The New Birthers: Republican Ted Cruz’s Presidential Eligibility Questioned

Drudge highlights CNN report on Cruz's eligibility

Some members of the Republican party who have spent years questioning whether President Obama was really born in the U.S. now find one of their own rising stars in a birther controversy: Ted Cruz, the Canadian-born Tea Party darling.

Leading the conservative-leaning Drudge Report this morning is the headline "CNN: IS CRUZ ELIGIBLE?" The insinuation is that just as people on the right have questioned Obama's roots, CNN — which many conservatives suspect of a left-wing bias — is going after a rising conservative.

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In other words: They do it, too, so it's okay when we do it.

To be blunt, Cruz's eligibilty to run is much less certain than Obama's. Obama's isn't even a real question. He's proven repeatedly he was born in Hawaii, and anyone who chooses to believe otherwise truly chooses to believe otherwise. Cruz was born in Calgary, Alberta, to an American mother and Cuban father. That's a potential problem, because the Constitution says presidents must be "natural born citizens."

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But… why exactly? Because babies born just across the border may be raised to become president and tear down the government from within? That would seem equally easy/hard for natural-born babies. Also, this seems like kind of a slow-going and unlikely way to destroy America. The Kardashians are doing a much better job. Ba-dum.

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As CNN notes, the Senate passed a 2008 resolution calling John McCain a "natural born American" despite his birth in a naval air station in the Panama Canal Zone, where his father was serving. That was a good idea. No one objected, because it would be ridiculous to say the children of servicemen and women can't run.

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But maybe we can take that common-sense approach to Cruz, too. And Obama. Maybe it's time to amend one of the sillier parts of the Constitution. It's the height of xenophobia to pretend that every single "natural born" American is more qualified to lead the U.S. than anyone from any other country in the world, whether that country is Canada or Kenya.

Not that I'm saying Obama was born in — nevermind. Not going there again.

Here's the CNN report:

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