Is John McCain Ineligible to Be President?

Newsmax ^ | Monday, July 16, 2007 4:26 PM | By: Lowell Ponte

[Perdogg]

Pundits are now writing obituaries for Sen. John McCain's sinking campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

I hereby join them with a fundamental question: Does the Arizona senator fulfill our Constitution's eligibility requirements to be president?

Like several other prominent American politicians, John McCain was not born in the United States.

Article II of the Constitution specifies that "no person except a natural born Citizen . . . shall be eligible to the Office of President."

Because of this, California's Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, born in Austria in 1947, is ineligible to be president. He moved to the United States in 1968 and became a U.S. citizen in 1983.

[gracesdad]

Another senseless article from Newsmax.

[babble-on]

I don’t think you could have had German citizenship just by being born there. They don’t play it that way. Still more into the racial business. There’s turkish families where the third generation is being born there, and still no citizenship.

[Vigilanteman]

I really don't like McCain, but this is tinfoil hat stuff. If both parents are U.S. citizens and the birth abroad is duly registered with the U.S. Consulate or Embassy in the country, then it is the same as a natural born U.S. Citizen.

This is exactly what we were told when we registered my Japan-born daughter in Tokyo-- something we had to do in order to get a passport, something we needed to get her a Japanese visa. She has a really cool looking State Department birth certificate to prove it.

[Paleo Conservative]

The author would have a better chance at proving McCain was only 33 years old.

Well Chelsea Clinton is having just her 7th birthday this year on February 29.

[mngran2]

So who’s going to bring this lawsuit against McCain? Romney? Nope, his dad (who ran for president in 1968) was born in Mexico. Whoops!

[Perdogg]

The article is 8 months old.

[babble-on]

My daughter has the same thing, only she was born in Germany. I was never clear on whether she could be president though. Thanks for the post.

[svcw]

Thanks.

My dad told me some stories (not good on his part) with the base commander’s wife.

Oh well, it would be a great family get together addition to my dad’s escapades.

[edcoil]

Just told you what I had to do. I went into the military so the issue became mute.

[freedomlover]

News Max sucks. I ordered a Reagan hat from them 4 years ago and ended up with no hat and a subscription to thier C$(& magazine.

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I agree - I stupidly got on Newsmax’s mailing list about ten years and I STILL get gobs and GOBS of junk mail even though I have tried a million times and ways to get off. Never seen the like of it. They give rabid conservatives a bad name.

See also Judicial Watch.

[Gator101]

But the Constitutionally-mandated term “natural born citizen” remains subject to reinterpretation by future Supreme Courts.”

While that may be - my point was that we certainly wouldn't want to be the side to push a reinterpretation, even for the purpose of keeping McCain from being our candidate. It would be insulting to the military who would view it, rightly so, as us trying to use the conditions of his dad's service to exclude him on a technicality.

[bobjam]

The Panama Canal Zone in 1936 was as much a US Territory as Hawaii and Alaska. How many US Presidents were born in territories?

[trumandogz]

George Romney was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, where his Mormon father had fled in 1886 with his three wives after the U.S. government outlawed polygamy — what the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints had previously called "plural marriage."

Nice that our writer could include this tidbit of information.

[Mamzelle]

re: Only if he was delivered by C section. Is that not how we should be interpreting ‘natural born citizen’?))

LOL--his name is "McCain" not "MacDuff"--

But, oh, if McCain could be torn untimely from the primary womb!!

[mountainbunny]

Pundits are now writing obituaries for Sen. John McCain's sinking campaign for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

They are? He won big in Florida. I don't support him, but I don't see anyone writing obituaries for his campaign. This fundamental misstatement of fact makes me immediately question the rest of the piece.

I hereby join them with a fundamental question: Does the Arizona senator fulfill our Constitution's eligibility requirements to be president?

The children of US citizens are citizens of the US, regardless of where they are born. This is well-established.

The very idea that the children of military members may not be "natural born citizens" is beyond insulting to our servicemen and women and their families. This piece is an exercise in idiocy.

[tnlibertarian]

Well Chelsea Clinton is having just her 7th birthday this year on February 29.

That's funny. So she can't run for President for another 112 years? That's good. Maybe she'll get busted trying to vote for her mom.

[sourcery]

A vote for McCain is a vote for the second coming of Lyndon Johnson (father of "The Great Society.") Wouldn't your rather have at least one Republican to choose from next November?

McConan the "Republican"? Just say NO!

[Bookwoman]

I noticed that smirk too. This year I feel like the whole process has been a drama put on for show by the media and people behind the scenes who are really pulling the strings. I’m not sure how much more of this I want to watch.

I find candidates remaining all have positions on vital issues that scare me to death - not to mention personal baggage! YIKES!

[RC2]

This whole question is about as dumb as the Supreme Court trying to figure out what the 2nd Ammendment really, really, really, really means.

[KJC1]

I’m not a McCain supporter, but I won’t resort to this kind of nonsense to oppose him.

Dittos. I am not a McCain supporter either, but this is really pathetic. It actually makes me sick.