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Citizenship no issue now: McCain

Richardson (Texas): Republican presidential hopeful John McCain said the question of whether he can run for President, despite being born in the Panama Canal Zone, was put to rest 44 years ago in Barry Goldwater’s run for the White House.

Mr. McCain added that he did not know why his campaign sought legal analysis of whether his birth outside the 50 U.S. states in what was a U.S. territory at the time of his birth might disqualify him from the presidency.

The Constitution says only a “natural-born citizen” may serve as President. Mr. McCain’s campaign asked former Solicitor General Ted Olson for a legal interpretation of the issue.

Mr. McCain himself insists the issue was put to rest when a politician from his home state of Arizona, Barry Goldwater, ran for President in 1964.

“Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory, Arizona was a territory, and it went all the way to the Supreme Court,” Mr. McCain told reporters on Friday on his campaign plane. “And there’s no doubt about that. And it was researched again in 2000.”

The Panama Canal Zone is no longer a U.S. territory, but it was when Mr. McCain was born on Aug 29, 1936.

“It’s very clear that [the idea that] an American born in a territory of the United States whose father is serving in the military would not be eligible for the presidency of the United States is certainly not something our founding fathers envisioned.” Mr. McCain’s father was stationed in the Canal Zone by the Navy at the time of his birth. — AP

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