According to our Constitution Marco Rubio would NOT qualify as a "Natural Born Citizen." He was born here, but neither of his parents were US citizens at the time of his birth.

We think Rubio would make a great vice President! Love listening to him speak! He has such passion and love for this country! One day Rubio would make a great President too!

Anybody is better than Bozo Biden. Biden is such an embarrassment.

If he picked Ron Paul he would win the election by a landslide. But Ron Paul has too much integrity and would probably decline the invitation, anyway.

Pick a liar, any liar

This country deserves Mitt Romney & Rick Scott.

Condoleezza Rice would be an excellent choice offering experience and integrity.

So cute the way you did that with names George Gould. With Florida's lack of basements, I can only assume that you live in mommies converted garage?

Rubio without doubt, he understands the Fascism practiced by Obama and the Democrats today.

The best site for election status is 538 where Nate Silver painstakingly comes up with the likely results and now has Obama at over 290 electoral votes and a better than 2 to 1 favorite to win the election. Romney may as well go with Bozo the Clown for all that it will matter. If Bozo declines he can always get Sarah Palin.

By the way where is Joe these days? I love it when he's out front!

Doesn't matter. If sheep will vote for Mitt, they'll vote for anyone.

The best American Idol episode ever!

paul you stole my comment..lol

As a lifelong Republican centrist, I think that Romney would do well too pick either former Senator Chuck Hagel, or retiring Senator Olympia Snowe; obviously the selection of Snowe would add a dynamic to the ticket because Snowe is clearly qualified to succeed as President, whereas last year's debacle, Sarah Palin, wasn't even qualified to be Mayor of Tampa. Putting a woman on the ticket, per se, is of no value if the person is really stupid and dangerous to the survival of the Nation.

A good running mate for Mitt...Bernie, Bernie Madoff

It doesn't really matter. Barack could run through the streets in a flag for a diaper and wouldn't lose. The idiot elephant's platform has doomed it to too many people and the Republicans do not have enough atomatons to overcome such a hateful list of planks and taking from so many and giving to far too few, Mitt's peers.

DAVID DUKE!
Why try to hide it any further. Let the Grand Wizzard out The party that plans and plots against the monorities, poor and women. It has been exposed to a certain degree already. Make it official. The cat is out of the box and everyone knows it except the Limbaughnites and Limbaughettes. (The Republican followers)

Let's see, Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich come to mind. And if anyone makes a snide remark, which I'm sure they will, I will not dignify their remark with an answer.

Allie's Grandpa,
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;.." (Article II, Section 1) was understood by the Framers of the Constitution as a requirement that BOTH parents are currently citizens when the proposed candidate was born. The framers wanted to be sure that a future President did not have foreign entanglements, and sneak into the White House. I do not see anything inside Amendment XIV to change that requirement. XIV and XV were amended to the Constitution to insure voting rights of former slaves.

I don't comprehend or understand how this reality has been overlooked. Can someone give us a Supreme Court decision that changed this directive? Note that the only place where natural born citizen is stated is for this requirement of a Presidential candidate. Naturally this would have to include a Vice-President.

Mr Brennan, perhaps you are unaware that the Constitution was amended, numerous times, since the "Framers of the Constitution" created their document, nor opined on it in expository papers outside the Constitution.

Unless the Supreme Court is now bending to your personal will, and deferring to you completely, that means that the 14th Amendment stands, and anyone born within the United States or its possessions (by subsequent decisions, and germane to Senator McCain, who was born in the Panama Canal Zone), is deemed a citizen, and a "Natural Born Citizen" at that.

You and others can argue about whether, or not, it should be that way, but unless and until the Constitution is amended to contravene Section One of Amendment Fourteen, it is certainly that way. The Court has, again and again, so determined.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/02/birtherism-2012

Allie's Grandpa,
Amendment XIV, Section 1. "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." would include protection from a non-"natural born citizen" from becoming a candidate for President.
Senator McCain's father was an Admiral in the U.S. Navy when he went down over Vietnam. McCain's father was assigned to Panama by his military superiors when Senator McCain was born a "natural born citizen", and both parents were natural born citizens. You are insulting me with a comparison of apples and pears. However I am not trying to look for an argument. I realize disinformation has dominated this controversy. Please stop trying disarming, intimidating language that simply does not work. You may know of specific Supreme Court decisions that support your case, but that cannot be one of them. I believe Obama was not the first non-natural born citizen to reach the presidency, but in that circa '1880's' event, it also was simply ignored. The issue was never addressed as far as I can find out. Hope you work it out for me.

Allie"s Grandpa,
Google natural born citizen brings a wikipedia resource that is helpful:
"Status as a natural-born citizen of the United States is one of the eligibility requirements established in the United States Constitution for election to the office of President or Vice President. This requirement was intended to protect the nation from foreign influence.

The Constitution does not define the phrase natural-born citizen, and various opinions have been offered over time regarding its precise meaning. A 2011 Congressional Research Service report stated

The weight of legal and historical authority indicates that the term “natural born” citizen would mean a person who is entitled to U.S. citizenship “by birth” or “at birth,” either by being born “in” the United States and under its jurisdiction, even those born to alien parents; by being born abroad to U.S. citizen-parents; or by being born in other situations meeting legal requirements for U.S. citizens.........[1]

The natural-born-citizen clause has been mentioned in passing in several decisions of the United States Supreme Court and lower courts dealing with the question of eligibility for citizenship by birth, but the Supreme Court has never directly addressed the question of a specific presidential or vice-presidential candidate's eligibility as a natural-born citizen."
This resource gives help to your rationale, but Supreme Court has not spoken on this issue.

After reading through these comments I would advise the "Patch" to refrain from inviting their readership to make political commentaries. Stick to inviting comments and votes on local businesses only.

I think I am more concerned that the local and state representatives actually live in the places they represent than where they are born. Republican (Daddy's boy) Connie Mack is married to a representative from another state (Mary Bono). So do they have a "traditional biblical" marriage approved of by Chik-Fil-A if they don't reside together or does one of them not live in the state they represent or want to represent? Republican Chip Cravvak (representing Jim Oberstar's former Northern Minnesota district is married to a woman who works in Boston and has a permanent residence in New Hampshire. Babies have little to no say in where they are born. Adults who run for office should agree to live in the district they represent. And the "pro-family" party should consider the consequences of nominating candidates so eager to be elected they will separate from their families. Now this is an issue that really matters. If our representatives live in our communities or states and don't support local businesses should they be elected?

http://www.snopes.com/politics/mccain/citizen.asp

“Under the longstanding English common-law principle of jus soli, persons born within the territory of the sovereign (other than children of enemy aliens or foreign diplomats) are citizens from birth. Thus, those persons born within the United States are “natural born citizens” and eligible to be President. Much less certain, however, is whether children born abroad of United States citizens are “natural born citizens” eligible to serve as President …”—- Edwin Meese, et al, THE HERITAGE GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION (2005)

For those who may not know this, Edwin Meese was Ronald Reagan’s Attorney General, and the Heritage Foundation is a well-known Conservative organization.

"Supreme Court Refuses To Hear ‘Birther’ Argument Relating To President Obama

6/11/12

The Supreme Court on Monday outright refused to hear an appeal that would challenge the legitimacy of President Obama’s citizenship and thereby his entire presidency.

The countries highest court did not offer any comment as to why they refused to hear the “birther” appeal filed by Alan Keyes, Wiley Drake and Markham Robinson.

In its ruling the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the challengers did not have the necessary legal standing to file the birther lawsuit against President Obama.

Under the US Constitution a “natural-born citizen” is allowed to run and serve as the President of the United States. Challengers claim that President Obama was born to in Kenya and not in Hawaii as he claims. Those same opponents also claim that despite repeated testimony President Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery meant to dupe the American people.

The court likely threw out the case after Hawaii’s own officials repeatedly verified Obama’s citizenship."

Could there really be so much hatred, ignorance, and intolerance as in some of these wild crazy statementts about birth certificate and other acusations. I guess from a historical standpoint, this kind of hatred, ignorance and intolerance have always existed towards those who were deemed to be different. From stoning and killing Jesus, mob gatherings and invoking justice by hanging people, burning so called witches, killing Indians, killing blacks, and now hating Muslims. Different times, but never-the-less the same mentality. These are folks who are easy to manipulate by a small majority of people to act out such hate. Historically, these small majority of folks has always convince these fringe groups to act out on their behalf, deeds for political power and monetary gains.

You know what's happening. There are plenty of people out there who are genuinely pissed off... Not showing a birth certificate was gasoline on the fire..Then a FAKE SocSec number? come on. what the hell that has to do with muslims and burning witches is beyond me...it has to do with fakery and trickery. And there WAS court action against McCain in 2008 about his citizenship. I don't see anybody defending him... what i saw was people saying he was too 'old' to be president... what about that? is that not prejudice? Are you serious?

For Mr Maddalena, the nonsense you and others are parroting about President Obama's birth certificate -- good grief, even the Governor of the State of Hawaii has declared it to be nonsense -- is really making me wonder about the quality of education of those positing such crap.

But as to Senator McCain, the principal problem for most Americans, including me, is that he picked a moron as his running mate.

Even Dick Cheney is now admitting Sarah Palin was not qualified, and, as we have seen with three presidencies during the Twentieth Century (McKinley, F. D. Roosevelt, and Kennedy), and nearly saw with another (Reagan), a Vice President is occasionally called upon to instantly become President.

I voted for McCain in the Primary of 2000, but there was no way I would vote for him (or anyone) with an incompetent running mate.

We have had near-idiots before (Dan Quayle comes to mind), and we can afford to have one as VP if they are even modestly competent; but Palin was a special class of mega-idiot who would have been a danger to the American Republic.

It had nothing to do with age.

It had nothing to do with being born in the Panama Canal Zone, and not in one of the Fifty States.
It was his moronic running mate.

McCain had many good choices, but he failed in the biggest test, and therefore even millions of Republicans would not support him.

By the way, for those who keep trying to bring this back to something, anything, about President Obama, the topic of this thread on Patch is simply potential VP running mates for Romney, and not your obsessions with the current President.

Please try to stay focused.

Allie's Grandpa makes a good point. However the general media ban on serious questions about their comrades in Washington D.C. makes many wonder: "What is going on?" Tax records infinite Romney, but history zero on Obama except what he wants to be said. I believe we eventually are in for some surprises. TRUMP has some trump cards.. http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/07/trump-piles-on-demands-obama-release-college-transcripts-passport-records/

Actually, Representative Ryan with his many years of experience would make an excellent Vice-President. The nation requires a man of integrity and financial savvy to dig us out of the bankruptcy we are facing. However, jailing many a Wall Street desperado would enhance our trust and confidence in the presence of justice.

Rubio is another wacko Tea Bagger...the guy has been corrupt his whole career.

Ryan is a pawn for the 1% of the richest americans......this guys ideas have been lampooned by the CBO, as they would actually increase the debt instead of lowering it. Instead of focusing all his cuts on the poor and middle class, he needs to share the pain with the rich, but he is incapable of doing this.