This has been going on for a couple of days, but I haven't seen it here. If I missed it, I apologize.
The Arizona Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, is saying he will keep President Obama's name off of the ballot unless he personally receives verification from Hawaii that the President was born there. In a radio interview, he claimed that he was not a birther:
First, I have been on the record since 2009 that I believe the president was born in Hawaii. I am not a birther. At the request of a constituent, I asked the state of Hawaii for a verification in lieu of a certified copy. We’re merely asking them to officially confirm they have the president’s birth certificate in their possession and are awaiting their response.
According to the ABC News blog, Bennett has not requested Romney's birth certificate. So, apparently his vigorous protection of the ballot only applies to sitting presidents? I mean, it couldn't be anything else, could it?
Even nutball Governor Jan Brewer, a former Secretary of State, isn't this crazy.
Brewer said last year that despite her disagreements with Obama, she is fully convinced the president is eligible for office and believes the birth certificate issue is a “huge distraction.”
Obviously, the Secretary of State can't really keep him off the ballot. This is all about stirring up the crazy AZ racists.
Just another reason why I can't wait to get out of this hell hole.
7:20 PM PT: From comments, courtesy of Olympia:
In a statement, Mahen Gunaratna, the Arizona spokesperson for Obama’s campaign said this:
From day one, Mitt Romney has pandered to the far-right of his party, and today Arizona Tea Party Republicans are following suit by questioning where the President was born. The President will be on the ballot this November in Arizona alongside Mitt Romney. And Arizonans will have a choice between a President who brought us back from the brink of another Depression so job loss has been reversed to create 4.2 million private sector jobs, manufacturing is resurgent, and GM is the #1 automaker in the world — and a Governor with a familiar and troubling economic scheme: more budget-busting tax cuts for the wealthy; fewer rules for Wall Street — the same formula that benefitted a few, but crashed our economy and punished the middle class.