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GOP
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Progressive activist and provocateur Cenk Uygur, founder of the Young Turks, believes Joe Biden has "at best a 10% chance of winning" next year's election. And so, Uygur has decided he has no choice but to run for the nomination himself, so as to save the Democrats from themselves.
There are two small problems here. The first, of course, is that barring serious health problems or scandal, Biden has the nomination all locked up. Other than potentially stealing a win in New Hampshire, because of the song-and-dance going on there, there is no viable way for a Biden challenger to make headway against him. There will be no debates, there will be no infusion of cash, there will be nothing that changes the game, even if a person largely controls a lefty media outlet, as Uygur does. When was the last time you read anything about Marianne Williamson, for example?
The second small problem, meanwhile, is actually what led us to decide that an item on Uygur's candidacy was worthwhile. See, he was born in Istanbul and immigrated to the U.S. in 1978, later becoming a naturalized citizen. We put all six staff researchers to work on it, and they report that the Constitution has some remarks on presidential eligibility, including this: "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Uygur says he is aware of the problem, and that he is confident that "naturalized citizen" and "natural-born citizen" are the same thing. Odd that the fellows who wrote the Constitution would have dropped the modifier in there, then, as opposed to just writing "No Person except a Citizen of the United States shall be eligible to the Office of President." Anyhow, he says he's going to file a lawsuit, and take the matter to the Supreme Court in order to achieve clarity. Given that body's "What, Me Worry?" approach to jurisprudence, who knows what they might come up with? (Z)