Barry's problem is that he can't even get to the point about arguing if he was natural born as his birth certificate has more variations than Lady Gaga has wardrobe changes. And the only people that claim to have seen his birth certificate and CERTIFIED IT were Pelosi and Reid. Ya, no conflict there.
And now Rubio is on the chopping block. Kid hasn't even served a day in the Senate and some are already harping that he can't be president.
The interesting thing about Rubio is that he's Cuban (and why don't I recall this argument when Mel Martinez became senator? It's quite funny how much Rubio strikes fear into the hearts of liberals)and Cuban emigres are treated far differently than economic refugees that flood the US from the Southwest.
Technically, they can't be illegal aliens. They are pretty much granted resident status the moment their feet touch US soil.
And the worst thing of all for the anti-Rubio bunch is that it really can't be argued that he or his parents were ever subject to the laws or or owed allegiance to Cuba after arriving in the US.
If he isn't a natural born citizen he can, if he wishes, hold any other government office. He would be easy to vote for, from what I've heard, for any leadership office. If he isn't eligible, we have Michelle Bachman, Allen West, Sarah Palin, and, though I hoped he would man up and raise the issue of Obama's ineligibility, seeing how few citizens understand the issue, I can see how hard it is to combat the massive disinformation campaign, so I'd have no trouble with Jim DeMint.
John Bingham, Judge AG who tried the Lincoln conspirators and Ohio Congressman, was the principal author of the 14th Amendment. The 14th Amendment had nothing to do with natural born citizenship, but for completeness, Bingham clarified the meaning of the term in his address to the House promoting his 14th Amendment:
I find no fault with the introductory clause [S 61 Bill], which is simply declaratory of what is written in the Constitution, that every human being born within the jurisdiction of the United States of parents not owing allegiance to any foreign sovereignty is, in the language of your Constitution itself, a natural born citizen….
Second, here is reasonably recently cited (1939) Supreme Court definition of natural born citizen. Because citizens have every right that natural born citizens have, from the famous and confusing Wong Kim Ark decision, the only right denied a citizen is not a guaranteed right at all, but is the privilege of holding the office of President and Commander in Chief. Chief Justice Morrison Waite in his post 14th Amendment decision on Minor v. Happersett:
“The Constitution does not, in words, say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common-law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives, or natural-born citizens,”
For a more recent indication that the citizen parents are still in vogue among the “living Constitution” advocates, Patrick Leahy agreed with Judge Michael Chertoff in the April 2008 Senate Resolution pretending to make John McCain eligible to provide a shield for questions about Obama’s eligibility:
“My assumption and my understanding is that if you are born of American parents, you are naturally a natural-born American citizen,” Chertoff replied. “That is mine, too,” said Leahy.
That armed, middle-of-the-night raid to seize Elian Gonzales from his older Cuban exile relatives says otherwise.