Rick Santorum: Obama's eligibility is 'solved'

JUPITER ISLAND, Fla. – The Republican presidential candidates appearing in last Monday's tea-party debate in Tampa made plenty of news when it came toissues such as Social Security, job creation and Big Brother mandates, but one subject that was not brought up during the event was the constitutional eligibility of Barack Obama.
Yet once the debate was over, some were willing to address the matter.

Former Pennsylvania Sen.Rick Santorumtold WND, "My understanding is that issue was solved. If there's evidence to the contrary [showing Obama is not eligible], they should bring it forth."

The Constitution requires a president to be a "natural-born citizen," which many legal analysts believe means being the child of two U.S. citizen parents at the time of birth.

When that was pointed out to Santorum, he responded, "I don't think that's what the Constitution requires, and he (President Obama) was born in the country, so it doesn't matter."

President Obama's father was never a U.S. citizen, but rather a subject of Britain, which had control over Kenya back in 1961.

Meanwhile, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County has appointeda team of retired officers and lawyers to look into allegations that the birth certificate Obama released in April at a White House news conference may be forged.

His constituents asked for the investigation because of the damage that could be done should a 2012 candidate be placed on their election ballot based on a fraudulent document. CONTINUE