As you suggest, there just isn't anything out there embarrassing enough to justify his current posture. The issue is whether he is eligible to hold the office of President.
“As historical and textual analysis has shown, a citizen may be both “naturalized” and “natural born.” Under the naturalized born approach, any person with a right to American citizenship under the Constitution, laws, or treaties of the United States at the time of his or her birth is a natural-born citizen for purposes of presidential eligibility.”
The Natural-Born Citizen Clause and Presidential Eligibility: An Approach for Resolving Two Hundred Years of Uncertainty. Jill A. Pryor. The Yale Law Journal, Vol. 97, No. 5 (Apr., 1988), pp. 881-899.
I’m assuming you can track this down on Lexis-Nexis. I’m feeling much better about McCain’s legal situation. The 1790 naturalization statute is the clearest indication of what the term “natural born” meant at the time of the Founding Fathers: children born of American parents are natural-born as they automatically are conferred citizenship at birth. Also, the Founding Fathers easily could have used a more precise term—”native born”—yet elected not to do so.
So how come TWO citizens (including a lawyer!) have gotten up the gumption to file suits against McCain on this issue and none to do so against Obama? I wonder if WJC is working on this behind the scenes while his wife makes nice to get put on the ticket and presumably become the automatic heir apparent once Obama is disqualified by the Supreme Court. I can just hearing the teeth-gnashing from the left already: that nasty old Supreme Court has once again interfered with the will of the people to decide an election... :-)