I understand and respect your position, but how do we resolve the theoretical problem of a child born and raised within the “axis of evil” to a U.S. citizen mother? That child is a statutory citizen at birth with no allegiance to the U.S.
Do we leave the decision of his eligibility to the voters, electoral college, and Congressional certification of the electoral votes? Do we pass legislation to prevent his eligibility? Do we leave it to the respective political parties’ national conventions and nomination processes?
No less than the liberal, Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz said that Ted Cruz was one of the smartest men to have EVER gone through Harvard, so I happen to think that Ted Cruz himself, is fully cognizant about his own eligibility and would not be entertaining a run for the presidency, if he thought for one minute that he was not constitutionally qualified..
That’s a very good question, and here is where you and I approach this whole process very differently. I’m coming at it big picture and with intent...your approach seems to emphasize the bureaucratic detail and the hypothetical. Both have their place, and I’m only pointing this out to say the following:
I cannot answer your hypothetical, but what I can do is state with certitude that the Founders were only worried about split loyalties, and they were dealig with a nation that at the time was barely more than an idea - and therefore, Ted Cruz, coming along some 240 years later, with a very established nationis in no way, shape or form the target of their restriction, even though they were vague enough to cause some bureaucratic consternation.
Your hypothetical, valid as it may be, is not the issue here and it would be wrong to conflate the Cruz problem simply because doing so does not answer every conceivable case going forward.