Will the 2016 GOP field be all white men?

[Mister Mets]

Marsha Blackburn has said she's interested. So that makes a woman likelier.

No she hasn't.  An aide to her gave an anonymous quote suggesting that her trip to NH was a sign of testing the waters for a national run, but Blackburn herself denied that she was running.

Fair enough. A prominent Tennessee congresswoman accidentally visited the neighboring state of New Hampshire.

[MurrayBannerman]

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are white.

This. I hate it when people are like "Will Rubio's color affect his chances?" It's such nonsense.

Fact: When Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz (handwaving their fame) walks into a Wall-Mart loss prevention sees a white person.

Does this strike anyone else as racist? I'm not gonna make a big fuss about it or anything, but jeez.

[Fritz]

Can Ted Cruz even be a candidate? Last I checked, he was NOT born American.

How many times to I have to say this? If his dad or mum was born in America (Which one of them are), he is eligible.

You sure of that? From virtually every source I pulled, even if his parents were Americans, if didn't matter. Being born in American soil seems to be a requisite. But I might be wrong anyway.

That's wrong. Being born on American soil is one way to be born a citizen (and the one way that's guaranteed by the constitution), but federal law provides other possibilities for birthright citizenship. Ted Cruz's mom was an American citizen, so as long as she met the age and residency requirements, Ted Cruz was an American citizen at birth.

See also, John McCain being born in Panama.

Which makes one wonder why there was any controversy at all regarding Obama's birth certificate.

[Rockefeller GOP]

For all intents and purposes, yes. The GOP isn't ready for a non-White male at the top of its ticket quite yet.

This is utter non-sense.  If a qualified minority or female candidate were on our ticket, there'd be no drop off in turnout.

[SteveRogers]

Can Ted Cruz even be a candidate? Last I checked, he was NOT born American.

How many times to I have to say this? If his dad or mum was born in America (Which one of them are), he is eligible.

You sure of that? From virtually every source I pulled, even if his parents were Americans, if didn't matter. Being born in American soil seems to be a requisite. But I might be wrong anyway.

That's wrong. Being born on American soil is one way to be born a citizen (and the one way that's guaranteed by the constitution), but federal law provides other possibilities for birthright citizenship. Ted Cruz's mom was an American citizen, so as long as she met the age and residency requirements, Ted Cruz was an American citizen at birth.

See also, John McCain being born in Panama.

Which makes one wonder why there was any controversy at all regarding Obama's birth certificate.

Well, Obama's mom was an American citizen, but I think she was only 16 or 17 when she gave birth which means she might not have met the age and residency requirements to confer birthright citizenship under the law at that time (under the current version of the law there'd be no problem and Obama would have been a U.S. citizen even if born in Kenya).

Actually though, the hardcore birthers don't think that citizenship at birth is enough to qualify you as a "natural born citizen." They argue that regardless of whether Obama was born in the U.S., you can't be a natural born citizen within the meaning of the Constitution unless both of your parents are U.S. citizens. This argument is of course not based on the law but rather on nonsense, cherry-picked works of an obscure 18th century Swiss philisopher, a laughable misreading of two Supreme Court cases, and racism.

[Tieteobserver]

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are white.

And Indian-Americans are, for all intents and purposes, White, for the same reasons that Jewish-Americans are.

So a group being wealthy, well-educated, and more or less assimilated into the American Cultural Mainstream (TM) makes a group  "white"?

Actually, that explains a lot.

Not really. He was exaggerating I guess.

Racial definitions here, in Brazil, are much "looser" than the Americans ones, meaning that many people who would be instantly deemed White here wouldn't be so in America. And I can assure you: except for those few light skinned folk scattered across Northern India, Indians would not be considered White even here, let alone the USA. Jews are an entirely different matter, though. Except for creepy Stormfronters, I guess pretty much all of America sees them as White folk.

Which matters...very little. Jindal and Hailey are both visibly non-White, and managed to get elected on the supposedly GOP racist ticket, in Deep Southern states, widely regarded as "very racist" by most.