Can Obama legally be the President of the US?

Answer 1

Barack Obama was born on August 4th, 1961, in Hawaii to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham. He is a US Citizen by birth, over the age of 35, and thus eligible for election as President of the USA.

The controversy is because of the law that was one the books at the time of his birth; a law that was in effect between December 24, 1952 and November 13, 1986, when the law was changed.

However, the new law did not preempt the former law in the cases of those born between the above listed dates when the old law was in effect.

Presidential office requires the person elected to be a natural-born United States citizen if the child was not born to two US citizen parents. US Law very clearly stipulates: "If only one parent was a US citizen at the time of your birth, that parent must have resided in the United States for at least ten years, at least five of which had to be after the age of 16."

Barack Obama's father was not a US citizen, and Obama's mother was only 18 when he was born, which means although she had been a US citizen for 10 years, his mother fails the test for being so for at least 5 years prior to Barack Obama's birth.

In order for her child to have been a natural-born US citizen, his mother would have had to be 21 at the time of his birth. In essence, Mrs. Obama was not old enough to qualify her son for automatic US citizenship. UPDATE: Obama was elected to the US Presidency in November, 2008.