Cruz a natural-born citizen

There was much media buzz about U.S. Senator Ted Cruz being a possible 2016 Presidential candidate after he led the recent effort to defund Obamacare. As a result, a new “Birther” movement arose among some of the political opponents of Cruz, in which they argue that Senator Ted Cruz does not meet the Constitutional requirements for President.

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I have heard lately several people state matter-of-factly that Ted Cruz is not a natural-born citizen, as if that is, and has been, a settled fact. But in looking for the source of that “fact” I have instead found a preponderance of assertions over the last several months that, Cruz is, in fact, a natural-born citizen. There was really no question of the natural born citizenship of John McCain, who is the son of a mother and a father who were American citizens at the time he was born in Panama. Nor was there any dispute about the fact that Henry Kissinger and Arnold Schwarzenegger were not natural born citizens, having been born abroad by non-U.S. citizen parents. Leftist propagandists, always quick to begin attacking any Republican or conservative who may be considering a run for the president in the future, are now hard at work asserting that Cruz cannot run for President. They argue that the term “natural born” can only apply to someone who is born of parents who are both U.S. citizens at the time. However, one after another of the left-leaning media sources, including MSNBC and the Huffington Post have published opinion pieces saying that Cruz is indeed a natural-born citizen and meets all the Constitutional requirements for President. So the cat is out of the bag, so to speak. And like someone trying to catch a feral cat, putting it back in the bag will be very difficult. In the same manner that all babies born in the U.S. are citizens regardless of the location or citizenship of the other parent, it only requires one parent to be a U.S. citizen when one is born outside the U.S. While those trying to make a red herring issue out of the matter would insist that Cruz is not a natural-born citizen, I think most people would say that there is no real point in denying anyone’s candidacy for president because one of their parents was not a U.S. citizen at the time of their birth. Succinctly put, a natural-born citizen is one who is legally a U.S. citizen at birth. Can’t we just accept the common wisdom on this and move on to the real issues? While some would think it is good politics to assert a certain viewpoint against a candidate or potential candidate for momentary political advantage, the sincerity of that viewpoint should be called into question if it looks like they would argue the opposite view when it applies to someone they supported.