McCain not eligible to run for president?

[FrenchieCat]

It is still an open question as to whether John McCain is eligible as there is no precedence for such a thing. He was born prior to the law that passed that recognized those born in that area as Natural Born Americans. The law had no ratroactive clause to it.

McCain’s Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out

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.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/politics/28mccain.html


A Hint of New Life to a McCain Birth Issue
July 11, 2008

In the most detailed examination yet of Senator John McCain’s eligibility to be president, a law professor at the University of Arizona has concluded that neither Mr. McCain’s birth in 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone nor the fact that his parents were American citizens is enough to satisfy the constitutional requirement that the president must be a “natural-born citizen.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/politics/11mccain.html

[LisaL]

1. Oh noes. Who should break the news to him?

[rurallib]

3. Colin Powell? They are both service men

[vanderBeth]

2. This is only okay to talk about if your BF's father tells you.

[RollWithIt]

4. This is like one of those stupid Obama birth certificate things....

It doesn't matter where you are born. If you are born to a US citizen, you are a US citizen. Period. This is just a stupid stupid argument.

[Occam Bandage]

7. Absolutely. By this "logic," Goldwater would have been ineligible,

as AZ was not a state at the time of his birth.

[Occam Bandage]

5. Title 8, US Code, Sec. 1401

The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth:
(a) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof;
(b) a person born in the United States to a member of an Indian, Eskimo, Aleutian, or other aboriginal tribe: Provided, That the granting of citizenship under this subsection shall not in any manner impair or otherwise affect the right of such person to tribal or other property;
(c) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person;
(d) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year prior to the birth of such person, and the other of whom is a national, but not a citizen of the United States;
(e) a person born in an outlying possession of the United States of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year at any time prior to the birth of such person;
(f) a person of unknown parentage found in the United States while under the age of five years, until shown, prior to his attaining the age of twenty-one years, not to have been born in the United States;
(g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or periods of employment with the United States Government or with an international organization as that term is defined in section 288 of title 22 by such citizen parent, or any periods during which such citizen parent is physically present abroad as the dependent unmarried son or daughter and a member of the household of a person
(A) honorably serving with the Armed Forces of the United States, or
(B) employed by the United States Government or an international organization as defined in section 288 of title 22, may be included in order to satisfy the physical-presence requirement of this paragraph. This proviso shall be applicable to persons born on or after December 24, 1952, to the same extent as if it had become effective in its present form on that date; and
(h) a person born before noon (Eastern Standard Time) May 24, 1934, outside the limits and jurisdiction of the United States of an alien father and a mother who is a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, had resided in the United States.


This ancient "story" is ridiculous.

[RoccoR5955]

6. I keep mentioning this to the freepers who say that Obama isn't a citizen.

I tell them that McCain is not a natural born American, in the purest form. One of the reasons I have called him Panama John.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. That is the least of the reasons he should not be allowed to be President.

[CitizenPatriot]

9. but is he a muslin or a silk?

I heard McCain was hanging out with silks back in the day -- after the Panama Cottons got the best of him.

any ideas?