Comments on: John McCain’s Presidential Eligibility Redux

By: Consul-At-Arms

Consul-At-Arms — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:11:08 +0000

By: Grey Lady Tries The “Just Wondering” About McCain’s Birth Again | McCain Blogs

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:22:35 +0000

[...] James Joyner: Frankly, it might be time to simply fix the Constitution in the manner the Framers intended: by amendment. It’s wholly unclear to me why all of the restrictions on whom Americans may elect president (age, citizenship, number of years previously served) shouldn’t be swept away. This entry was posted on Friday, July 11th, 2008 at 4:18 pm and is filed under John Mccain, Wonky Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "Grey Lady Tries The “Just Wondering” About McCain’s Birth Again", url: "http://mccainblogs.com/2008/07/11/grey-lady-tries-the-just-wondering-about-mccains-birth-again/" }); . [...]

By: PD Shaw

PD Shaw — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:32:55 +0000

You can lose your eligibility to be President if you renounce your citizenship or serve in a foreign government or military.

Is that true? Art. II, Sec. 5 seems to only require citizenship at birth and residency for the past 14 years.

By: JKB

JKB — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 16:20:55 +0000

What we are Venezuela or Zimbabwe now? Changing our Presidential eligibility to suit the current political populism. The restrictions upon the eligibility for President are based on sound reasons.

Age is to ensure maturity and experience to handle such responsibilities.

Natural-born citizenship is to ensure that you have not owned allegiance to any other sovereign in your life. You can lose your eligibility to be President if you renounce your citizenship or serve in a foreign government or military. Both signs that you no longer hold the US constitution above all other sovereigns.

The term limit was imposed to prevent a populist dictator that many feared FDR was becoming and to prevent political maneuvering that would create overwhelming barriers to competitors. Think the drive to place term limits on Congress.

While there are those who meet the Presidential criteria who aren't mature enough to handle the job or whose sole allegiance isn't to the US Constitution, the limits serve a valid purpose and the election process is to handle bad candidates who meet the low threshold. Being the governor of a large state or being Secretary of State is not the same as being President. Neither officeholder has the final decision in matters that will turn the country over to a foreign sovereign. It may be antiquated and many may not put much stock in honor anymore but limiting Presidents to those who've never (overtly) had allegiance to any other sovereign isn't such an onerous restriction.

By: PD Shaw

PD Shaw — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 15:08:15 +0000

I did a computer search of SCOTUS decisions using the term "natural born Citizen" when this issue was first raised. It was pretty sparse. Clearly an invitation for judicial tomfoolery.

America needs to dial back its hair-trigger on Constitutional issues. If Ahrnold wants to run for President, yes he needs the Constitution changed, but on these vaguer issues we need to trust that the whole Constitutional system does a pretty good job of protecting our interests.

And that goes for that foreigner Obama too.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:33:30 +0000

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;

McCain should just say that he qualifies under the 2nd half. Such a joke might even be funny.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:25:40 +0000

Orrin Hatch did table an amendment in the Senate, I believe, which would've allowed a non-US born citizen to run for the presidency after 20 years of residency. It seems fair enough, and it's a little silly that someone can be a governor of a major state (like Schwarzennegger) or US Secretary of State and de facto no. 2 in the government (like Kissinger) and not even be able to explore running for the presidency.

By: yetanotherjohn

yetanotherjohn — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:07:36 +0000

Just to be clear, the number of years served is a relatively recent addition to the list of restrictions.

By: sam

sam — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:36:08 +0000

Frankly, it might be time to simply fix the Constitution...

I agree completely. My understanding is that this clause of the Constitution:

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;...

[Section 1 of Article II] was inserted because of the Framers fear that a "Tory" latecomer might become president and somehow undo the Revolution. I think we're safely past that.