Is Barak Obama "Foreign-born" and Ineligible for the Presidency?

The United States Constitution requires that the president be a "natural born citizen."  Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill's recently introduced a bill to clarify who is and is not a "natural born citizen."  The purpose of this bill is widely reported to be clarification of John McCain's eligibility for the presidency.  McCain, you see, was born in Panama.  His father was stationed there, serving in the U.S. Navy.

But according to Leon Siu, writing in the Hawaii Reporter, McCaskill, who happens to be the national co-chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, has an ulterior motive.  She is actually being very tricky and hoping to pass a bill that we all think is about McCain when in reality, it is all about Obama. 

Obama, according to Siu, was born in a foreign country.  That country was Hawaii.  The Hawaiian Kingdom, you see, is a sovereign nation illegally occupied by the United States.  Siu claims that "numerous actions and admissions by the U.S. government since 1893 indicate that Hawaii is not a lawful territory or state of the U.S.  . . . "In recent years the [fraudulent claim of Hawaiian statehood] began to unravel and in recent months, the pace has accelerated considerably."

As much as I would like to believe that Claire McCaskill had crass, selfish, political purpose behind this bill, Siu's claims are, unfortunately, laughable.  Not only is his claim of Hawaiian independence ridiculous, McCaskill's bill wouldn't even apply to Obama.  Her bill only applies to children "born to any citizen of the United States while serving in the active or reserve components of the United States Armed Forces."  When he was born, Obama's parents were not in the military.

McCaskill's only possible political motive for this bill is to make herself look good.  But guess what, she deserves to look good when she does good.  And even this conservative will admit, she's doing a good (though probably unnecessary) thing now.