You may have heard that today Al Jazeera announced it is shuttering Al Jazeera America, the US-based and US-focused version of the wildly successful global news network. Let me start by saying I know a number of people did and in many cases still do work there. So I wish them all the best and admire all the work they did there individually and collectively. But on hearing this news I was reminded of a partnership-type conversation a colleague of mine and I had with an AJA executive I guess maybe two years ago.
It was eye-opening and jarring.
Now that Trump v Cruz is in full swing and we’re into the music war phase (Trump playing “Born in the USA” and Cruz threatening to play “New York, New York” – two nasty bullies at war) I am reminded of this …
That is one of the many things that makes the current Trump-Cruz phony war so compelling. Trump is baiting Cruz into the same smackdown he’s used to eat up Bush, Walker, Fiorina and others. But Cruz won’t take the bait. Like two zen masters facing off in a martial arts classic or perhaps two wizards do battle in The Lord of the Rings, we have an epic confrontation between two master who have trained for decades in the arts of assholery and bullying. But their powers equally matched, it is a stand off.
So it turns out that there may be a real argument that Ted Cruz isn’t ‘natural born’ and can’t be president. Not on some unknown document or hidden story, purely on the public facts that he was born in Canada. Here’s the story. To find out that a man who has repeatedly claimed to be at least 200 percent American may in fact fall short of the mark is a shattering revelation. It’s like having an investigator uncover evidence that Joe McCarthy held a secret membership in The Weavers Fan Club. Nothing is really as we thought.
I confess I was caught totally off guard by how many serious legal scholars, most of a not terribly partisan hue, think there is a serious question about whether Ted Cruz is eligible to serve as President. I have always assumed that Cruz’s mother, presumably, being an American citizen settled the matter. And I still think that should be the rule. But as we note in our feature today there does appear to be a credible, originalist argument against Cruz’s eligibility. And here we have Laurence Tribe, Jack Balkin and now longtime McCain advisor (and onetime FEC Chair) Trevor Potter – all saying with different levels of emphasis and slightly different shades of opinion that this is a real issue.
Even Cass Sunstein, who comes down on Cruz’s side, does not dismiss it as a silly point that can simply be dismissed.
Trump campaign official (co-chair of the campaign-organized Veterans for Trump in New Hampshire) praises Oregon militia as a “great success” in the fight against “thug-like, terroristic” federal government.
I want to enlist your assistance. I am trying to devise a conceptual and hopefully numerical framework to understand, track and if possible quantify the degree to which Ted Cruz’s reputation as an asshole will play into his ability to navigate the current presidential eligibility challenge. As former McCain lawyer and FEC Chair Trevor Potter noted, McCain’s campaign determined in 2008 that he was on solid ground as ‘natural born’. But a major part of their calculation was based on the fact that McCain was born on what was then US controlled territory in Panama. Regardless of the legal calculus, though, there was a clear goodwill factor that helped McCain a great deal. Given that he was liked by many and respected by more colleagues in the Senate and had the status as a war hero, many of his colleagues and political elites were happy to step forward – almost regardless of the particulars – and say “Of course, John McCain is eligible to serve as President.” They even did as much in a sense of the Senate resolution.
For all the soundbites and schadenfreude, here is the actual legal issue – the law and originalist argument – which may mean Ted Cruz is ineligible to serve as President. Here’s a clear, straightforward explanation. Lots of constitutional scholars think this is a serious question, even for those who come down on the side of Cruz’s eligibility.
I know there are only a few people who watch Fox Business News. But watching it, it has the feel of the place the Fox News folks go when they don’t want to feel the PC constraints of vanilla Fox News. A colleague said it had the feel of the men’s locker room at the country club on Saturday mornings. It was half surprised the male guests weren’t catcalling the female guests.
9:01 PM: And here we go.
9:09 PM: Did Cavuto just blame the financial crisis on Obama?
Governor Kasich, we are not even two weeks into this stock trading year. Think about it investors have already lost $1.6 trillion in market value. That makes it the worst start to a new year ever. Many worry things will get even worse, banks and financial stocks are particularly vulnerable. If this escalates like it did back when Barack Obama first assumed the presidency, what actions would you take, if the same thing happens all over again just as in this example you are taking over the presidency?
9:15 PM: I think someone told Marco Rubio this night may be the last chance. Whoever did was right.
9:18 PM: God. I really can’t process Ben Carson. An enemy power has nuclear warheads that it can deliver by ballistic missiles. So they explode a few in the stratosphere to zap our electrical grid. And then they have on the ground terrorists exploding dirty bombs? Plain old, vanilla nuclear weapons are really devastating. No need to get fancy. I think they’d go with the straight up nuclear weapons. Why Alex Jones it?
9:23 PM: Only surprise for me so far is that all the animus and attacks are directed outward. No intramural attacks so far.
9:26 PM: I don’t know what commercials people are seeing in other parts of the country. But in New York, to give you a sense of the Fox Business market, it seems like half the commercials are for private jet charters.
9:26 PM: Here we go.
9:29 PM: That was well-rehearsed. Tries to evoke Reagan in 1984.
9:31 PM: This is such a bizarre exchange.
9:33 PM: I’m curious why Trump doesn’t find someone besides Larry Tribe to cite. It’s such an easy swipe back. There are lots of others. Trevor Potter just to start with.
9:37 PM: Trump was wobbly on the eligibility question. But he knocked the anger question out of the park. He knows his argument.
9:40 PM: Not that it will do Christie much good. But he just crushed Rubio. Made him look stupid.
9:44 PM: To Kasich’s credit, he ignored the toxic import of what Bartiromo was getting at with the Sanders question.
9:46 PM: Why is Ben Carson in this debate?
9:58 PM: Check out this post. It’s just an example of what a fact bubble this debate is in that Neal Cavuto actually claimed that the financial crisis happened on President Obama’s watch.
10:04 PM: I think Donald won that exchange.