Posted on 01/15/2016 5:14:48 AM PST by GonzoII
A quarter of Republicans think White House hopeful Ted Cruz is disqualified to serve as U.S. president because he was born in Canada to an American mother, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.Republican voters nearly mirror independents and the broader electorate in their belief that Cruz cannot hold the White House, with 27 percent of all voters and 28 percent of independents responding he should be disqualified.
Cruz, a U.S. Senator from Texas who was born to a U.S. citizen mother and Cuban father in Calgary, Alberta, has brushed aside the attacks about his eligibility as pure politics. But the questions could hamper his ability to rally the broad Republican support he would need to win the party's nomination to run for the presidency in November's election.
Only 47 percent of all voters surveyed responded that they thought Cruz is qualified to be president with regard to his citizenship, with 26 percent saying they were not sure.
The poll was taken from Jan. 7 to Jan. 14, before questions about Cruz's eligibility became one of the most heated moments of Thursday night's Republican primary debate.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Honestly, I don’t see this hurting Cruz all that much. The quarter of GOPers who doubt his eligibility are mostly Trump supporters and thus aren’t likely to vote for Cruz anywise.
Much more troublesome for Cruz is his New York comments. Not only because it just seems dismissive, especially of the 9-11 first responders and the like (nice reframe by Trump, btw), but also because it seems to demonstrate that deep down, Cruz isn’t that interested in trying to build a national organisation to win. If he thinks he can ride into office solely on the South and the Midwest, he will be very disappointed.
Good point. That is another vector that would kick off a court hearing and decision. So either the SoS, or an opponent in the election contest can fire the first shot.
and a worthless piece of paper with no force of law. They want to pass a law it needs BOTH houses and the president.
And, the congress makes the laws, but the S.C. provides judicial interpretation.
Whistling past the graveyard are we.
Whether that makes him an NBC is a question of law.
Doesn't matter - 25% of registered Republicans probably can't even read a simple headline or perform basic math.
(Although on the Democrat side it's more like 75%....)
These same "Republicans" will be as happy as a cow in clover to see Hillary and Bill Clinton occupying the White House once more.
I think SCOTUS could hear an eligibility case, but only after congress gets first whack at choosing a president-elect. There should be some check on a rogue Congress.
The thing is...
It is a good debate over his eligibility. It also raises the spector yet again about 0bama.
I have been rethinking this whole birth certificate debate, natural born citizen stuff. And that is just it...it is all stuff and much muck.
Hypothetical...my husband wouldn’t be eligible to be President because his two German parents were not citizens when he was born here in the United States. Born here, raised here, and yet not eligible. In fact except for the parental green cards...what is his citizenship?
We say anchor babies would not be eligible either as they are not born to citizen parents. But is that baby a citizen or not and will their children be natural born citizens?
We fretted over finding 0bama’s birth certificate, yet what we needed to question was 0bama a dual citizen of Britain and America...thusly under our naturalization statutes he was not eligible to be President. He is essentially an anchor baby for his father.
Cruz is pretty much in the same boat. Although he at least honestly discloses where he was born. As much as I like Cruz and would vote for him, I don’t believe he is eligible. Like 0bama, he is essentially a type of anchor baby.
The Constitution is silent on the meaning of ‘natural born’ but the laws and statutes to become a citizen have been clear through the ages. The intent was that first born immigrant children whose parents(both parents) had to be citizens or they are not eligible for the office of President.
Wouldn’t it be something that this matter gets argued to the Supreme Court and amazingly Judge Roberts finds that anchor baby 0bama was ineligible and vacates all laws, etc. for the past 8 years.
Do you think that if Trump wins the nomination he could bring sufficient pressure and influence to get McConnell to change? And if McConnell changed, what would be the next step?
“What was the poll numbers for 0, given the question of his mom being American, his dad being British/Kenyan, and 0 being born in Kenya?”
That would have been racist, remember?
He should just say he was born in Hawaii. End of discussion,
“If this poll is true, then Trump has fatally wounded Cruz.
But he has also precluded himself from choosing Cruz as his VP, unless he can perform a convincing “declaratory judgment” in court to satisfy everyone. But even that may not be enough. “
I agree.
Of course, Cruz supporters will feel differently, but I think it’s absolutely valid for Trump to have brought up Cruz’s citizenship and pointed out he should get it settled legally so that the Democrats don’t have an issue / drag him into court.
I never took this as an “attack,” just pointing out a very real question that needs to be settled. Instead of addressing this like an honest human being, I saw Cruz go politician, wiggle, sneer, and finally resort to inane nonsense like claiming that under some people’s definitions, Trump wouldn’t be eligible either.
Trump was startled by the ferocity of Cruz’s attack, I think, and I’m not sure he meant to let it slip that he was doing this because he wanted Cruz’s name cleared in case he chose him as his running mate.
Then we got to the “New York Values” issue, and once again Cruz utterly blew it. Condescendingly saying: “You know what I mean” and - quite stupidly, leaving the door open for Trump to come in with his 9/11 story, which he’d already said before and which Cruz HAD to know was waiting in the wings. What on earth was he thinking? Trying to tap into people’s dislike of New York liberals? If so, it fell flat as a pancake, and I wouldn’t be surprised if that misstep costs him Iowa.
We’ll see, I guess.
And all of them voted in their primaries for Cochran, Boner, McConnell, Linda Graham, Lamar Alexander, Cornyn, McCain, Cantor, Pence, Fallin, Hutchinson, ....
Immaturity? You’re a Trump supporter?
Exactly.
The headline has to reflect what’s actually in the poll. If you got the headline you want, it would read: Less than Half of Republicans Think Cruz is Qualified.
ping
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