This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
I've always felt the booming outrage from conservative politicians, right-wing media and tea party squawkers over President Barack Obama's birth certificate was based on ignorance and dishonesty.
The accusations that he was born in Kenya, making him unqualified to be president of the United States, remained persistent from the time he was running in 2008 until after his re-election in 2012.
National figures like Donald Trump and Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio screamed about a massive cover-up to conceal where the president actually was born.
They both said they had evidence that Obama's birth certificate was phony. Neither have revealed that verification.
Cooler heads have cynically and correctly chalked up the histrionics from Trump and Arpaio as publicity stunts coming from shameless politicians who will say anything to get attention.
Then there were the screamers at candidate town hall meetings. Those folks can be and have been dismissed as idiots.
While most sane people see the clamor over the birth certificate for what it is, let's just for the sake of argument pretend that Obama was born in Kenya.
What can't be argued is that his father was a Kenyan citizen and his mother, born in Kansas, was a U.S. citizen.
While the U.S. Constitution requires the president to be a "natural born citizen," legal interpretations over the years have concluded that having a parent who is a U.S. citizen qualifies, no matter where you are born.
It came up when George Romney, who was born in Mexico to U.S. citizen parents, ran for president. It came up again when John McCain, born in Panama to U.S. citizen parents (his father was a U.S. Naval officer), ran for president.
And Obama's situation fits the same set of circumstances that surround current Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada. His mother was a U.S. citizen. His father was a Cuban citizen.
But the questioning of Cruz's credentials to be qualified to run for president have been minimal.
Cruz is holding his own in the presidential polls among Republicans, coming in fourth place in most of them and staying within striking distance of the leaders.
He has appeared in three nationally televised debates and the status of his birth has not been an issue.
To be clear, I do not believe the circumstances of Cruz's birth disqualifies him to be president. He is a bona fide citizen of the United States because of the citizenship of his mother.
Just like Obama.
So why was bellowing about Obama's birth so loud and persistent while it has been comparatively non-existence with Cruz.
One acquaintance (a Republican) opined that if Cruz's skin was a little darker and he spoke better Spanish, his citizenship status might get more scrutiny.
I'm going suggest a different motive.
Republicans are better at faux outrage over trumped up charges for political gain than are Democrats.
Just look at Benghazi.
Of course, the killing by a terrorist mob of a U.S. ambassador and three other Americans require scrutiny and examination of what went wrong and how it can be avoided in the future.
But Republicans turned it into a political circus. Before the 2012 election when Obama was running for a second term, the Republican outrage in Congress was focused on the president and how the deaths were a result of his negligence.
As soon as the election was over and Obama won, the blame shifted to Hillary Clinton, who was secretary of state at the time of the tragedy and the Democratic front-runner for the 2016 presidential election.
The endless investigations and the recent ridiculous 11-hour congressional badgering of Clinton belie the notion of a sincere fact-finding probe.
Compare that to 9/11, when thousands of Americans were killed at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in different plane attacks in 2001.
That occurred under George W. Bush's watch and there were suggestions that some in the intelligence community saw peculiarities leading up to the attacks and their warnings were ignored.
You sure didn't see the flurry of accusations aimed at Bush like you've seen leveled at first Obama and now Clinton.
Then there was the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed hundreds of U.S. servicemen.
That occurred under the watchful eye of former President Ronald Reagan — the Republicans' hero.