Despite Panama Canal Zone Birth, John McCain is a Natural Born Citizen

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

In case you didn't know, that is Article 2 Section 1 of the United States Constitution. Essentially, the founders of America wanted to make sure that only those who were natural born citizens would be able to hold the office of the presidency. The 14^th Amendment also describes what it means to be a citizen of the United States: Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

The reason for this is clear: can John McCain hold the office of the Presidency? According to the Cleveland Leader, "Senator John McCain (R-AZ) was born August 29, 1936 in the Panama Canal Zone on a U.S. military base to two United States citizens." So is he a "natural born" Citizen? The question is important when you talk about what it means to be a U.S. citizen. I feel that Senator McCain should be considered a "Natural Born" citizen and should be allowed to hold the office of the Presidency if he should win.

First, let's look at the arguments against Senator McCain. The idea is that only those individuals, who are born in one of the 50 states or territories, should be considered a natural born citizen. To me, this is a ridiculous statement. While the United States never claimed Panama as a part of their territory, we have a military base located there. I think this is an important point. The United States has numerous bases located throughout the world and each of those bases is considered a part of United States Territory. That is one of the main reasons why a lot of people dislike America, because they feel we are intruding upon their governments sovereignty by having our bases located inside their territory.