[expat_panama]

6. The Canal Zone was not part of the United States.
7. Therefore John McCain was not born in the United States.
8. Therefore John McCain is a citizen not born in the United States.
9. Therefore John McCain is not a natural born citizen.

There are a lot of people who'd disagree with number 6.

Where McCain was born there was a US flag with no other flags flying.  Sure, all this changed later but this was the case at the time.  There's acreage that was in Texas a few decades ago that's now part of Mexico; same with parts of Alaska that went to Russia.  How can someone born in those places suddenly cease to be a "natural born citizen" because of later jurisdictional changes?

At this moment lawyers everywhere are salivating...

[palmer]

But the chain of logic broke at #3, so #6 doesn’t matter.