US Elections - Boring or Important to Aust?

[SYZ]

I understand that politics is probably a no-no here in Ford country, but I have a couple of brief questions I'd like to sneak in... mods please delete if this is a forum breach.

1) How can Ted Cruz run for POTUS if he's not a "natural born US citizen"? He was born in Canada to a Cuban father, and his grandfather was Spanish. This was always an (irrelevant) stumbling block for Obama. Cruz held sole Canadian citizenship for 32 years until 2005.

2) Is the fact that Cruz is firmly anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, rejects Obamacare, supports gun rights, favours increasing immigration five-fold, opposes legalising marijuana, favours the death penalty, opposes higher minimum wages, denies man-made global warming, and is a practicing Southern Baptist a concern which makes him a far worse candidate than Donald Trump?