The Elections of 2008 and 1880

Obama haters in the election of 2008 came up with the wonderfully original and wonderfully valid idea to say that Obama had not been born on American soil and that he was thus ineligible to be president. Of course, this claims were extremely false, Obama produced proof that he was eligible, and all was good with the world.

Vice Presidential candidate of 1880, Chester A. Arthur was son of a Vermont woman and an Irish man. Arthur Hinman was hired to look into the circumstances of his birth. First he tried to claim Arthur was born in Ireland, and came to America as a teenager. Later he claimed Chet was born in Canada. Of course, these claims did not prevent Chester Arthur from taking the office after Garfield and he had won the election, no one took them too seriously.

Anybody see the parallel yet?

I knew of this connection the moment I heard about accusations against Obama's American-ness. But nobody else seemed to know. I was distraught that it didn't seem to come up whenever a news story about Obama possibly not being natural-born came up.

But one day, I did find a source that connected the two. Stephen Colbert. It took a parody of news to make a connection of present issues to a past event. Americans really need to learn their history as it's pertinent. I can understand the common citizen not knowing this right off the bat, but some experts should have come out and taken Obama and Arthur and showed the nation why the two men were connected through this event.


While I'm talking Obama/Arthur, Chester Arthur was the first President to have Native American in his blood. Many people believe Obama is the first president to have African in his blood. I don't buy it, but that's another blog.