Opinion: Ghost of Al Hamilton still haunts GOP

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Whatever diversity of policy, buffonery and crackpottery may have been on display at last night’s debate, the real weakness of the current Republican presidential field was summed up in Chris Matthews’ natural-born citizen question, which bit the dust faster than a Harold Stassen presidential campaign. Just two out of the ten candidates favored amending the U.S. Constitution to allow naturalized citizens to become president of these here United States.

That’s bad news for Gov. Schwarzenegger, who has apparently reached the zenith of his political career the first time out; bad news for the Republicans, who haven’t got an eligible candidate with anything like Arnold’s electibility; and bad news for Opinion L.A., which not too long ago crusaded for a Schwarzenegger/Granholm amendment.* Despite our best efforts to keep the meme out there and work the California delegation to Washington, D.C. (the nation’s capital), that great program fizzled like a Pat Paulsen campaign, and it now seems clear that neither the American people nor their prominent elected officials are overly concerned about an amendment that is statistically unlikely to have any bearing on most of our professional lives.

* Thanks to reader zdybel for correcting my careless history.