McCain's Canal Zone Birthplace Raises Eligibility Questions

New York Times:

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.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[researcher]

12:37 AM on 02/29/2008

please tell me he is ok to run. nothing like a war hero that bombed women and children in that other illegal war to run for president. you know we are imperialists when even the other candidates from the other party calls him a war hero.

god bless america the country that calls thier soldiers war heroes for participating in illegal wars based on lies and deception.

the the worst of the war mongers the evangels. go figure.

mc war or is it mc pain is still pissed off that he lost that other illegal war so he wants a war so bad to win. he will sell his soul to get to be president to get his war and he will flip flop more than kerry. the folks in ohio will give him a win. they love a good screwing. they will soon have a choice work at war mart as a greeter or sign up for mc war's coming war.

[abbiehoffmansghost]

09:22 PM on 02/28/2008

Hey, we all came from the birth canal zone, except those delivered by Caesarian, except Bush who crawled out of a petrie dish filled with shit. Oops, can I say that?

[Moxo]

09:05 PM on 02/28/2008

The best way to figure out if Mr. McCain can Constitutionally become President would be to tell members of the Right-Wing Fringe that Mr. Obama was born in similar circumstances... and see what they say.

[thesedarkages]

09:29 PM on 02/28/2008

Or let Scalia, the strict literalist of the constitution, write an opinion. Scalia likes to say on matters such as a right to privacy that if it is not written in the constitution, then it does not rightfully exist. Uh, Anthony? You out there? Ready to shoot your mouth off?

[bogtrotters]

08:19 PM on 02/28/2008

McCain IS a Canal Zone.

[alted1663]

07:42 PM on 02/28/2008

Why don't we just let him be President of the Panama Canal?

[Kally]

07:44 PM on 02/28/2008

Hey read the bill passed in 1952 it says that BOTH PARENTS must be citizens for a person to be president....does THAT let obama out. His pappy was a citizen of Kenya...So there are questions all over the place why pick on poor old McCain.

[bogtrotters]

08:26 PM on 02/28/2008

Why do you post here? Do you clip jumper cables to your nipples, too?

[1differentdrummer]

06:55 AM on 02/29/2008

I think a part of that law said it applies only to people not of the R persuasion, doesn't it?

[MajorKong]

07:23 PM on 02/28/2008

I just noticed he's not wearing a flag lapel pin in that picture. That proves he's not a patriotic American!

*No, not really. It's just that right wing talking points are so much fun to use.

[Duffs]

07:17 PM on 02/28/2008

How can we ask our parents-to-be to serve abroad if we are going to spurn their children. Nobody should question the fact that John McCain is American. That family has served our nation to the point where any consideration of ambiguity of nationality should be dismissed out of hand.

/Obama '08

[mrdontplay]

06:40 PM on 02/28/2008

it does make the conversation a little more interesting when your talking with the Hanity crowd.

Hanity Crowd guy, "Barack Hussein Obama"!

Me, "at least he's not from Panama"!

lol

[ymax]

06:32 PM on 02/28/2008

The term "natural born" citizen has a long history in British common law.In fact, a law passed in 1677 law says that "natural born" citizens include people born overseas to British citizens. This usage was undoubtedly known to John Jay, who had children born overseas while he was serving as a diplomat.( It also appears to have been employed by the members of the first Congress, who included many of the people who had participated in the Constitutional Convention. To be specific, The Naturalization Act of 1790, which was passed by this Congress, declared "And the children of citizens of the United States, that may be born beyond the sea, or out of the limits of the United States, shall be considered as natural born citizens; Provided, that the right of citizenship shall not descend to persons whose fathers have never been resident of the United States."




This is fom the Constituion.

I an not a fan of McLoser but he is an American.

[MufsMom]

09:12 PM on 02/28/2008

Amen!

[MIKEBC]

06:12 PM on 02/28/2008

JUST TYPE IN ALL CAPS, IT'S MUCH EASIER TO READ!

[Nuzzy]

06:06 PM on 02/28/2008

According to 8 USC 1401(c), McCain't really IS a natural born US citizen, as he is "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."

Let's now focus on why his platform makes him unqualified for the presidency.

[mrdontplay]

06:45 PM on 02/28/2008

Technicalities. Huh.

They were only used to elect the 43rd president twice.

[RedRooster]

06:04 PM on 02/28/2008

There is a distinction between citizenship and nationality.

John McCain is clearly a US citizen, but depending upon the legal status of the Panama Canal at the time of his birth, his nationality may in fact be Panamanian rather than American.

Most of us don't make the distinction, because most of us are born in the territorial US to parents who were also born here, but our citizenship derives from the fact that we were born on US soil...not to American parents...

Again, the distinction can be confusing but the Founding Fathers made it when considering who should be eligible for the presidency and it's why they added a particular eligibility clause to the constitution.

[JFRED]

05:32 PM on 02/28/2008

This is more than an academic question: what is a "natural-born citizen"? Must a child be born on U.S. soil to be such a citizen? What about Americans working abroad for the State Department --are their children born overseas U.S. citizens automatically?
Same for military personnel: for example, are children born to American soldiers stationed in Germany "natural-born citizens"?, or do they go through some bureaucratic ritual to become naturalized?
And what about American business men and women working for private U.S. companies in Asia or Europe or Africa: are their children born away from U.S. soil considered to be "natural-born" citizens of the United States?
And what about people born in the outer marches of the American Empire? Could a Puerto Rican-born person become President? Guam-born? American Samoa? U.S. Virgin islands?
We now know the murkiness of Panama John McCain's situation. Can you image if Hawaii Barack Obama had been born a few years earlier--before Hawaii became a state-he might not be eligible to run for the Presidency?
Enough questions to fill the Supreme Court's docket.

[baghdadjoe]

05:39 PM on 02/28/2008

There is a different standard for someone who wants to run for president.

In each of the examples you describe, that person would be a US citizen. But for the presidency, the standard is higher - you have to be born on US soil, which seems pretty unlikely for "Panama John". Being a "natural born US citizen" is required by our Constitution, and this is why McCain's campaign is so worried about it.

It makes some sense, actually. If McCain is allowed to run and he wins, we'll have every Panamanian over here trying to run for president.

[ymax]

05:58 PM on 02/28/2008

I am not a suporter of McLoser but tou are wrong, 100% wrong.
Sorry but you are wrong!

[JulieSA]

08:11 PM on 02/28/2008

"...we'll have every Panamanian over here trying to run for president."

No, because not every Panamanian has two parents who are American citizens.

[jungpatawan]

05:14 PM on 02/28/2008

Sooo.... Panama was McCain's birth Canal?

JP

[VogonsCryptolect]

04:59 PM on 02/28/2008

Ollie?

Ollie?

Oxenfree?