Now that birthers seem to be unable to pursue legitimate claims that President Obama was not born in the United States, they have turned their attention - ironically - to a Tea Party favorite - Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Here's the issue:
. . . the activists are not challenging whether Rubio was born in Miami.
Rather, they say Rubio is ineligible under Article 2 of the
Constitution, which says "no person except a natural born citizen …
shall be eligible to the Office of President."
The rub is that "natural born citizen" was never defined.
The birthers rely on writings at the time of the formation of the
republic and references in court cases since then to contend that
"natural born" means a person born to U.S. citizens. Rubio was born in
1971 at Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, his office said, but his parents did
not become citizens until 1975.
"Marco Rubio was born a Cuban citizen via his parents," screams a
headline on a blog by birther Charles Kerchner, who obtained copies of
the naturalization petitions by Rubio's parents in May, igniting talk
that is spreading across the Internet.
Kerchner said Rubio is no different from Obama, who even if he was
born in Hawaii (which he doubts) was not born to two U.S. citizens.
Obama's father was a Kenyan national. The birthers say Louisiana Gov.
Bobby Jindal, whose parents are from India and were not citizens at the
time of his birth, is also unqualified.
