I think you’re the one who needs to brush up on recent history. No serious Democrat ever claimed that McCain was ineligible to run for president. I recall the mild murmur of stories in that regard, but none were treated seriously. So your claim is really not valid.
Also, I’m not backing off anything. What I was taught in school is essentially what I believe any court will rule should such a case arise.
I have already wasted too much time on this today; here is a small sampling of links, although I suspect you will have no interest in any of them. I think the first is the most interesting as relating to what we were taught and what was discussed during our time in school. The first post is from the son was born abroad to citizen parents. His father was a soldier stationed overseas. His story is consistent with what I was taught.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheCREST/message/24264
The second is a very in depth article written by constitutional scolar Gabriel J. Chin.
The third is a link to a discussion on DU, similar to dozens if not hundreds of other discussions by DEMOCRATS where many insist that McCain was not elligable to be president.
The following are articles from the main stream media in 2008. It is funny how knowledgable the seemed to be back then when the question was about McCain. Now they don’t seem to have any clue or concern about the constitutional “Natural Born Citizen” requirement.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/us/politics/11mccain.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23415028/ns/nightly_news/t/mccains-citizenship-called-question/
http://jonathanturley.org/2008/03/06/the-supreme-redux-is-john-mccain-ineligible-to-be-president/