McCain was born on the Panama Canal, yet noone is questioning whether HE was born here, or not? :p (Yes, I know this is a fallacious argument; but you see where I'm going with this). - Helen Sventitsky

It has nothing to do with embracing the immigrant or not. Our Constitution lays down strict rules for who can legally run for President. Having said that, the whole "Obama wasn't born here" thing needs to go away. It's been proven, to my satisfaction at least, that he's qualified to run. (Whether he's qualified to BE president is another question.) - Joey Gibson

It is also pretty blatantly xenophobic. There are a lot of natural born US citizens who weren't born on US soil (plenty of military kids whose parents didn't/couldn't make it to a base hospital spring to mind) or to parents who were both US citizens at the time. - Jennifer Dittrich

The rules aren't clear cut, which is the problem. - Alex Scoble

I didn't even know Panama was a US Territory, seriously. So it works with me. - anna sauce

i find it creepy that both candidates this time around have some kind of 'cloud' surrounding their citizenship.in both cases, i find it to be fabricated. but what are the odds that both candidates would be vulnerable to this attack in their heritage? - MikeAmundsen

My understanding is that persons BORN here in the US, are at least 35 years of age and are US Citizens (which would pertain to anyone born on US soil, FMU) could run for president. - Helen Sventitsky

McCain's was questioned. It just didn't have the shelf life of the Obama questions. - Alan Simpson

Does anyone remember when the T-800 got into politics and some folks on the right were talking about amending the constitution to allow for foreign born, naturalized citizens to run for president? - Jon Anderson

lol @ T-800 - DO ANYBODY NO MONIQUE from fftogo

Anna, the Panama Canal was US territory until it was turned over to the Panamanians in 1999, and is now effectively run by the Chinese. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...) Thanks, Alan, I knew it had been questioned for a while, but it doesn't pop up as much as Obama's birth rights seem to be. - Helen Sventitsky

Last ditch effort to confuse voters who have not made a decision yet. Lets move on. Whats going to happen is going to happen. The real question is what will you do afterwards? - Santa CW™

I always figured "natural born" meant "not naturalized," and since Obama was born with dual citizenship and his Kenyan citizenship expired in 1982, he is a natural born U.S. citizen. Children of military parents born on non-U.S. soil are still "natural born" U.S. citizens. - Nathan Rein

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free"- Plaque on the Statue of Libery. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Roberto Bonini

The McCain thing is also preposterous. If both of your parents (only one parent after 1982) are American citizens and lived a certain amount of years in the US, it doesn't matter where they have a child, the child will be considered a US citizen. - Alex Scoble

Thanks for commenting, folks, I kept re-writing my post, it was about how I'm a Swedish grandkid, and how people in America are really only interested in how recently you came here- not about how your German side faught in the Civil War for the North. So questioning a perfectly valid birth certificate remidns me, yes of inherent xenophobia, but more about how we all conveniently forget our own roots when accusing others of being FOB (fresh off the boat) - anna sauce

From Article II, Section I of the U.S. 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; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen Years a resident within the United States." http://www.law.cornell.edu/constit... - tiffany

According to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon... children born abroad to American citizens are citizens by legislative statute, not by Constitutional right or Supreme Court decision thanks to the Naturalization Act of 1790 (source: http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin...). So, yes Obama is "natural born" by law, and the Constitutionality of that law has never been challenged. - tiffany

Personally, I just think anyone who brings it up has to be a willful idiot & not worth my time talking to. If you went to school in this country, you were taught the Constitiution and exactly what it says regarding this matter. So the people who mention it either A) didn't learn it somehow forgot it, B) didn't know & refused to look it up or C) just hateful. - Admiral Anika

in another thread, the woman believes that a lack of records "says something" but existing records, like his birth certificate "proves nothing." You can't argue with people like that. - anna sauce

there was a thread just today that i skimmed over trying to make that point. all i could do was "LOL" - Cee Bee

@CeeBee oof, just found another - anna sauce

i feel like i'm living in a bizarro usa sometimes. like I'M the freak who's out of touch! i'm telling you, some people have made my head spin over the last 10 years - Cee Bee

I'm over that rumor. This man is about to be president. - Derrick

yeah @Derrick I think it's limiting my game. - anna sauce

Jason, well said - anna sauce

I think that, if you have to resort to arguing about birth certificates, you've pretty much lost the debate. But never let it be said I didn't contribute: http://www.snopes.com/politic... - Steven Perez

and if steven's link isn't enough, how about a little occams razor? you'd think that with the MILLIONS of dollars both campaigns are spending that nobody would be able to actually PROVE it would be enough. but no, i'm sure a crazy rumor forwarded around a bunch of people's emails is much more reliable. i hear if you don't send it to 10 other people you'll have a year of bad luck... - Jeremy Toeman

What if you're a test tube baby? Were you even born at all? - Derrick

@Jeremy on one of the wingnut echo chambers I was reading yesterday on here, they were like "not carried by ABC, NBC, CNN, BBC..." like that shows the veracity of the information. At a certain level I"m not going to be able to convince anyone of anything if we don't agree on the acceptance of certain facts. - anna sauce