Some people opposed to nominating Marco Rubio or Bobby Jindal in 2016 are asserting that they are ineligible for the presidency. Their absurd claim is that neither man is a natural born citizen, because his parents are foreign-born. Some are Democrat provocateurs, while others are sincerely mistaken about the Constitution.
Briefly, a "natural born citizen" is a citizen at birth, by nature of his birth. Otherwise, a citizen is naturalized, that is, becoming a citizen later in life. Therefore, a citizen of the United States is either natural born or naturalized.
Marco Rubio and Bobby Jindal were born in the United States. Both men are natural born citizens. Both men are eligible for the presidency.
Constitutionally, the citizenship status of one's parents is irrelevant. In fact, many previous nominees had a foreign-born or non-citizen parent:
Andrew Jackson, President -- father and mother born in Ireland
John Fremont, first Republican presidential nominee -- father born in France
Chester Arthur, President -- father born in Ireland
Charles Evans Hughes, 1916 Republican presidential nominee -- father born in Wales
Charles Curtis, Vice President -- mother a non-citizen American Indian
Spiro Agnew, Vice President -- father born in Greece
Michael Dukakis, 1988 Democrat presidential nominee -- father born in Turkey, mother born in Greece
John Kerry, 2004 Democrat presidential nominee -- mother born in France
I have blogged before about the natural born citizen issue:
Marco Rubio is a Natural Born Citizen, just like John Fremont and Chester Arthur
http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com/blog/2012/04/marco-rubio.html
and
Marco Rubio is a Natural Born Citizen, just like Charles Evans Hughes
http://grandoldpartisan.typepad.com/blog/2012/04/marco-rubio-charles-evans-hughes.html
Michael Zak is a popular speaker to Republican organizations around the country. Back to Basics for the Republican Party is his acclaimed history of the GOP, cited by Clarence Thomas in a Supreme Court decision. He is also the author of the 2005 Republican Freedom Calendar. His Grand Old Partisan website celebrates more than fifteen decades of Republican heroes and heroics. See www.grandoldpartisan.com and @Michael_Zak for more information.

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