The responsibility to confront the issue facing Barrack Obama does not involve any wiggle room. In Article Two of the US Constitution, beginning with line 375 and continuing through line 380 it is stated:   "No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United States at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States."   Those are the requirements for eligibility, to which all prospective applicants for the presidency of the United States must adhere. The presidency is 'the' leadership position within the government of this country. To have run a campaign for two years and to have solicited hundreds of millions of dollars, along with the hopes and dreams of millions of his followers-without having clarified his own very clear qualifications for that office-is unforgiveable.   Just yesterday he spent $3 million on a half-hour television special that was aired on all the major networks, yet there was no mention of this glaring controversy. Similarly Obama has been barnstorming the country and has not chosen to directly confront these allegations and rumors that have been swirling around his candidacy for a very long time. What is at stake is his judgment; his grasp of which things are important and how well he chooses to handle the really serious questions that any president might need to deal with. In this case he failed.   When challenged, a fully grown man might have taken out national ads, or even billboards, or he could have used the bully-pulpit, that all that money has paid for, to explain this apparent problem to the public: but he did neither. Instead he has chosen silence, and because of his choice this intractable problem now confronts not just him, but his faithful followers and the nation with a potentially very dark cloud that desperately needs to be blown- away. The fact that the Obama Campaign would let such a potentially lethal problem continue to burn without a clear cut answer is damning enough; but to let it come down to the last few days and hours is impossible to understand.   A friend reminded me of this, in his response to something that demanded an answer as to *who has standing regarding this Question.* "Congress has standing. This is the bitter truth everyone avoids. Congress has power over the Executive Branch and over the Constitution itself. Our system of power elite checking power elite is a collaborative one. (It was) nothing to be upset about between friends. Members not only of the same Hell Fire club but as close intimate companions, powerful people share the same mistress- perhaps at the same time but who can really say in the dark when a donkey looks like an elephant."   But then I remembered that it was Congress that also had "standing" when the Florida vote count was challenged in 2000. They did absolutely nothing then: will history repeat itself again? The Democratic National Committee also bears some responsibility for this failure to insure that this 'question' did not arise. They too failed. But ultimately we all lose if the race is directly affected by this *Failure to Confront* that did not have to happen.   How can a man that seeks to change the world have been so politically blind as to have missed the potentially damning point of allowing any confusion on this most basic of all things regarding his own candidacy for the presidency of the United States? Obama apparently taught constitutional law at some point- how then could he possibly have failed to realize the importance of this very crucial piece of qualifying evidence-long before he put himself forward for the presidency of the United States of America.   However this quagmire gets resolved, it should never have happened in the first place. That is, and was always one of the responsibilities of Barack Obama the person to insure; long before he even began to raise any money at all. But it was also the responsibility of the Democratic National Committee and both their lawyers and his, in the normal course of vetting this man to run for office.   Our so-called electoral system is under siege from every quarter now. Many see it as a rotting and decadent carry-over from the nineteenth century that is incapable of performing in the computer- driven world of the twenty-first century. Admittedly, forty-percent of the voting machines are compromised, going into this selection process: yet that fact did not bother either major party of any of their candidates. Now there is this broken-wing of our collective nightmare in which many parts of our private worlds are burning or have already been destroyed. How much more corruption can be tolerated, how many more major disappointments shall continue to be borne by a public that have become virtual slaves to all the massive failures of this system in which we must all try to survive?   But here's the kicker-Obama says he stands for 'CHANGE.' It appears that perhaps Barack lacks some of the standard abilities that apparently now belong only to the past: such things as self- responsibility, truth in advertising, clarity of purpose and the wisdom needed to follow-thru on whatever one has promised. McCain is nothing new, he's a classic old-world liar in the grand tradition of professional guests at the public trough; but Obama was supposed to be different somehow.           WE must be careful that the CHANGE he speaks of does not become the CHAINS that bind us all to the end of our collective dreams: Or that the term 2009 A.D. does not come to stand for 2009 'After the Depression.''Truth' and 'straight talk' have been rationed now, not by choice, but because both are almost non-existent now.   So why not call a press conference for Sunday Morning, or better yet do the morning talk shows and put an end to all these questions once and for all, because until Obama speaks about this clearly: this is not going to go away!   kirwanstudios@sbcglobal.net