Sentence Correction

Consider the following:

Wrong: If Abraham Lincoln were born in Livonia, he cannot become the President of the United States.

As soon as I read this, I realized that cannot become should be changed. I thought were born is correct as were is correct in: If I were a rich man... I remember I read in one of the chapters in the Manhattan SC guide, that when a sentence is talking about something that is not true and is only supposing we use were.

Right: If Abraham Lincoln had been born in Livonia, he could not have become the President of the United States.

In the corrected sentence, why couldn't we have used were?

Thanks in advance.

U r right. I am also wondering with the correct one. where did u get the Q? and what do they say about the OA?

Hi,
The Q is from MGMAT SC guide. The correct answer according to the guide is the one mentioned against "Correct:" in the original post.

Well, my issue is not, how had been born is right, as I can see had been born precedes could not have become which is the rule when we use past perfect. But my issue is that why can we not use: "If Abraham Lincoln were born in Livonia, he could not have become the President of the United States."?