The Natural Born Citizens

Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution provides in part:  "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".  Amazingly, this clause is central to a silly debate that is going on today about whether or not Ted Cruz is eligible to be president.  (He clearly is.)  Cruz was born in Canada to a mother who was an American citizen and a father who was not.  Upon his birth, Ted Cruz was a citizen of the USA (and of Canada too).  That should end the discussion.  A "natural born citizen" is a person who is a citizen immediately on his or her birth.  A naturalized citizen is someone who is not a US citizen at birth but who becomes a citizen later in life.

This is not a difficult concept.  One does not have to be born in the USA to be a natural born citizen.  Nevertheless, there are always idiots who argue about this stuff.  John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone, so some people questioned if he could qualify as president.  Barack Obama was said to have been born in Kenya (silly, I know), but the point was that his mother was an American citizen, so he still qualified as a natural born citizen.  There have also been other presidents and candidates who had questions raised about their "natural born" status.

All of this nonsense about Cruz is just a distraction.  No one ought to pay it any attention.