McCain was not born in Panama. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone, which was US territory.
I believe it was Jimmah Cahtah that gave away the Canal Zone and that was long after McCain’s birth there.
What does it matter anyway? The wimpy RINO McCain will never be Prez.
It matters because it's relevant to the issue at hand, because McCain also has doubts as to his eligibility to the office of President under Constitutional original intent. Otherwise, there would not have been that wildly unconstitutional Senate Resolution 511, and there would not have been multiple bills proposed, at least five since 2000, with the purpose of Constitutional amendment to make children born abroad of military parents natural-born citizens.
As far as simply "giving away" the Zone, please consider how that might be possible for sovereign territory. It's not. Administrative control of the Zone was gradually returned to Panama, beginning in 1979 and completely ceded in 1999. Under the constitution of Panama, the Zone always was Panamanian territory. They granted the United States authority to act "as if" it were U.S. territory. "As if" precludes actual, full territorial control. Our own State Department recognized this.
Regarding John McCain's specific predicament, I'll refer you to the very thorough analysis of the matter by Gabriel J. Chin (University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law). The following is an abstract of that analysis:
Senator McCain was born in 1936 in the Canal Zone to U.S. citizen parents. The Canal Zone was territory controlled by the United States, but it was not incorporated into the Union. As requested by Senator McCain's campaign, distinguished constitutional lawyers Laurence Tribe and Theodore Olson examined the law and issued a detailed opinion offering two reasons that Senator McCain was a natural born citizen. Neither is sound under current law. The Tribe-Olson Opinion suggests that the Canal Zone, then under exclusive U.S. jurisdiction, may have been covered by the Fourteenth Amendment's grant of citizenship to "all persons born . . . in the United States." However, in the Insular Cases, the Supreme Court held that "unincorporated territories" were not part of the United States for constitutional purposes. Accordingly, many decisions hold that persons born in unincorporated territories are not Fourteenth Amendment citizens. The Tribe-Olson Opinion also suggests that Senator McCain obtained citizenship by statute. However, the only statute in effect in 1936 did not cover the Canal Zone. Recognizing the gap, in 1937, Congress passed a citizenship law applicable only to the Canal Zone, granting Senator McCain citizenship, but eleven months too late for him to be a citizen at birth. Because Senator John McCain was not a citizen at birth, he is not a "natural born Citizen" and thus is not "eligible to the Office of President" under the Constitution.
This essay concludes by exploring how changes in constitutional law implied by the Tribe-Olson Opinion, such as limiting the Insular Cases and expanding judicial review of immigration and nationality laws passed by Congress, could make Senator McCain a citizen at birth and thus a natural born citizen.
A natural-born citizen cannot be "made" after the fact, octex. It is a status that is or is not present at birth. Prof. Chin provides some support, for those who claim that John McCain was not even born a U.S. citizen. I'll refute that very severe claim, by citing U.S. immigration and naturalization statutes going all the way back to 1795. John McCain was born a citizen. Just not a natural-born citizen.