This is really a silly argument. Eligibility is no great hurdle. Nor was it designed to be. The vast majority of Americans over the age of 35 are eligible to be President. Electability is a whole different matter, a task so enormously difficult that only 43 Americans in the history of this country have been successful at. Statistically, you have a better chance at winning the Powerball than you do at being elected President.
This is really a silly argument.
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Tell that to the founders and framers.
A few examples...
John Jay, 1787:
Permit me to hint, whether it would not be wise & seasonable to provide a strong check to the admission of Foreigners into the administration of our national Government; and to declare expresly that the Command in chief of the american army shall not be given to, nor devolve on, any but a natural born Citizen.
John Adams, 1776:
On the other hand it could never be our Duty to unite with Britain in too great a humiliation with of France. That our real if not our nominal Independence would consist in our Neutrality. If We united with either Nation, in any future War, We must become too subordinate and dependent on that nation, and should be involved in all European Wars as We had been hitherto. That foreign Powers would find means to corrupt our People to influence our Councils, and in fine We should be little better than Puppetts danced on the Wires of the Cabinetts of Europe. We should be the Sport of European Intrigues and Politicks.
Clearly, they didn't consider it "silly."
"This is really a silly argument. Eligibility is no great hurdle. Nor was it designed to be. The vast majority of Americans over the age of 35 are eligible to be President. Electability is a whole different matter, a task so enormously difficult that only 43 Americans in the history of this country have been successful at. Statistically, you have a better chance at winning the Powerball than you do at being elected President. "
I note that nowhere in your ridicule followed by keen analysis on bookmaking did you ever deny that under the NBC definition being espoused by Malihi, the Ankeny ruling he's cited, and apparently yourself, the foreign prince is, at least thoretically, eligible to hold the office of the President of the United States of America.
Given that back when the Constitution was drafted, the threat of a money-backed Just-Soli born offspring of a foreign-born parent was a very real fear held by the founders (Jay, et al), and there is no way in the Halibut that they intended to allow anyone but a person with no presumed loyalties to any country but the United States by virtue of their being born on US soil to persons who were themselves citizens to assume the presidential levers of power, including command of our armed forces. It simply flies in the face of basic logic.
I realize that your impressively long tenure at FR lends you a certain amount of "street cred", but on this issue, in these terms, you're just plain wrong or misguided, if not being deliberately disingenuous or obtuse for whatever reason.
One last thing: "Given that back when the Constitution was drafted, the threat of a money-backed Just-Soli born offspring of a foreign-born parent was a very real fear. . ." Oops! Turns out their fear was well-founded, based on what I'm seeing happen before my very eyes to our country. Why do you think "Obama" constantly does so much that is unconstitutional, hmmm? Perhaps it's because, knowing that he's unconstitutionally usurping the Office to begin with, and knowing that all those who could stop him also know it and yet keep silent about it, he can pretty much crap on the Constitution at will, and no one will stop him.