How was George Romney eligible to run for the presidency?

[The Mikado]

Yeah, "citizen at birth" does not necessarily imply "citizen via jus soli."  Jus soli is simply the easiest-to-prove way of having US citizenship that wouldn't lead to jus sanguinis' natural flaw of "find your great-great grandfather's immigration papers to the US to prove that he was here legally, or else your whole line might be retroactively shown to not be citizens."  

George Romney was a US citizen because he was the son of US citizens, despite not being born in the US.

EDIT:  As far as I can tell, the only president besides Obama who has ever stirred up big eligibility concerns was Chester Arthur, who the Democrats of the time accused of being secretly born in Canada and whose father wasn't a US citizen at the time of his birth.

[The Mikado]

BTW, Citizenship and Nationhood in France and Germany by Rogers Brubaker is a fantastic short read on jus soli vs jus sanguinis that manages to actually be pretty interesting.

[The Mikado]

I think his parents were American citizens.  That's partially why John McCain could run for President despite being born in Panama.

And because Panama was a U.S. territory at the time, and I think there may be an exception if your parents are in the military and you are born overseas

There's no "exception," the rule has nothing to do with whether or not you're born in the US and has to do with whether or not you were born a US citizen, and the easiest way to prove US citizenship from birth is being born in the US.

[The Mikado]

Actually, question for Ernest:

Birthright citizenship becomes the law of the land in 1868 through the 14th.  However, birthright citizenship was made retroactive.

Would a non-citizen born on US soil in, say, 1840, given citizenship by the 14th, be a "natural born citizen" eligible to run for President?