“All the FEC did here was say that this guy can run and can raise campaign contributions. They did not say that he was Constitutionally eligible; to the contrary, the FEC determined that this guy is not eligible for matching funds, precisely because he is not Constitutionally eligible to be President.”
Exactly. Here is the FEC page on the advisory opinion:
http://www.fec.gov/pages/fecrecord/october2011/ao2011-15.shtml
And the two questions you point out are exactly the questions the FEC lays out and answers. Can a naturalized citizen legally collect contributions for a Presidential campaign? Yes. Can a naturalized citizen qualify for matching funds under the Presidential Primary Matching Payment Account Act? No, because the Act’s provisions require that matching funds only be paid to eligible candidates.
In other words, WND has its headline exactly backwards. Had they bothered to actually read the FEC opinion, they’d see that the FEC explicitly DID say that the Constitution requires the President to be a natural born citizen.
Unless I’m confused naturalized citizens have run for President before. In one of the recent Democratic campaigns I believe one was allowed to show up for the Democratic debates.
He was, of course, one of the minor candidates, sort of like Mr. Cain before last week.
The problem is, NOBODY has the job of determining eligibility
This explains why Obama didn’t take any public money in 2008.