Is Ted Cruz eligible?

Is Ted Cruz eligible to be president? Ted Cruz and many pundits in the media scoff at such a question but it’s one that needs to be settled and it needs to be settled quickly. Long before Ted Cruz ever announced his candidacy for president, I said if the courts clear him for takeoff I just might be on that plane.

As far as I’m concerned, we’re still waiting for instructions from the tower.

Now it’s the eleventh hour and Trump has masterfully weaved the issue into the campaign under the guise of helping Cruz solve his “problem.” That’s apparently spooked enough people in Iowa to where Trump has retaken the lead. I certainly don’t blame Trump for talking and tweeting about it. Despite what some have called an issue “for the kooks,” it’s a question of monumental importance. The American people want to know if someone they’re voting for is actually legally eligible to be president.

Let’s review Cruz’s “problem.”

He was born in Canada to an American mother and a Cuban father. It’s also possible that his father, at the time of his birth, was actually Canadian. Some claim his dad became a Canadian citizen around 1970. Dad would later renounce his Canadian citizenship and become an American citizen in 2005.

Cruz came to America with his parents in 1974 at the age of 3. There’s no evidence that his parents filed a CRBA. That’s a Consular Report of Birth Abroad. It’s customarily filed by American parents who have children in foreign countries but intend for those children to be regarded as American citizens. In other words, if I were on some radio assignment in France and my wife had a child while we were there, we would file a CRBA to make certain everyone understood our child was an American citizen. We don’t know that wasn’t filed because Cruz has denied requests to unseal official documents regarding the issue. Suspicious, to say the least.

Some like to compare the Cruz issue to Obama. Without opening that whole can of worms, there was never any question in my mind that Obama was born in Hawaii. That birth certificate he finally released was obviously bogus, but I believe it was bogus for reasons other than his place of birth. It may have the race of the child listed as caucasian since his mother was white. Who knows? If Obama was actually born in Kenya, as some have argued, isn’t he just as much a citizen as Ted Cruz?

That’s a good question and one that should have been decided by a court long before now. What if Cruz gets the nomination? You think the Clintons aren’t going to go after him on the eligibility question? Remember, the Clintons are the original birthers.

Each candidate Cruz faces has this issue in their back pocket. It’s just a matter of when they want to pull it out and cast doubt in the minds of the voters. You can argue that it was the Washington Post that brought the question up to Trump, but you know Trump’s no idiot. He could’ve deflected the question by simply saying he’s not a lawyer and can’t answer it. In fact, he told ABC News in September, “I hear it was checked out by every attorney and every which way and I understand Ted is in fine shape.” Now it’s a “big problem.” This time, when asked about it by the Post, Trump took to Twitter to offer “advice” to Cruz on how to settle the issue once and for all. And settle it he must.

Phil Valentine is the host of the award-winning, nationally syndicated talk radio show, The Phil Valentine Show.