen to keep people busy with with non-essential debates while missing the substantive debate issues that are occurring daily and gradually, or sometime dramatically, changing the country we all thought we knew and understood.