Thursday, February 28, 2008

Tit for Tat, More Children at Play in the Campaign.

Not to be outdone by the Republicans who implied recently that Obama's home country was in Africa, McCain's birthplace in the Canal Zone is causing questions about his eligibility to be president.

As The Old New Englander reminded us recently, The Constitution requires, an American president to be native born.

What about territories, and what about being born outside the states with a large expectation of being back in the states in the near future? This must be a common occurrence with children born of military parents.

2 comments:

The Old New Englander said...

You've put it right. This is silly.

Frankly, we should amend the Constitution to provide that naturalized citizens may be President. We might impose a reasonable waiting period (10 years? 12? 14?) after becoming a citizen, to make sure that the person is truly acculturated, but we should recognized that even that would express a want of faith in the ability of voters to pice the best leader. (A want of faith justified, perhaps, by some recent decisions.....)

Leanderthal, Lighthouse Keeper said...

The waiting period should be required to sift out those who would become naturalized just so they could run.

And how about people like Clinton moving to a state just so they could run for office from that new state? Shrewd move to be sure, but prohibiting that would be like trying to legislate morality.