Does Barack Obama understand the 14th Amendment or did he just misrepresent it? (anchor babies)

Back on January 12, Molly Ball of the Las Vegas Review-Journal offered (lvrj.com/news/13729202.html) "Obama rocks Vegas faithful" (via this). Bearing in mind that Barack Obama was a University of Chicago lecturer in constitutional law for several years (link), let's see if he has a firm grasp of the Constitution:
Obama took questions from the audience for more than half an hour. One person wanted to know what he would do about "anchor babies," the term for children of illegal immigrants who are automatically made citizens because they are born on U.S. soil and then serve as "anchors" for their families.

[He promoted immigration "reform"... ] But, he said, "I'm not going to change the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution says if you're born here, you're a citizen."
It might say that in his bowdlerized version, but not in the official version (link):
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.
The "and" makes a world of difference, and that's only been interpreted to mean that the children of illegal aliens are automatically citizens. The 14th Amendment itself is not as cut-and-dried as Obama would have had his listeners believe.

Our only options aren't too good:
1. He can't figure that out.
2. He was deliberately misleading.
3. He didn't want to get "too complicated".

It's clear to me that Obama is basically an empty suit, and if someone had pressed him on that issue by asking a follow-up making my point, I don't think he would have ended up looking too good at all. Please go to his appearances and engage him on these issues.

There's also an issue regarding the 14th Amendment and abortions discussed here.

Comments

Once more this is not a country its a Business, and Barack Obama is just a Mandingo for the ruling class of the one world evil.

"I'm not going to change the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution says if you're born here, you're a citizen." The American Indians were "born here" but not declared citizens until 1924.

The children of foreign diplomats, here legally, are not citizens. Only a traitor or an idiot thinks the 14th amendment should make the children of unauthorized invaders citizens.

Are you NUTS? It pretty much IS cut and dried. If you understood English, you would know that AND is a substitute for ALSO, or ALONGWITH. So, that said, All persons born OR naturalized in the United States, ALSO subject to the jurisdiciction thereof (of the United States), are citizens of the United States AND the state wherein they reside. So yes, if you are BORN here you ARE a citizen. If you AREN'T, you aren't a citizen. Pretty much cut and dried.

It seems the 14th Amendment means more to Obama than we previously thought since he may or may not be a natural born citizen. An interesting use of the 14th Amendment in your article seems quite similar to the way he will use the 14th Amendment to state that he is a citizen with the right to be President. Unfortunately, actual understanding of the Constitution reveals that Barack Obama is ineligible to be President under the laws set forth by our Constitution. Barack Obama may even be an illegal alien if he did not come through immigration legally when he returned from Indonesia (where his adoptive stepfather registered him as an Indonesian and Islamic). So I guess the conversation about illegal immigrant children may hit pretty close to home for him. mariestacey.wordpress.com