[LearnsFromMistakes]

I used to believe the same thing - 2 citizen parents, born on US soil.

McCain & Obama - not eligible
Rubio, Cruz...same

Obviously, I was wrong. A court is going to have to decide...or we continue with the ‘honor’ system.

That said, in my list of 4 above, I believe that none of them loves this country or has a better understanding of what makes it great more than Cruz. I get that they had to put into the constitution some sort of limits, and they chose parents/birth as a measure of commitment to the US. But today, we have many that would qualify under the most strict reading of the ‘natural born citizen’ clause, but they still have no love for what made this country unique and great.

[Redwood71]

There have been many saying misleading things about the birth problem. Cruz is eligbile because he was born to an American mother less than 5 years after she was residing on American soil. McCain was born on an American military reservation, i.e., American soil. Rubio, I don't know about. Obama is a different story. His mother was living in Kenya for, as much as I can find, for almost 6 years before Obama was supposedly born in Hawaii, at a hospital that didn't exist for another 17 years, with his parents supposedly living in a home that was owned by a college professor since around 6 years before the birth, and the birth certificate form was “destroyed” but suddenly reappeared, both forms (short then long), with all the false information on them. In Hawaii at that time, the declaration of a birth to the state could be either phoned or mailed in by a relative without the doctor's declaration/ Obama’s paternal grandmother and her sister have declared they were at the birth in Kenya and that it happened two days before. Plus, The statute of law in effect in 1961 required, before the birth of the child, the physical presence of the U.S. citizen parent in the United States for ten years, at least five of which were after the parent attained the age of 14. This statutory provision had the effect of preventing anyone under the age of 19 from transmitting U.S. citizenship at birth to a child born outside of the United States. (The current version of this law, INA § 301(g), 8 USC § 1401(g), requires a period of only five years of physical presence in the United States, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen.) As Mr. Obama’s mother was only eighteen at the time of his birth, she would not have been able to transmit U.S. citizenship to him if she had been in Kenya (or anywhere else outside of the United States) at the time of his birth. I.E., Obama qualified as a citizen, but not naturalized.
red

[FreeAtlanta]

But today, we have many that would qualify under the most strict reading of the ‘natural born citizen’ clause, but they still have no love for what made this country unique and great.

yep