Redstate

By kowalski Posted in 2008 — Comments (13) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

[Update: And conlawguru has an excellent piece of Constitutional forensics up this morning, for everyone who didn't go to law school.]

In which I herewith genuflect toward Ben Domenech and everyone else who participated earnestly and with remarkable depth of understanding in this thread, addressing the question of John McCain's eligibility for President and the various and sundry challenges to it, based on the meaning of the phrase "Natural Born Citizen."

As a relatively recent (within the past 7 years) convert to Republicanism, I hadn't appreciated the fact that the issue of McCain's birth status had been raised in 1999, prior to his first Presidential run. And as I note in that thread, I was honestly startled that anyone would raise questions about his eligibility, seeing how he was born on a U.S. military base, to a military family who happened to be situated on said installation by order of the United States government.

All of which is why I was surprised at the time that such a picayune, quirky and seemingly tangential issue was being front-paged here at RS. Surely, this could never be taken seriously, right?

Wrong. I was taken to the woodshed in that thread for my infirm grasp of the Constitution's words and the historical legal debate surrounding them. Guilty as charged on this issue. More importantly, as we've all seen in recent days, the New York Times considers John McCain to be an enemy combatant, despite endorsing him in the Republican Primary race. Therefore it is no surprise that the International Herald Tribune (owned by the NYT) is raising the spectre of McCain's ineligibility with this article [h/t: Drudge] today:

WASHINGTON: The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president? In the case of Senator John McCain of Arizona, the issue is becoming more than a matter of parental daydreaming.

McCain's likely nomination as the Republican candidate for president and the happenstance of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone in 1936 are reviving a musty debate that has surfaced periodically since the founders first set quill to parchment and declared that only a "natural-born citizen" can hold the nation's highest office.

Folks, it's not often that you get both clairvoyance and clear-mindedness in any publication, particularly one you read online at no cost -- so hats off to Ben Domenech and everyone else at RedState for bringing this issue to the forefront -- more than six weeks before everyone else in the MSM.

You guys are magi with hundreds of extra clairvoyance skill points! I am unworthy.