birth

The so-called "birthers" are at it again, claiming Barack Obama isn't a native-born U.S. citizen, but is an alien -- perhaps illegal -- from Kenya.
It does no good to produce documents showing clearly that he was born in 1961 in Hawaii, which has been a state since 1959 and was a U.S. territory for 60 years before that.
So it's amusing to me, looking back, to wonder where the racist birthers were when Sen. John McCain was Obama's Republican opponent in 2008.
See, John Sidney McCain III wasn't born in any of the 50 states. It's a fact.
John McCain was born Aug. 29, 1936, in a U.S. Navy hospital at the Coco Solo Naval Air Station in a 10-mile-wide, U.S.-occupied strip of the Panama canal zone.
That strip, which no longer exists, was considered a U.S. territory at the time. But McCain wasn't, in fact, born in any of the 50 states, and I didn't hear as much as a peep about that from birther crazies of the political right.
Imagine the fuss they could have made!
So is McCain a citizen? Of course he is, no doubt about it, and he also is a genuine war hero with a distinguished record in public life.
But skin color still makes a difference in politics, doesn't it?
Just thought I'd mention it.