Is McCain is a U.S. citizen?

ScreamingEagle

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Jul 5, 2004
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The New York Slimes is questioning whether or not McCain is a U.S. citizen qualified to become President because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. His father, a Navy Admiral, was stationed there.

WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

Mr. McCain’s likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a “natural-born citizen” can hold the nation’s highest office.

Almost since those words were written in 1787 with scant explanation, their precise meaning has been the stuff of confusion, law school review articles, whisper campaigns and civics class debates over whether only those delivered on American soil can be truly natural born. To date, no American to take the presidential oath has had an official birthplace outside the 50 states.

“There are powerful arguments that Senator McCain or anyone else in this position is constitutionally qualified, but there is certainly no precedent,” said Sarah H. Duggin, an associate professor of law at Catholic University who has studied the issue extensively. “It is not a slam-dunk situation.”

Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.

But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. “I don’t have much doubt about it,” said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. McCain’s closest allies, said it would be incomprehensible to him if the son of a military member born in a military station could not run for president.

“He was posted there on orders from the United States government,” Mr. Graham said of Mr. McCain’s father. “If that becomes a problem, we need to tell every military family that your kid can’t be president if they take an overseas assignment.”

The phrase “natural born” was in early drafts of the Constitution. Scholars say notes of the Constitutional Convention give away little of the intent of the framers. Its origin may be traced to a letter from John Jay to George Washington, with Jay suggesting that to prevent foreigners from becoming commander in chief, the Constitution needed to “declare expressly” that only a natural-born citizen could be president.

cont.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/u...1204347600&en=3fd08016cf89c53d&ei=5087%0A
 
READ the last little bit before the "cont." the intent is RIGHT there. Anyone born of an American citizen is by law and fact a "NATURAL' born American. They have no need to prove their citizenship except that at least one of their parents was an American Citizen. No test, no naturalization process, nothing except the fact one of their parents was an American citizen when they were born. Nothing Foreign about that at all.

This is nothing more than the left trying to "fix" the election and arrange a new claim of being "cheated" if the Democrat loses once again. It is ALL about playing games and trying to thwart the laws and the intent and will of the American voter. It is nothing more than proof of the contempt the left has for American voters, their intelligence and fear of the left they can not win an election.

I am quite sure that come November if McCain wins these people will be lodging a formal challenge claiming what they are claiming now. Hillary and Obama both WOULD resort to just such legal trickery to attempt yet another bloodless Coup in this Country, similar to the one Gore tried in 2000.
 
Am I the only one who finds this offensive? I have a sister who was born on an Air Base in Japan when my Dad was stationed there. It would be pretty darn unfair to say that because her father was serving his country overseas, she wouldn't be eligible to be president. Aren't military bases overseas are considered U.S. soil? I don't think the founders considered that we'd have military bases all over the world when they wrote that.
 
A guy who I work with was born in Thailand to American parents who were stationed there. He tells me he can't be the President. I thought you had to born in the US to be President. Is this true? Do army bases count as American territory?
 
A guy who I work with was born in Thailand to American parents who were stationed there. He tells me he can't be the President. I thought you had to born in the US to be President. Is this true? Do army bases count as American territory?

I think most likely, it means that if you're born an American citizen you can be president. I don't think the "where" matters as much, particularly if one considers the purpose for the naturalized citizenship requirement. But the Constitutional "literalists" might disagree.

I think your friend might be incorrect.
 
and what if they were born on a plane. Dosn't work like that. the only time birth location is a concern is when the parents arn't citizens
 
It's a stupid rule anyway. If you are a citizen of hte US you should have all the rights that other citizens have - including becoming president...

It's nativism, to be expected from a young nation that wrested its fate away from a controlling parent. I think it's outdated but it suits the modern nativists.
 
It's nativism, to be expected from a young nation that wrested its fate away from a controlling parent. I think it's outdated but it suits the modern nativists.

No, it wasn't and isn't, we are and have been a country of immigrants. Surprisingly some come for not such well-meaning reasons.
 
No, it wasn't and isn't, we are and have been a country of immigrants. Surprisingly some come for not such well-meaning reasons.

We're all nations of immigrants, unless we live in the Rift Valley. But that aside, it's nativism.

I don't know how many founding fathers were born in the British Isles but I'd guess one or two. I would think many more would have been born in the American colonies but in the nature of the first generation born on the new soil they probably felt the strong need to reject the parental nation (and given what it was like in the 18th Century I can't blame them!).

I'm not condemning them Kathianne, their patriotism is natural. They wanted their presidents to be be born on American soil. But perhaps it's time for a relaxation? After all even the Brits found it far preferable to have protestant monarchs from Germany and Holland rather than British-born Catholics.

I'm just looking at my watch...any minute now.......
 
There is no question of whether he is a US citizen, the question is whether he is a natural born citizen. And yes its all rather silly, but it is amusing that its the Republican anti-immigrant party which is having to deal with this issue.
 
this is a stupid issue.

mccain qualifies.


but Ahhnald does not. Personally, I agree with the necessity for a homegrown president.
 
Its a distinction you made, not me. I purposefully did not make the distinction.

Sure. Because you think Republican's don't make the distinction? Republican's aren't generally anti-immigrant. We are anti-illegal immigrant.
 
im anti-illegal immigrant..

who wants to make me laugh by calling me republican?
 
Sure. Because you think Republican's don't make the distinction? Republican's aren't generally anti-immigrant. We are anti-illegal immigrant.

You make the distinction when trying to justify your often absurd beliefs.
 
You make the distinction when trying to justify your often absurd beliefs.

Which is what exactley? And what does makeing a distinciton between anti-immigrant and anti-illegal immigrant have to do with said other beliefs?
 
What is so absurd about a sovereign nation preserving it's prerogative to decide who can enter its border and who cannot?
 

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