Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Live By The Birther, Die By The Birther

There is some reportage out there that Ted Cruz's mom was a Canadian citizen.  The reporting is not conclusive, however, and raises some interesting questions, few of which can have a definitive answer.

The basic gist is that Raphael Cruz - Ted's dad - was a Cuban emigre to Canada, but he married an American - Eleanor - and she gave birth to Ted in Calgary.  As long as she remained an American citizen, Ted was an American citizen.  But if she was Canadian, then Cruz is Canadian, and thus can't be President.

Generally speaking, this is a small, small issue.  It's not like they were living in the Soviet Union; it was Canada.  And the "proof" is simply a Canadian official going door to door asking questions.

But there is someone pushing this story.  Cruz has vaulted into the "Not Trump" candidate of the moment.  Could this be Trump's people?  If Trump can win Iowa, he looks very strong in New Hampshire.  South Carolina looks plausible, too.  Trump had gone Birther before with Obama, why not again?

But the GOP establishment also hates Cruz.  However, knee-capping Cruz would only seem to empower Trump.

Personally, I think Cruz is the plausible candidate that Democrats would most like to run against.  He's a hard right ideologue with the personality of a raspberry seed that gets stuck in your teeth.  To know Ted Cruz is to hate Ted Cruz.

But someone seems to be trying to proactively delegitimize him.

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