I had seen a comment on a blog the other day about John McCain “not meeting the Constitutional requirements” for being president. As I was confused, I went to snopes.com and searched ‘John McCain.’ I found several articles there on him, but none mentioned whether he met the legal thresholds to be president.
There really aren’t many requirements. You’ve got to be 35 or older and a natural born citizen of the United States.
Well, I knew McCain was older than 35. And I had never heard he wasn’t born in the US, so …
But apparently, he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, as his father was in the military there.
This – for some – raises the question of whether he’s a “natural born” citizen. I don’t doubt the founding fathers’ intent, but I’m sure eggheads and legal eagles will wrestle with this for a while.
Interestingly, Barack Obama is backing a bill to remove all doubt about McCain’s status (and those like him).
The other day, it was McCain sticking up for Obama … and now vice versa. How quaint.
But let’s step into the twilight zone for just a minute. Since we can’t say for certain what the intent was of the founding fathers on “natural born,” what about someone born of C-Section?
And we’re not that far off from cloning. Now that needs SERIOUS consideration, wouldn’t you say?
Or – it could be a good thing. We could clone previous presidents and re-elect them to office. Imagine Washington’s campaign in 2012. Good stuff.
Or we could have a presidential battle royal. We could have some sort of presidential idol … of the 42 men who have been president, we could clone the one we decided was best … and elect him to an 8 year term. Then after 8 years, reclone them and re-elect them (or their new version) to another 8 year term.
The only danger in this is that a lot of people are still under the impression that Ronald Reagan was our best president ever. Even worse, some people would actually vote for GWB.
And that’s just not natural.