Calm down, I'm not talking about Barack Obama....rather President Chester A. Arthur! I love these little known historical stories. But back then his rivals challenged his Presidency because they claimed he was born in Canada.

Blame Canada!

Well if you wanted to get technical weren't several of the first presidents born before there was any such thing as a USA?

Damned foreigners 'n immigrants.

I'm curious. Are there very many countries that have the restriction that their elected leader must be born in that country? It seems a ridiculous restriction to me - especially in this day and age.

I'm not sure sport, but I think they were in fact from established families in Britain's colony.

Yes, but our Founding Fathers knew that it was physically impossible to have any of our new presidents be native born, so they made sure there was a section in the Constitution that covered this:

Not that all birthers will care cuz they're delusional but I didn't know about this. Now they need to go after that Christianist & out-of-touch Michele Bachmann for her birther ties come next election for her seat.

I was being facetious, hence the italics in my next sentence.

But I wonder if those born in one of the seceding states during the Confederacy were considered ineligible for the presidency.

No, because secession wasn't considered permissible or possible, the actions of the South notwithstanding. Therefore, anyone born in one of those states that "seceded" from the Union was still considered to be native born.

Which broaches the question, did the US ever elect anyone born in one of the seceded states during their period of illegal secession.

And the answer is: No, thank God.

The closest the US ever came in terms of the president himself was Woodrow Wilson, who was born in 1856 in Virginia, before that state seceded. All of the presidents from 1866 until Wilson were born either in the midwest (mainly Ohio) or the northeast (primarily New York). The next president born in a former Confederate state was either Harry S. Truman, born in Missouri (which had both Confederate and Union governments), in 1884, or Dwight D. Eisenhower, born in Texas in 1890.

In terms of VPs, the closest the US ever got was John Nance Garner, the first VP for FDR, who was born in Texas in 1868.

Don't forget 2 things.

If McCain had been elected, he would also have been a President not born in the US. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone. There was some debate about his eligibility (sp) early in the campaign.

Second, even if Obama was born outside the US, since his mother never renounced her US citizenship, Obama automatically had it at birth, thus making him eligible for President.

At least that's how I understand it.

Thanks for the good observation Lksimcoe. Apparently US citizenship is broader than many believe.

It appears that his mother's parents being US citizens could in and of itself have qualified Obama as a US citizen.