Silliness about Driver's Licenses and Oaths

Written by: michael gentile on Nov 17, 2007 2:09 AM EST

Two recent presidential "debates" had questions about providing driver's licenses for undocumented workers, and both Hillary Clinton in the first debate, and Barack Obama this week stumbled a bit over the question.  I was surprised that neither candidate, nor anyone else on stage, made the point that a President's position on the issue is irrelevant, since it is a state issue. The Federal Government should work on the immigration issue (either reform, or border enforcement, or both), but really has no say about issuing driver's licenses. 
 
I think if someone in the debates had made this point, the question wouldn't continue to be asked, but maybe that is too much to expect from candidates that don't know the oath that the president takes.  Both Dodd and Clinton in the recent debate talked about security trumping human rights, based on what they think is the presidential oath.  Dodd added something about "protecting us from enemies, foreign and domestic" to the oath.

For the record, here is the official oath (see the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, last paragraph):  "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."  That's it!

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