Well I don’t agree.
This is a manual so that the State Department is consistent in its approach throughout the world and uses up to date policy information. Many freepers report being told by the consulate when they applied for citizenship for their offspring born abroad that they were not eligible to become President. My read is that they were told that because that was what was in the manual.
The Consulate does indeed need to know the statutes to be able to process the citizenship requests of citizens for their offspring born abroad. The original verbiage was there for many years and was based on the legal consensus. It was scrubbed because it was inconvenient for someone.
What "approach" is that, and to what "policy" is it relevant? The only relevance of "natural born citizen" is to the question of who can run for President. And that has absolutely nothing to do with the State Department, period. The State Department never, ever has to make a determination of who can run for President.
The Consulate does indeed need to know the statutes to be able to process the citizenship requests of citizens for their offspring born abroad.
That is absolutely true, but only thing they need for that is to know whether or not someone is a "citizen", not whether they are a "natural born citizen". The far more specific question of whether a citizen "at birth" is actually a "natural born citizen" eligible to run for President has absolutely nothing to do with them performing their duties.