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So it is your assertion that two clearly birthright citizens, ordered abroad by the US government, could potentially give birth to a child who was "less" of a citizen than their parents? That is ludicrous at its face, and no reasonable person would attribute that intent to the Constitution.

First of all that should be re-written without the confusing generality, like so ...

it is your assertion that two natural born citizens, ordered abroad by the US government, could potentially give birth to a child who was "less" of a citizen than their parents?

... And finally we have a useful hypothetical from the other side.

Now if by "lesser" you mean that two NBC have a "mere citizen" child, a classic citizen at birth who requires no naturalization then you are correct, but you are the one who has assigned the negative connotation. In reality the only difference is that this child is deprived of running for one office. Oh how terrible for the child!

Perhaps the indignation should be aimed at the mother who couldn't manage in NINE months to find her way back home to deliver her precious future President. It's not like we humans have the reproductive cycle of a cat, or that pregnancy is a surprise, or that we are stuck in the colonial era of ship or horse travel preventing return to home. It's not like they don't get ( paid ) maternity leave ( or paternity nowadays! ). No, the fact is that there is no good excuse for not delivering at home if you want to be the mother of a President. And it's not like there isn't birth control which begs the question as to just how smart are these people really are. Why are soldiers and diplomats having kids abroad in the first place? An icky question? Too bad. Ask parents who did this in the 1940's and 1950's and they will tell you they knew their kids delivered abroad were not eligible to run for President under the strictest interpretation.

People who dispute this, like yourself apparently, act as if it is a punishment to a child, when in reality it is a security precaution for the United States Of America and the Constitution. It simply acknowledges that there is a difference between being born in one of the United States, and being born everywhere else.

What we are seeing play out here is that huge mistake that occurred in our schools since the 1960's when idiotic teachers began telling their kids In America, anyone can become President. That's nonsense. Anyone can become a citizen *if* we decide to let them. Any citizen can run for any office except for the one that has a higher standard than all others, and for a good reason.

Your argument is really just another form of the modern, yellow ribbon wearing, everybody gets a prize approach to life. No effort required ( on the mother's part ) to be the same as everyone else. You essentially tell the mother to not even make the effort to go home and deliver and still she and her child is no different than a mother who makes that intentional effort to get home. This is simultaneously rewarding irresponsibility and diluting American natural born citizenship.

The John McCain scenario, which is what you have described was a clear example of an edge case, a rare event compared to the vast majority of USA births and to keep it simple and clean he should have been tossed overboard immediately. He never should have ran if he cared about the Constitution ( which he certainly does not care about at all in the first place ). What, did we run out of Natural Born Citizens or something, and we needed to dive into the pool of questionable people? I'm getting sick and tired of the Constitution taking a back seat to people's feelings and their urges to reward this person or that.

Why even go down this road, can you answer that? There is no good reason to excuse these edge cases. We are not running out of people qualified to run for President, and by excusing any scenario you open the door to excuse all scenarios. If you have two potential babysitters or employees or school bus drivers, and one has a possible problem in their record then you don't go crazy trying to rationalize that person. You err on the side of caution and pick the cleanest case. Why this isn't done for the highest office in the land is what is a symptom of a failing American IQ and inevitable national suicide.