In the late 60s or early 70s, IIRC, I read that Julian Bond had given such a wonderful keynote address at the Dem Convention/someconvention that just about everybody was ready to draft him for a Presidential run. Then, they remembered that he was too young. No cite, can’t remember jack.
I believe the fastest any Constitutional Amendment has been passed was about 10 months, for the 13th, abolishing slavery, which was toward the end of a Civil War over slavery, so people were pretty decided on the issue. Or the 21st, repealing prohibition, which people were largely ignoring already.
The Democratic response was “We’ll support that, if it also removes the 2-term limit.” Then we’d run Bill Clinton again, and easily wipe Ahrnold out. And the GOP agreed that this would be the likely result.
Bottom line: there has NEVER been an under-35 year old who WOULD have been elected President if the law allowed it, and there have been very, very few under 35-year old candidates who would have made particularly strong contenders.
Of all the names mentioned so far, Lindbergh comes the closest to being a plausible contender, and nobody but Philip Roth sees him as a likely winner.
If there ever HAD been a hugely popular man under 35, the law would have been changed quickly. The fact that the law HASN’T changed indicates that nobody under 35 has excited the public all that much.
As for Schwarzenegger… almost nobody took him seriously enough to change the Constitution just for him. Personally, I’d be fine with letting foreign-born US citizens run for President (I’m not worried about Madeline Albright or Henry Kissinger’s loyalties)… but so far, that restriction hasn’t cost us a President anyone wouild have been super excited about.
Well, aside from McCain.
Was there actually anyone who took that suggestion seriously? It always looked like a really obvious (and lame) “Tu Quoque” response when the Birther controversy first flared up.
Actually, I’ve had occasional reasons to question where Obama’s loyalty truely lies, but none of them involve the physical location of his birth.
Presidents under 35 would be rare even without an age cap, heck we have not had a president the ages of 35 and 40 even though they can run.
Looking at other countries say the UK, William Pitt the Younger was 24, youngest Prime Minister in British history. But that is one exception, hardly the norm. Italy’s youngest ever prime minister is the current technocrat Matteo Renzi, who was 39 upon coming into office in 2013.
Usually really young guys came into power as part of a monarchy, but an elected position like President or Prime Minister is rare.
More likely to become an inventor and CEO of a successful company than head of government, it’s just made for older people.