"Some bloggers are questioning John McCain's right to run for the presidency on the basis of his birth in the Panama Canal Zone. They have produced "evidence" showing that that the hospital where the Arizona senator says he was born was not built until 1941--five years after McCain's birth. A review of the archival record shows that there was a small hospital at the Coco Solo submarine base in 1936 and also reveals the name of the U.S. Navy physician who signed McCain's birth certificate."
Well text of the quote is correct. Unfortunately he wasn't born at Coco, according to his birth documents posted here yesterday evening, he was born in the French hospital in Colon, well outside the zone. Maybe you want to make the argument that being delivered by a US Navy physician is close enough?
Dammit!
For a few precious seconds I was fully satisfied that at least one of this election’s major candidates was constitutionally qualified to hold that office.
Thanks a bunch, pal.
It’s irrelevent who delivered McCain and where.
See previous item. McCain was born of US citizens and thus was a citizen at birth, as determined by Congressional law in 1790. It doesnt matter where he was born.
For the same reason, Mitt Romney’s Dad, George Romney, was qualified to be President even though he was born in mexico city.
We get confused because most of those among us born overseas are immigrants. Immigrants born of foreigners who then move here become citizens by naturalization. They are ineligible for the Presidency as they were not natural-born US citizens.
As I reported earlier, the McCain campaign has declined to publicly release the senator's birth certificate. But a senior campaign official showed me a copy of his birth certificate issued by the "family hospital" in the Coco Solo submarine base. (McCain's grandfather commanded the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in 1936; his father was the executive officer of a submarine based in Coco Solo.)
The birth certificate was signed by Captain W. L. Irvine. I have now checked that name against the Naval Register for 1936, and I find that William Lorne Irvine was director of the medical facility at the submarine base hospital in Coco Solo, Panama Canal Zone, during that time period. You can see the entry here. I think this effectively disposes of any remaining doubts that McCain was born inside the Canal Zone.