Oh-eight (R): Born in the USA?
Posted: Thursday, February 28, 2008 9:07 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
Republicans
MCCAIN: The campaign isn't taking chances on the issue of whether McCain was born in the U.S. Under the Constitution, a president must be natural-born. The New York Times: "Mr. McCain was born on a military installation in the Canal Zone, where his mother and father, a Navy officer, were stationed. His campaign advisers say they are comfortable that Mr. McCain meets the requirement and note that the question was researched for his first presidential bid in 1999 and reviewed again this time around.”
“But given mounting interest, the campaign recently asked Theodore B. Olson, a former solicitor general now advising Mr. McCain, to prepare a detailed legal analysis. ‘I don’t have much doubt about it,’ said Mr. Olson, who added, though, that he still needed to finish his research.’”
The Boston Globe: “The story of how the "Keating Five" senators allegedly pressured regulators to lay off a failing Arizona S&L became a major scandal, and marked a turning point in McCain's life -- the near-death of his political career followed by his eventual rebirth as a crusader for campaign finance reform.”
“The events of 1987, when McCain met with regulators, and 1991, when the Senate Ethics Committee concluded that he used ‘poor judgment’ in the matter, are only dimly remembered by many. But McCain's emergence as the likely GOP nominee, combined with the rising volume of anti- lobbying rhetoric in the presidential campaign, has brought renewed attention to the Keating Five case, prompting questions about what McCain learned from it, what he's accepted was wrong, and whether he now is stepping back from some of his own scrutiny of his past errors.”
George Will doesn't have kind things to say about McCain: "Although his campaign is run by lobbyists; and although his dealings with lobbyists have generated what he, when judging the behavior of others, calls corrupt appearances; and although he has profited from his manipulation of the taxpayer-funding system that is celebrated by reformers -- still, he probably is innocent of insincerity. Such is his towering moral vanity, he seems sincerely to consider it theoretically impossible for him to commit the offenses of appearances that he incessantly ascribes to others.
Such certitude is, however, not merely an unattractive trait. It is disturbing righteousness in someone grasping for presidential powers."
“McCain won the endorsement of Texas evangelical leader John Hagee on Wednesday, which could boost his standing among religious conservatives who have been reluctant to embrace the likely nominee. Hagee, who heads a 19,000-member church in San Antonio, is best known for his outspoken support of Israel and writings on the Middle East, where he envisions a blood-soaked clash between East and West leading to the return of Jesus Christ.”
