Cruz wins presidential straw poll at GOP summit

[Jim Lane]

56. Certainly he can, and it's a bad idea for our side to spread such silliness.

Under the law as it stood when Cruz and Obama were born, a person born outside the United States, to one citizen parent and one noncitizen parent, would automatically be a U.S. citizen at birth, provided that the citizen parent met certain residency requirements. It's virtually certain that Cruz's mother, a U.S. citizen, met those requirements, although producing documentary evidence all these decades later might be difficult.

Incidentally, it is certain -- no "virtually" hedging needed -- that Obama's mother did not meet those requirements. Therefore, the birthers, demented though they be, are at least not being inconsistent. If you believe that Obama was born in Kenya and that Cruz was born in Canada, the most sensible conclusion from those premises is that Obama was ineligible but that Cruz is eligible.