On McCain's 'natural born' status:

My friend Arthur, the retired obstetrician, says that McCain's birth records should be CAREFULLY researched.

"IF he was born by Cesarean section, then he is DEFINITELY NOT 'natural born'."

Aha!

He quotes from the story line of Macbeth.
"Macbeth cannot be harmed, according to the witches, by 'man born of woman'.
Of course, though, there is someone who can harm Macbeth...someone who was "untimely ripped" from his mother's womb...Macduff!
Macduff was born by a crude (for the time) Cesarean section!"

Arthur is a Brit, so you can BELIEVE he is up on his Shakespeare.
Fer sure!

I rest my case.
McCain is ineligible to be president.
He was born on foreign soil, and not 'of woman'.

Also notice: MACbeth, MACduff, McCain.
Coincidence?
I don't think so.
:tinfoilhat:
:-)

McCain will continue it.

Big difference.

There will be, or has been, some kind of precedent about a military hospital being US soil...

I assure you that if it turned out that Obama was born while his mom was on vacation in Canada, you would not think it an issue.

methods "naturally," being born in the United States or of US citizen parents. The only other method is to undergo naturalization or else have a special Congressional honor passed, e.g., Raoul Wallenberg or Winston Churchill.
McCain was born of US parents, and in the Canal Zone because "he wanted to be near his mother." At that time, the Canal Zone was under US control by treaty between the US and Panama.
When one looks at intent, it is pretty clear that the founders did not want a wealthy European to come to the US, build a power base and then become President with possible ties back to Europe. Would anyone born at sea, for example be ineligible for the office because of the location when the rule of blood would make them a US citizen "naturally" and by "birth"?
Jerry Springer, for example, cannot be President, he was born in London to Polish parents.
The much more interesting legal question would be "Can someone born on PR of Puerto Rican parents who never stepped foot in the US and kept their PR identity become President? They would become a full citizen and not merely a "national" the second they settled in the US, but would the extraterritorial status of PR somehow trump that if they only campaigned by web and television and never went to the mainland?
The NYT article addressing this wonders who would have jurisdiction to bring suit or decide anyhow, should McCain prevail in the election.

I think the concern of the founders was particularly focused on the whisper campaigns about inviting a European Protestant monarch over to unify the 13 quarrelsome states. It was never much of a threat and no serious politicians in America actually supported the idea, but the cocktail party chatter about "maybe we need a monarch at the federal level and just leave the states as republics" was frequent enough--and the future unknown enough--that they decided to kill the possibility outright. There already was a fear that the new institution of the presidency could be a springboard to tyranny.

In 1980 the ex governor of Puerto Rico did run for the Republican presidential nomination. Sadly, John Connoly beat him out that year for the coveted "most spectacularly irrelevant campaign" award. Like with the controversy over Mexican-born George Romney's 1968 campaign, I assume if the guy had gotten elected, no one would actually stand in the way.

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:)

as the definition of 'natural born'.

I mean you, not McCain. Don't ever change, Trof! DU needs ya!!

"IF he was born by Cesarean section, then he is DEFINITELY NOT 'natural born'."

That one is gonna be hard to beat, and it's stll early.