Arizona’s Secretary of State, Ken Bennett, has been asking Hawaii to verify Obama’s citizenship, stating he would not allow Obama onto the presidential ballot without such verification. Hawaii initially threw the crazy back in his face, telling him he had to verify that he was who he said he was before they would provide him the information. They have since verified the president’s birth, and it sounds like the whole thing is settled.
But here’s the part that gets me. The Secretary of State is the top election official in a given state. Secretary Bennett is in charge of running the presidential election in Arizona. Secretary Bennett is also a Romney campaign co-chair. He says there’s nothing wrong with this because everyone is entitled to their own personal opinions. I agree that were all entitled to our opinions, but a personal opinion would be “I like Mitt Romney!”, and not “I’m going to run his campaign!” I find it to be hugely inappropriate that the head election official works for a campaign, especially given the ability of a Secretary of State to alter the outcome of a close election (yes, Katherine Harris, I’m looking at you). The person running the election should be impartial, at least officially. Obviously anyone will have an opinion as to their preferred candidate and that’s fine. But it is not appropriate for the Secretary of State to go anywhere beyond a personal opinion. And it shouldn’t be legal.
Let’s make a baseball analogy. Let’s say the Phillies make it to the series this year (I know, I know). Should Charlie Manuel (he’s the manager) be allowed to be the head umpire, and have the final say on any calls made during the game? Of course not.
520 Chestnut 
I believe Secretary of State is an elected position in Arizona. So my guess is he’s not really expecting to get by with this, but is just scoring points with voters. Yes, it should be illegal, and your points about “opinion” is well articulated.