Can Egyptian Born McCain Be President?

During last Tuesday’s primaries, Hillary Clinton won three out of four states: Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island. Barack Obama only won in Vermont.

As a result, the gulf between Clinton and Obama was reduced from 160 to 77 delegate votes in the upcoming Democratic Party convention. At the present moment, Obama has the support of 1,434 delegates and Clinton 1,357. The next primary will be held in the state of Wyoming on March 8. However this state is too small to bring about a clear front runner into the Democratic race. A candidate for the Democratic nomination must wield 2,025 delegate votes.

The Republican camp is clearer in its results. John McCain has already ensured himself the votes of the majority of delegates in the Republican Party (that needs the minimum of 1,191 votes).

A new issue has arisen. The issue is that John McCain was born in Egypt. To run for the presidency of the US, one must be born in the United States, but both the father and mother of the senator were citizens of the United States. Therefore it is unlikely that the circumstances mentioned above will hinder McCain in any way.

Accepting a request to comment on further possibilities for the presidential candidates in the US, Pravda.ru has turned to the president of the Institute of Strategic Rankings and Analysis, professor of the Department of the Applied Political Sciences of the Higher School of Economics, professor MGIMO Alexander Konovalov.

Q: How would you rank the chances of the Democratic Party candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama after the end of the count of the last round of primaries?

A: Until the convention, before the end of the summer, it won’t be known. At the moment Clinton has strengthened her positions, but the strength is only relative. For a confident Democratic majority, they need the support of 2,025 convention delegates; the Democrats have a larger convention (sic) than the Republicans. Until the last set of primaries, they had 1,400 for Obama and 1,300 for Clinton; a difference of only 100. At the Hippodrome it was called “nose to nose”.

After today’s primaries, any sort of an advantage will go to Clinton. But is won’t be a deciding advantage; they aren’t two with an extra 1,000, so the remaining primaries will hold an important role. Although she now has a momentum after a series of failures. Everything will be decided for the Democrats at their congress or “convention”, as they call it. There, out of the chosen delegates, there are those that have already chosen for whom they will vote, but there will also be the so called superdelegates: major party activists, invited for different reasons. They aren’t selected by anyone, but they analyze whom the party wants to chose and what it thinks about this nomination. Regarding Clinton-Obama, I think that the party candidate will be chosen by these people. At the moment the probability looks more favorable for Clinton, although the probability is not very high.

The Republicans go about it differently. If the Democrats continue the intraparty fight until the end, then the Republicans have everything already positioned. McCain will be unanimously supported by the party leadership; he’s the accepted leader; today he’ll be meeting with Bush, and it seems Bush will officially support him. As a result it seems that Republicans, who weren’t taken seriously before because it was thought that Bush’s failed policies (especially the foreign policy) are making them “losers”, outsiders, now at the beginning of the race are destroying the odds of success that the Democrats held.

The Republicans have a chance to play on a level playing field and even win, even though Bush did everything to make sure that it didn’t happen. Therefore anything can happen. And if I were asked who I thought would win, I’d say McCain.

Q: There is some news coming from the press that McCain, as a candidate, may be hurt by the fact that he was not born in the US, but in Egypt. Is it true that this fact could be a hindrance to his campaign or is it simply gossip that is a part of all campaigns?

A: In principle Obama may have a bigger problem because he is a son of a Kenyan student and a white American woman. Then the Kenyan student left for Kenya and abandoned his girlfriend (sic) with little Obama. After that she married an Indonesian and they left for Indonesia for a prolonged period of time.

I don’t remember how the Constitution stipulates this, but I do know that a child born into a military family becomes an American citizen. McCain has a “winning” biography. He spent five years as a POW in Vietnam; he was tortured; he spent five years in a hole. Actually, as he was tortured by the Vietnamese, he heard Russian speech in the next room. And in his words, these people periodically recommended to the Vietnamese how best to torture McCain.

He’s twice married; his second wife is Miss Arizona. He has seven children; three of which are adopted. Therefore, I find it unlikely that with such an excellent resume, the fact that McCain was born in Egypt will play any role in the election.