New Birther Controversy: A Festivus For The Rest of Us

Excellent! We have our first Cruz Birther Suit.

We all remember the questions regarding Big Guy’s eligibility as a natural born citizen and some of us still wonder what his real birth certificate said.

Although much was written about the rumor that BHO was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii, that was never the real issue. Since Barry’s father was clearly not American the real question – while nowhere near as sexy – was whether his American born mother was actually old enough to confer natural citizenship on her son, regardless of where he was born.

The statutes in effect at the time (the same statutes in effect when Ted Cruz was born in 1970) required that the American citizen parent had to have resided in the U.S. for ten years, including five years after the age of fourteen. Ted Cruz’ mother clearly met that requirement, whereas BHO’s mother, having given birth at the tender age of 18, simply wasn’t old enough to have confered that status on her son.

Under the law in effect when Cruz was born in 1970 (i.e., statutes applying to people born between 1952 and 1986), the requirement was that, at the time of birth, the American citizen parent had to have resided in the U.S. for ten years, including five years after the age of fourteen. Cruz’s mother, Eleanor, easily met that requirement: she was in her mid-thirties when Ted was born and had spent most of her life in the U.S., including graduating from Rice University with a math degree that led to employment in Houston as a computer programmer at Shell Oil. – Ted Cruz, Natural Born Citizen

According to Andrew C. McCarthy:

The founding fathers did explain what they meant by (natural citizenship), and there are several statutes that explain it further. The point being: a natural born citizen is anyone born of an American parent, providing that the parent spent a certain amount of years in the United States as an adult.

And he concludes:

Ted Cruz is a natural born U.S. citizen in accordance with (a) the original understanding of that term, (b) the first Congress’s more demanding standard that took both parents into account, and (c) the more lax statutory standard that actually applied when he was born, under which birthright citizenship is derived from a single American-citizen parent.

Butt we all know nothing is that easy. So I’m conducting my own poll to see who we think is eligible to be President. NOTE: you can disqualify candidates for any reason i.e. candidate is a future felon. However, if you choose to go that route you will need to provide sustainable evidence of said offense and/or original Constitutional language and/or subsequent statutes supporting your position. WARNING:  poll may also contain trick questions.

Choose wisely, as I’ve been forced to change polling services and Chicago rules no longer apply (unless you feel like clearing your cookies in order to vote again, in which case have at it, butt without my approval of course).