Senator John McCain, like Governor Mitt Romney's father, George Romney, was not born in the United States.
Senator McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone (Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, August 29, 1936). Governor George Romney, who made an unsuccessful run for the presidency in 1964 was born in Chihuahua, Mexico.
While the legal question of being born outside the United States has never been fully settled as it relates to eligibility for national office, it does present an interesting legal question.
If elected, would Senator McCain be eligible and qualified to serve as President of the United States?
“The special term "Natural-Born Citizen" is used in particular as a requirement for eligibility to serve as President or Vice President of the United States. Article II, Section 1, clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution states that:
No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.”
For an opposing view see,
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/junkie/archive/junkie070998.htm
