It has been said many times that someone who was not born an American cannot attain the office of President of the USA. But is this actually true? Is there, in fact, some wierd sequence of events that would allow Arnie, a non-born, to become POTUS? For instance, can a sitting President issue an Executive Order to this effect on behalf of another?
Conquest excluded, of course.
Yes, it’s true. Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution:
The same requirement applies to the office of Vice President.
It is true. The Constitution explicitly states that the President must be born in the U.S. or a citizen of the U.S. at the time of its creation. There are no circumstances, presently, under which a foreign-born citizen could become President of the U.S.
There HAVE been foreign-born persons in offices that are part of the Presidential chain of succession: the Secretary of State is 4th in line to succeed to the Presidency, and at least two U.S. Secretaries of State were born overseas (Henry Kissinger and Madeleine Albright). But even if everyone ahead of them had died, they would not have been eligible for the Presidency. The job would have gone to the next person on the list, the Secretary of Defense.
So, unless there’s a Constitutional amendment in the very near future, there won’t be a President Schwarzenegger.
Actually Secretary of the Treasury comes after Secretary of State and before Secretary of Defense in the Order of Succession.
I’m well aware that the ordained route of succession precludes non-borns (Madeleine Albright was my intro to this). I’m asking if it can be finagled. Can an Executive Order override the Constitution, for instance? Suppose President Bush were to sign one allowing Arnie to stand?
Does it not also say somewhere that Congress etc govern by the consent of the people? Suppose a majority of voters voted for Arnie regardless?
To qts: Read the 25th Amendment.
Schwarzenegger for President? When donkeys fly! I just saw something in the morning’s paper about him planning to run for governor of California!
Now if that musclehead were planning to run for president of Transylvania, then I might consider voting for him, as long as he doesn’t appear during daylight… 
An article in Mad said Schwarzenegger gives every role he plays the depth of the paper it’s printed on. 
An Executive Order can’t change the Constitution. If the people want to permit foreign-born Presidents, they have only two options:
Lean on their Congressmen and Senators to draft a Constitutional amendment, and then lean on their state legialtors to approve it.
Push for a Constitutional COnvention, at which this issue could be put on the table.
Either way, a Constitutional amendment is going to be required, and that won’t be easy to pull off.
For what little it’s worth, I’d be perfectly happy to support such an amendment, since it wouldn’t bother me to see an immigrant become President, assuming he/she was otherwise an attractive candidate. But there’s no quick or easy way to make that possible. And I don’t think there’s any great groundswell of public support for such an amendment.