The so-called “birther” movement continues to percolate on the far right, from a threat by the Arizona Secretary of State to keep President Obama off his state’s ballot to a plank in the Iowa Republican Party platform.

The draft plank states:

“We believe candidates for President of the United States must show proof of being a ‘natural born citizen’ as required by Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution — beginning with the 2012 election.”

Don Racheter, chairman of the Iowa GOP platform committee, explained the platform language in the same off-the-wall terms used last year by real estate mogul Donald Trump when Trump toyed with getting into the Republican presidential race. He told Radio Iowa:

“There are many Republicans who feel Barack Obama is not a ‘natural born citizen’ because his father was not an American when he was born and therefore, feel that according to the Constitution he is not qualified to be President, should not have been allowed to be elected by the Electoral College or even nominated by the Democratic Party in 2008, so this is an election year.”

“It’s a shot at him.”

The 44th President was born in Honolulu in 1961, and is thus a citizen born in the United States. Obama asked, last year, that his long-form birth certificate be released by Hawaii authorities to counter talk on the fringes.

Hawaii is, of course, the 50th state to be admitted to the Union. The President’s mother was a native of Kansas and former resident of Mercer Island.