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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, February 29, 2008

McCain says he's only one qualified to fight war on terror

By Aman Batheja
McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

John McCain

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RICHARDSON, Texas — Flanked by Texas Republican leaders, Sen. John McCain told Texas Instruments employees that he is the only person left running for president qualified to address the threat of terrorism.

McCain spoke to 600 employees at TI's new factory yesterday. Earlier in the day, he addressed students at Rice University in Houston and held a private fundraiser in Fort Worth.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Rep. Michael Burgess, R-Texas, and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey answered questions with McCain and echoed his statements on national security.

OBAMA ATTACK

McCain continued the argument he began Wednesday with Sen. Barack Obama.

McCain, speaking in Tyler, mocked Obama's position on Iraq, and Obama responded by criticizing McCain's initial support for the war.

"Then Senator Obama went back and talked about the decision to go to Iraq. That's about the past," McCain said, declaring himself as the candidate focused on the future.

McCain also criticized recent negative comments by Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton about the North American Free Trade Agreement.

"I will continue to abide by a solemn agreement we made with Canada and Mexico," McCain said, maintaining that NAFTA has helped the U.S. economy and created jobs.

On his hope of launching a commission to look at overhauling the tax code, McCain said: "Maybe have Alan Greenspan to head it up, whether he's alive or dead, it wouldn't matter. Maybe it could be like 'Weekend at Bernie's.' Put some dark glasses on him."

McCain's stump speech veered back and forth between jokes and starkly serious statements, most of them focused on terrorism and national security.

"If I have to follow him to the gates of hell, I will get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice," McCain said to applause.

He continued: "This is a transcendental struggle, and we will never surrender. They will. They will surrender."

OFFICE ELIGIBILITY

Also yesterday, McCain said the question of whether he can run for president, despite being born in the Panama Canal Zone, was put to rest 44 years ago in Barry Goldwater's run for the White House.

McCain added that he doesn't know why his campaign sought legal analysis of whether his birth outside the continental United States might disqualify him from the presidency.

The Constitution says only a "natural-born citizen" may serve as president.

McCain's campaign asked former Solicitor General Ted Olson for a legal interpretation of the issue.

McCain himself insists the issue was put to rest when fellow Arizonan Goldwater ran for president in 1964.

"Barry Goldwater was born in Arizona when it was a territory, Arizona was a territory, and it went all the way to the Supreme Court," McCain told reporters yesterday on his campaign plane. "And there's no doubt about that. And it was researched again in 2000."

ZONE A TERRITORY

The Panama Canal Zone was a U.S. territory at the time of McCain's birth on Aug. 29, 1936.

As for the reason for seeking Olson's opinion, McCain said: "I don't know. Maybe my staff talked to him, but I didn't. But I have absolutely no concern about that.

"It's very clear that (the idea that) an American born in a territory of the United States whose father is serving in the military would not be eligible for the presidency of the United States is certainly not something our Founding Fathers envisioned." McCain's father was stationed in the Canal Zone by the Navy at the time of his birth.

Olson said he is still researching the issue but is certain McCain is qualified. The plain meaning of "natural-born citizen" includes those born to parents who are citizens, particularly when they are born on a U.S. military base as McCain was, Olson said.

"I am confident that the United States Supreme Court, should it ever address the issue, would agree," Olson said in a statement.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, people are born U.S. citizens if they are born in the U.S. or their parents are U.S. citizens. The question arises because Article II of the Constitution limits the office of president to a "natural-born citizen."

Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, a prominent backer of Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama, introduced legislation yesterday that would define a "natural-born citizen" as anyone born to any U.S. citizen while serving in the active or reserve components of the U.S. armed forces.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.