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The natural-born or native is one born in the country of citizen parents.

This sort of statement is the cause of all sorts of misunderstanding, and is the source of all sorts of mischief.

All citizens, regardless of how that citizenship was acquired, have identical rights and duties. There is no difference between the most newly-minted, naturalized citizen and the natural-born descendent of original citizens under the so-called "grandfather clause."

There is, however, restriction at the Federal level as to the requirements for eligiblity to hold Federal elected office. These restrictions can pertain to age, length of residency, length of citizenship if not natural-born, and for the highest office in the land, that of President and Commander in Chief, natural-born citizenship.

A citizen is a citizen, encompassing every means of attaining citizenship. Naturalized citizens are citizens, native born citizens are citizens, and natural-born citizens are citizens. Hence the interchangeable use of the term "citizen" to describe these several different types of citizen. They're all belonging to the same set.

A native citizen is born in the country, to parents legally present, such as resident aliens with a green card. The set of "citizen" is reduced to a subset of native born citizens via the restriction of native birth in the country.

A natural-born citizen is born in the country, to parents not just legally present, but who are citizens themselves. The citizenship of the parents of natural-born citizens can be acquired by any of the means available, from naturalization to legal statute to birth in the country. Doesn't matter how, it just matters that they are.

The terms native and natural born can be used interchangeably in certain contexts, just as the word "citizen" can be, when discussing citizens born in the country, because the meanings overlap in those contexts. That interchangeability in certain contexts does not render the two terms identical in meaning.

The only term and the only meaning that pertains to the executive branch and the Presidency is natural-born citizen. Do not be taken in by attempts to conflate native with natural-born when discussing the Presidency as a result.

Not so coincidentally, the Obama campaign website very carefully wrapped their description of then-candidate Obama in Constitutional language, but stopped short of claiming that he was anything but a "native born citizen."

There's that mischief, relying upon inattentiveness to any distinction. They did not claim that he met the requirement, they merely fluffed it into sounding similar.