McCain was a US citizen- but he was born on a US military base in Panama (because his parents were stationed there.) They were both US citizens. There is absolutely no reason to believe McCain was inelligible because he was not a “natural born” citizen. (IIRC, the distinction is that one was always a US citizen, that is, your parents were both citizens and you inherited citizen ship from them, as apposed to having been a citizen of elsewhere and having immigrated to the US.)
it was basically a bullshit excuse. and while you’re right, the GOP didn’t return the favor with Obama… this is a patently different matter.