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No, I like an adaptation of your view that asks the question “was there any other citizenship alternative?”.

In the case of Authur, there was no other alternative unless the Irish father had taken his son who had been born apparently on US Soil, had taken him to Ireland and registered him immediately as an Irish citizen while denouncing any claim of US citizenship over the child. In that time era, I don’t think Ireland was allowing Irish descendants to claim Irish citizenship by themselves. They do so now, but I don’t think they did back then unless Irish citizens and relatives advocated for it.

But the Irish father never took those steps, so Authur had no alternative other than natural US citizenship.

Your question could equivalently be stated, did the child have any alternative?

In the case of McCain, he had no alternative as his parents never sought citizenship for him other than US citizenship. I don’t believe Coco Solo, Panama had a law in place that a child of US citizens born in within its borders was immediately a citizen of the Republic of Panama at birth primarily because Coco Solo, Panama at the time was part of the Panama Canal Zone which was US territory. McCain seems eligible. But I won’t quibble.

I still like using a view adapted from your explanation that eligibility is confirmed if there is no alternative to US citizenship at the time of birth.

Certainly, Barry Goldwater had no alternative.

Barack Obama did have an alternative. If he was born on Kenyan soil, he was immediately a British subject. He would have no alternative other than to be a British subject, which was an alternative to US citizenship. If he was born in Kenya, he’s not natural born.

So yeah, regardless that Obama’s mother was reported to be an American citizen, if he was born in Kenya he would be ineligible because he was a British subject at birth. He had a firm, even mandatory alternative to US Citizenship because of where he was born and who was purported to be his father. He would have had to have been naturalized but it seems his grandmother finessed a way around naturalization. There’s still quite a mystery around Obama. My wish is that he be completely exposed and that a lesson of history be burned into the American memory of why it is so important to follow the Constitution.