Posted on 04/10/2016 7:35:25 PM PDT by Strac6
At the outset, let me assure all the Trump supporters, the Cruz supporters, the Kasich supporters and anyone else interested in the outcome of the Republican presidential primary that this article is not written with the intent to help or hurt any candidate. It is simply a dose of reality in an often confused political knife fight.
In trying to advance the case that Sen. Cruz is not eligible to be President of the United States because he was born in Canada, the Trump forces are on what is undoubtably a fool’s errand. I’m not going to take the time here explaining the legalities of United States Code 1401 and related statutes, nor the difference between a “natural born citizen” and a “native born citizen,” or how some Supreme Court decision of 114 years ago is not applicable today or any of the other legal arguments some Trump supporters try to advance…. AND THAT IS NOT WHAT THIS ARTICLE IS ABOUT!
The reality is that the “citizenship’ issue may be a well-laid Cruz trap.
The problem with all these “Sen. Cruz is ineligible” arguments is that none of them have advanced in the courts. On every question of when a presidential candidate was not a native born citizen, but was a natural born citizen under the law, the courts have always decided in favor of the candidate. As an example, Sen. McCain was born in Panama while his father served there in the Navy, George Romney was born in Mexico to American citizen Mormon missionaries, and other presidential candidates have not been native born.
If there was any validity to these arguments, three things would be happening. First, well-founded and well-funded law teams PAID FOR BY OTHER CANDIDATES would be advancing the matter through the courts. Secondly, other candidates than Trump would be screaming the issue from the rooftops, finally, and most importantly, the serious money donors that contribute heavily to the presidential campaigns would’ve abandoned Cruz a long time ago.
Reality check: Even Trump rarely mentions the issue any longer.
But there is a real danger to the Trump supporters in trying to concentrate on the citizenship issue, regardless if it is real or not. By concentrating their efforts on this, they are wasting time and effort they could spend in other ways to advance Mr. Trump. Ted Cruz is far from the perfect presidential candidate, but by devoting time and energy to the citizenship issue, Trump supporters are missing dozens of opportunities to attack him on other issues.
More importantly, I’m sure some senior Cruz supporters are glad Trump supporters are concentrating on the citizenship issue, because there is a natural tendency among voters, that when one line of attack is proved to be false or foolish, the candidates other lines of attack tend to go down with it.
The classic example of this was the 2004 George W. Bush reelection campaign. You’ll remember that CBS News, in the persona of Dan Rather, highlighted a supposedly huge story that then-Air Force reservist Bush had used his father’s political influence to avoid service in Vietnam. It was a huge story when it ran on CBS, and in fact, it totally overshadowed anything else for days.
But the Bush people were very smart. They knew the story was totally false and they led CBS and Kerry into a huge ambush over it.
You may remember that CBS called the White House asking for a comment or a denial. The WH quietly said, “we’ll get back to you.” The WH didn’t, and the story ran with much hoopla that night.. and for nights afterward.
Bush polls were down.
But simply put, CBS and Dan Rather had put all their eggs in that BS story’s basket.
Various entities around the country, FR leading them, soon started poking holes in the CBS story.
Rather, or more correctly, Rather’s ego led him further down the primrose path of journalistic destruction.
When the story was proved false, Bush ratings went higher than they were before the "story" broke. Bush had "stood up" to Rather... and Bush won.
I won’t go into all the history, but in the end, it cost Rather his job, his reputation even among the liberals, and it cost CBS any semblance of respect that had going into the story.
Bottom line. If you are against Cruz and for Trump, don’t waste your time on this Flat Earth argument. It hurts very badly when the door gets slammed shut on what you thought were facts, and you find you have wasted all your effort on a false hope.
Just ask Dan Rather.
Just wondering......
Gotta figure out some posting guidelines in an election year. Used to be you could figure out when a poster or two was on the payroll of the candidate. Now it’s gotten completely crazy.
A good indicator would be how many still post after the election is over.
Can I ask you a couple of questions?
If a person is born in a foreign country to 2 US citizen parents and that country does not recognize children born in their country to parents who are aliens in their country, what nationality is that child born with?
Can a child be born stateless, a citizen of no country whatsoever?
Wow. Did you even bother to read the post.
How is it anti-GOP?
It was only to help Trump supporters avoid a possible case of looking like fools for chasing legal and practical non-starters.
Fagettaboutya
Nicely done. I’d add to this the supposed Cruz sex scandal, about which no credible proof has yet been provided.
Issues, policies, how your candidate will be better than the rest, etc. Those are what you use against a candidate. I realize how difficult this is to do in the 24/7/365, got’cha, instant news era.
By wasting time on the issue, by giving Hillary ammunition to attack Trump supporters as “weirdos”... and because we will need EVERY voter, even the Cruz supporters, in November... because that is the election that counts.
Don’t let your heart be troubled! Donald Trump has not started on Hillary. The one time he did a brush-back shot, her polls started to tank. Bernie thought it was him, but it was Donald J. Trump.
Totally true.
My only worry is that, in the General, Hilleryites would use the Flat Earth argument as “proof” to “not even listen to that crazy man Trump”.... in the General.
Very few Trump supporters are concentrating on that issue. There a few who've been hung up on the issue since questions surrounded Obama's eligibility, but I think most people, no matter who they support, believe the issue is going nowhere and no court is going to rule anyone ineligible if they have any claim to born citizenship at all, either through one parent, or by virtue of being born on US soil.
The founders probably meant to have a restrictive requirement, but it's been lost over the centuries in the muddle of poorly written laws and amendments and court decisions, and no court is going to revive it.
The citizenship issue is a red herring. It might be moderately useful to Democrats in a very minor way if Cruz were on the ticket, but electorally it is meaningless. People do not vote based on that kind of issue...that died in America with multiculturalism and the relatively easy international travel of the late 20th century. If people had been serious about such an issue, Obama’s path to two elections would not have been so easy. A small slice of bedrock Constitutionalists are still interested - 98 percent of the voters are economically or security oriented.
Trump has and will beat Cruz on the issues of economy and security, and personality and background. Those are the issues that a candidate must win on, everything else is statistical noise.
Natural born v. native born.
?
It’s like that “well-regulated militia” part of the 2d amendment. If it wasn’t there, we would have an ironclad right to individual ownership, rather than a challenged one.
Listen up noob.
There is 100% chance that IF (Big If) Cruz is the Nominee that the democrats will knock his but out in late October with ONE liberal federal judge granting injunctive relief late in the game and the 4-4 USSC will be locked on it making the Democrat’s path without challenge.
So you can try spinning away the 6 Supreme Court case and Cruz’s own admission hes not qualified till you are blue in the face. He would still be gutted by a liberal judge when its too late to do anything.
So you can't explain your bumper sticker. Thought so.
Well that was easy.
Bye.
I was a regular here in the good ol’ IBTZ, Viking Kitties days, when the DU folk or just general sh*t stirrers would post and get zotted. I also remember when looking at a poster’s join date and commenting on them being new could get one in trouble here.
Wow.
Reading comprehension a real problem?
Did you even bother to read the ALL CAPITOLS line that this post was not about Cruz’s eligibility?
Try USC 1401, it’s right after 1400.
I think the only danger in treating the issue of NBC as a non issue is that that lack of push back goes to establishing a precedent where NBC is watered down. When the globalists have been trying to change the definition for almost 20 years it suggests to me that maintaining it is vital.
Strac6, check Kartographer’s posting history. You might change your mind. :)
F00B
Read Williamson, Meysmith and Phillips on “Federal Courts propensity against intrusion on the elective process.”
It’s a second semester law school requirement.
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