Letters to the Editor
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Well done
Rather than try and win on a technicality by trying to disqualify McCain, or even allow such an underhanded threat to exist, instead introduce legislation to allow the poor sap to run. Obama will win in a landslide against Bush III, Diebold notwithstanding, so by all means, let's get him on the ballot!
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A classy act
This is very good idea. I don't care for McCain, and certainly don't want him to win, but I'd not like to see him bound up in a trifling technicality.
Plus, more importantly, it makes Obama look even better!
A win-win.
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A no-brainer
First of all, penalizing the children of people serving in the military is just insane. (although republicans seem eager to penalize the actual members of the military. But thats a different issue)
Secondly, you know Obama is drooling to run against McCain in the General election.
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classy move
That's a pretty classy move on McCaskill's part. Something that should have been fixed a long time ago.
I believe that a amendment to the constitution is in order to do away with this natural born citizen bit in the first place. We are a nation of immigrants. Instead make it, say, anyone who has been a full citizen for twenty five years with permanent residence in this nation for the same amount of time is eligible for the Presidency.
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Not surprising
Obama is, first a foremost, a scholar of the Constitution who has taught Constitutional law and who cares about these issues.
And, second, he's a gracious guy. This would be a stupid, nitpicky issue to have hanging over John McCain, who, regardless of whether you agree with his politics, is what Obama always refers to him as: a true American hero.
So kudos for class, here, and for the right way to handle things.
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You have to wonder
How HRC would have handled it... if she'd thought of it.
I could be wrong, but based on the way she's campaigned, this seems like the kind of thing she would have used against McCain rather than be gracious and smart about it.
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Naturally
The Constitution specifies that "No person except a natural born citizen... shall be eligible to the office of President."
So, no clones? What about test-tube babies?
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Does this mean...
all those Amerasian kids that got left behind in Viet Nam get to be US citizens?
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Why only military children?
My daughter was born in Munich while my husband and I (both American) lived there as ex-pats. She has never held any other citizenship.
Why should this bill cover only children of military families? Plenty of American children are born abroad to civilian American parents.
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r1chard3: They already are US citizens ... and a phrasing issue.
Children born abroad to one US citizen parent are US citizens, as long as their parent has lived in the US for a certain length of time. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_citizenship#Through_birth_abroad_to_one_United_States_citizen
I don't think this bill is worded well. What about kids born to two US citizens while their families are on a day trip to Toronto? Under the original "natural born citizens" language, there's a plausible argument that they could become president. If this bill is passed, it would be reasonable to say that they CAN'T, because they weren't mentioned while military kids were.
Why not just say that a natural born citizen is any person who acquires US citizenship at birth, rather than by naturalization? I've always thought that was the most reasonable interpretation of the "natural born citizen" phrasing anyway.
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Hell yeah
All right, I am a naturalized immigrant. I can do whatever the heck I want in this country, even vote! but I cannot run for President. Not that I would want to, but come on. This country has been built on immigrants. Heck, even our Lady Liberty is an immigrant. You know, even the so-called "native Americans" were immigrants from Siberia, if you're pedantic enough about such things.
The whole "natural born citizen" thing most likely has to do with the early struggles against foreign powers (namely, England) and the colonists' desire to stop being British and start being Americans. It is only, er, natural for them to desire one of their own serving as their President, considering that they've been under the foreign yoke for so long. But... we've been a nation for over two centuries now, time to diversify. I like the idea of a naturalized citizen being able to try out for the Presidency.
Of course, let's first elect a President who isn't a white male Protestant of some sort, and then we'll talk.
(By the way, just want to throw it out there: how many U.S. Presidents had non-Anglo Saxon last names? I can think of two only: Eisenhower and Van Buren. That's it.)
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Good morning Vietnam
A lot of mixed-race people in Southeast Asia will be quite happy about this development.
Welcome all new Americans! The more the merrier I say.
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What about Arnold?
Does this take us an inch closer to changing the Constitution so that he (or Michigan's Canada-born Governor Jennifer Granholm) may qualify to be elected president?
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I heart Senators Obama and MacCaskill
I am active duty military, and my kids were born in Japan.
Thank you very much Senators McCaskill and Obama for looking out for us.
Obama-McCaskill in 08.
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@FreeProton
"By the way, just want to throw it out there: how many U.S. Presidents had non-Anglo Saxon last names? I can think of two only: Eisenhower and Van Buren. That's it."
Roosevelt is Dutch.
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@FreeProton
I think that the Irish (Kennedy) and Scots-Irish (Jackson and Buchanan amongst others) might take issue with being lumped in with the Anglo-Saxons.
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He wasn't always so nice to his opponents
Obama is doing what is politically expedient. It is not clear that this bill could do anything, because the requirement is in the Constitution. The Supreme Court has not defined "natural born" in this context. It may be that the only way this could be clarified would be to amend the Constitution.
Therefore, what Obama is doing here is taking advantage of an opportunity to look "classy." In this context, that is probably a smart thing to do.
However, he did not always take the classy road in dealing with political opponents.
As I'm sure many are aware, in his first campaign for the Illinois Senate he succeeded in knocking all his opponents in the primary off the ballot and ran unopposed. In my opinion, this belies his claim that he practices a different kind of politics.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-070403obama-ballot,1,57567.story