In an article by Carl Huse the New York Times questions whether John McCain’s unique birthplace still makes him eligible to be president. At issue is the constitutions use of the word “natural born citizen” as a qualifier for eligibility for the highest office and McCain’s birth on a military base in the canal zone where is father was stationed.

The Times reports that McCain’s camp is certain he is eligible, this is the second time he has run for the job after all, but just to be sure the Senator’s team asked Ted Olsen to prepare a legal defense of the issue.

The basic finding of the article is that there is nothing to expressly forbid McCain from taking the office, nothing to expressly promise that it is legal. While candidates who are American citizens but born outside the US have run, none of them have ever taken the oath, giving us one more sign that whomever takes the Oval this year of the three frontrunners, this will be an election of firsts.