In 1986 this was changed to 5 years before the age of 14 and 2 years after the age of 14. (So some may say he fits in this, but I don't see anywhere where it says it was retroactive back to any previous years.
The only time I remember where it indicated any of the changes was retroactive was when it finally included the mother as being one of the citizens where before it only applied to the father being a citizen.
Do you think this web site is a good source?
For the usual quick answer layman's questions, probably. But the lawyer would always prefer to look at the statute and in the modern world that is usually not difficult.
Note that you say, In 1986 this was changed to 5 years before the age of 14 and 2 years after the age of 14. (So some may say he fits in this, but I don't see anywhere where it says it was retroactive . . . .)
The statute is quoted above in #148. The people that want to give the 1986 amendment retroactive application are incorrect.
The statute in its current codification is 8 USCA Sec. 1401(g). The amendments, referenced to the public law in which they were enacted are cited below the statute. The effective dates of the amendments are then cited in the afternotes below the public law references.
The current version of (g) was adopted by Public Law 99-653 which was effective with respect "to persons born on or after November 14, 1986." So the amendment, by its terms, is clearly not retroactive.
Some are confused by the flush language at the end of (g) which give retroactive effect to "this proviso" however the "proviso" reference is to the language beginning ""Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States. . . . " which has no application to the present situation.
To find the earlier version of (g), you need to see in the amendment descriptions that the subsections of 1401 were renumbered by the amendment--so Sec. 1401(7) became 1401(g).
In addition, my memory is that there was another version of (7) before it was modified to the 1986 version which had the 10 and 5 year residence rules keyed to age 21, not age 14. My memory may be incorrect however even if so, the rule in 61 when Obama claims to have been born would have been five years after age 14 and since his mother was only 18 when he was born, she still flunks the test.
Bottom line is that absent a naturalization proceeding, if Obama was born in Kenya as appears from the record, he is not even a US Citizen.