cruz isn t so smart (politically, that is... )

[wesw]

he is making a yuge mistake by doubling down on his "new York values" attack on trump.

this is post 9/11 ,ted, and you are counting on the popularity of a 15 yr old Pace Picante sauce commercial to take down trump?

c'mon, we were all new Yorkers for a while, and we have not forgotten.

I m about as anti urban as it gets, but this just makes me dislike you more.

[Tbird251]

Trump has already destroyed any hope for a defeat of the Clintons and Obama clans. All Repubs are fighting each other instead of building a game plan.
Lee

[Econoline]

Obama has a clan??? Hmph. Who knew?

At least it isn't a Klan.

[Lord Jim]

cruz isn t so smart

It will play well in Ottumwa...

Ted Cruz is in fact a very smart guy...

Which is one of the things I dislike about him...

[RayThom]

Obama has a clan??? Hmph. Who knew?
At least it isn't a Klan.

"Tribe" would be more encompassing.

[wesw]

dream on , Lee.

trump doesn t need all the repubs

he will have many, many, democrats on his side, most of them black.

plus, people are so disgusted by Hillary that they will just stay home.

the hardest part for trump will be getting the GOP nomination, the general will be a breeze..., if he isn t assassinated.

[wesw]

jim, I think you meant to say Ottawa earlier....

[Bicycle Bill]

jim, I think you meant to say Ottawa earlier....

Ottumwa is in Iowa.  Population of approximately 25K, alleged hometown of Walter E. "Radar" O'Reilly, and given that it is the county seat of Wapello County a probable site for one of the Iowa caucuses.
And a likely spot for Trump (and others) to stop and do their part to fertilize this year's corn crop with their stump speeches.

-"BB"-

[wesw]

I am aware where Ottumwa is....

[Scooter]

In which case your attempt to play on Cruz's Canadian birth is a fail, because his brand of politics would most assuredly NOT play well in Ottawa or in most of the rest of Canada.

[Guinevere]

Cruz is extremely smart, and very well-educated, which is why long term I think he could be scarier than Trump.

[Lord Jim]

I see you've changed your subject line to include this wes:

(politically, that is... )

But you're still wrong....

Cruz has run a very shrewd and disciplined campaign...

While all the other candidates were pretty much flummoxed about how to deal with the unexpected popularity of Trump and Carson, Cruz carefully positioned himself to be the chief electoral beneficiary if either or both came down in the polls. He was like the cat waiting patiently at the foot of the tree for the baby bird to fall out of the nest...

This strategy has worked brilliantly for him. He has inherited almost all of Carson's lost support in the polls, catapulting him from way down in the pack around 4-5 percent, up to a strong second place as the alternative to Trump, (if Trump had gone down the way Carson has, his position would be even stronger.) and a first place position in the Iowa Caucuses.

And in Iowa, by all reports Cruz also has the strongest organization, (Trump doesn't even have a captain in all of the 1700 caucus locations) and in that state it is the ground game that counts more than anything else...

Regardless of what you and the other Trumpanzees may think (which apparently is whatever Trump tells you think; even truly bizarre nonsense like, "Trump will win the Latino vote") this New York values thing isn't going to hurt him one bit with Midwest and Southern Evangelicals, which form the core of Cruz's support. On the contrary, it's going to make them have second thoughts about Trump....

Trump presumably knows this, which is why he has moved so actively to try to squelch it. Raising doubts about whether Trump is truly a conservative and genuinely shares the "values" that these core base voters hold is the strongest kryptonite that can be used against Trump in the Republican nominating process. Much more effective than questioning his qualifications or the toxic and/or completely false things he says.

[Gob]

[Guinevere]

That is a freaking insult to the Boss. PLEASE take it down immediately (except it's also damn funny).

God, now *i* need to puke. Or choke while laughing and puking. You bastard

[wesw]

that is hilarious.

and you re right jim, I was not thinking objectively, I was comparing his political skills to trump s, and that s just not fair.

i too have been impressed by cruz s campaign, and i thought that he had come off as less unlikeable, and very knowledgeable.

i was ready to change my opinion of him, but i have gone back to disliking him.

i do think that it was a big mistake to alienate urban people like he did when he talked, repeatedly, about "new York values". that is so yesterday.....

his pandering seems fake, whereas trump s seems real

he is undoubtedly a brilliant man.

i still get the urge to bitch slap him tho...

but nicely, we want his voters.....

[Scooter]

So Trump is a real panderer, not a fake one.

That's a ringing endorsement if I ever heard one.

[Bicycle Bill]

Section 1, Article 2 of the US Constitution sets forth the requirements to become POTUS under clause 3:

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

Interestingly enough, the Constitution does not define what is meant as "natural-born citizen"; current interpretation holds that a person is a natural-born citizen if they are either born in the United States or, as in the case of Sen. Cruz, born outside of the United States with at least one of the parents having been born in the US.  In the case of Mr. Cruz, he was born in Canada, the son of a Cuban-born father and a U.S.-born mother. (emphasis mine)

As an aside, I wonder how this would affect a person who had been born in, say, Puerto Rico, Guam, or the US Virgin Islands (all of which are US territories) or to a parent who had been posted to a foreign embassy or a US military base in another nation (think Guantanamo, for example, or any of our numerous bases located in Germany or Japan).

It also does not define what constitutes a fourteen year residency.  Does this need to be fourteen consecutive years or can they be interrupted?  Does time spent outside the US while in military or diplomatic service also count?  Does the fourteen years have to be the period immediately prior to becoming POTUS, or can a person have lived here for say the first twenty years of his life and then become an American ex-pat for a period and then return, 'tanned, relaxed, rested, and refreshed', to take a try for the brass ring?

Another interesting bit of Constitutional trivia — under Article 1, US Senators and Representative to Congress are required to be US citizens, but any requirement to be "natural-born" is absent.

-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President

Interesting. That states quite clearly that no one who was not alive when the Constitution was adopted can be President - native born or not.

I'm afraid we should have had no presidents since.... Zachary Taylor (with Tyler and Polk expunged from the record as youthful non-qualifiers)

[Bicycle Bill]

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President

Interesting. That states quite clearly that no one who was not alive when the Constitution was adopted can be President - native born or not.

I'm afraid we should have had no presidents since.... Zachary Taylor (with Tyler and Polk expunged from the record as youthful non-qualifiers)

The writers apparently had an extra comma lying around and stuck it in there after 'Citizen of the United States', which of course alters the entire sentence — as Meade has just pointed out.  Now you know why I have such a hissy-fit over grammar and punctuation.


-"BB"-

[MajGenl.Meade]

Is it worth a Constitutional challenge?