Mitt Romney, former governor of Massachussetts, announced his quixotic campaign for the presidency today at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. It is clear that, by referencing his childhood in the Great Lakes Splendor, Mitt hopes to distance himself from his time as governor of "Taxachussetts" to make him more palatable to the Republican's conservative base. Romney was born in Michigan, the son of former Michigan Governor
George Romney. George was the chairman of the now-defunct American Motors Corporation (it brought you the AMC Gremlin and the
Mirthmobile from
Wayne's World). Although there are questions about whether George was a "natural born" citizen, having been born in Mexico, he ran his own quixotic campaign for the presidency in the 1968 Republican Primary. His ambitions were dashed by strange comments concerning mind-control and the Vietnam war.
This brings me to two important and interesting conversation starters:1. John McCain was born in the U.S. administered Panama Canal Zone. Is he "natural born?" Now, Congress passed a
law in 1790 that specified that children of citizens born over seas will be considered "natural born." But is this Constitutional? Could we pass a law that might increase the scope of "natural born" to embrace Arnold Schwarzenegger or Jenny Granholm? What about Barry Goldwater, who was born in Arizona before it was a state? What about
Zombie Barry Goldwater?
2. When should we learn from our fathers in an effort to avoid
new mistakes in the future?
-Erik
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