He was elected by an overwhelming majority. He was sworn in by the chief justice of the Supreme Court. He has been challenged before about his American heritage and prevailed. But it seems President Barack Obama hasn't convinced a freshman state representative from right here in Oklahoma that he was born in the U.S.
Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, has filed legislation that would require any candidate running for office in Oklahoma to provide a copy of a birth certificate in order to run. He also said he is considering joining a group of Tennessee lawmakers hoping to force Obama to prove his citizenship, as reported on KWTV.
"I have never seen a birth certificate that would pass the test of what I call a legal document," Ritze told KWTV about Obama's nationality.
This has come up before. Last year during the presidential campaign, Obama was challenged on this very issue and posted a copy of his Hawaii birth certificate on his campaign Web site.
But that, apparently, wasn't enough. A challenge to his citizenship went before the Supreme Court, who scoffed at the complaint and refused to hear the case.
But that's still not enough for some officials in Tennessee and now Oklahoma. If it wasn't enough Oklahoma had to be the one where Obama couldn't win a single county back in November, now an elected Oklahoma official has to join in the who's-your-country chant against the new president.
And Obama still signed off on giving the Sooner State a couple of billion dollars from the stimulus plan. That's some thick skin.
