# Is there a chance for Schwarzenegger to become president? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 7, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636 "2013-08-07T21:25:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/21 "2013-08-08T02:28:55Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Is it really any threat to American sovereignty or democracy, if an Austrian prince like Ahnold becomes POTUS today? A threat to our dignity but not to our sovereignty. I agree that it was much more relevant when the Constitution was written than it is now, but I just don’t see how the star would like up in order for it to be changed. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/22 "2013-08-08T02:33:04Z")
> [@42fish](#): > > Probably the same thing stopping him from bribing native-born potential POTUSes to do his secret bidding and then impose King George’s will on us once elected. I.e., nothing. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/23 "2013-08-08T04:46:20Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > If we let foreigners become President, what’s to stop King George from sending over a spy to get elected President and then impose his will on us? The point is that they’re no longer foreigners. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/24 "2013-08-08T04:56:11Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > The last few decades when we realized that we aren’t special and that other nations are catching up to and surpassing us. Our national philosophy seems heavily based on exceptionalism, and we are becoming less exceptional all the time. I think this will lead to an increase in nationalism as people try to hide from it. > > I wouldn’t say yesterday was better than today by any means. But just as Britain went through a decline in their global status, the US is doing the same thing. And Britain used that opportunity to integrate into Europe (even if it made some mistakes with too much socialism economically) rather than be taken over by “Little Englander” reactionary Tories. Plus Britain’s decline (due to its power being based largely on its empire and Britain itself being quite small unlike the United States) was far worse than America’s would ever be. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/25 "2013-08-08T05:37:21Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > If we let foreigners become President, what’s to stop King George from sending over a spy to get elected President and then impose his will on us? Well, as soon as the Future King George gets a sibling, his uncle Harry would be available to immigrate to the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/26 "2013-08-08T15:58:44Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > As nations decline they start to drive further and further into nationalism and rigid ideology. Cite? Which nations, other than the United States, do you have in mind? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/27 "2013-08-08T16:57:15Z")
Surely the easiest way would be for America to conquer Austria and declare it part of the USA? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/28 "2013-08-08T17:16:24Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Surely the easiest way would be for America to conquer Austria and declare it part of the USA? 🙂 That’s an interesting point. Surely this is not going to happen without the full cooperation of the Austrian people and government (e.g. Austria making a free choice to peacefully request US Statehood), but would that mean that people born in Austria would then become natural-born citizens? How did it work with respect to other states? Were people born in Texas when it was Mexican territory automatically made natural-born US citizens when Texas was admitted to the Union? If Puerto Rico is admitted as a state, would everyone born there automatically become a natural-born citizen? One of the controversies regarding PR is that jus-soli citizenship in PR is based on a Federal statute granting it rather than through the 14th amendment, because PR isn’t really and truly-o part of the US per the “Insular Cases”. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/29 "2013-08-08T17:19:16Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Why? > > Again, why? Because if it’s repealed Big Louie will rub my family out.:rolleyes: Whadda ya mean, “why”? I happen to agree with not letting foreign borns not becoming POTUS. And I don’t like Arnold as a pol regardless of where he was squeezed out. The end. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/30 "2013-08-08T17:33:03Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Because if it’s repealed Big Louie will rub my family out.:rolleyes: > > Whadda ya mean, “why”? I happen to agree with not letting foreign borns not becoming POTUS. What I mean is quite simply: Why do agree with not letting someone who is a United States citizen but who was foreign-born becoming President? It’s really not that difficult a question to discern from my post. > [@](#): > > And I don’t like Arnold as a pol regardless of where he was squeezed out. The end. Then it should be completely irrelevant to you that the man is naturalized. After all, you object to him personally becoming President. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/31 "2013-08-08T17:35:00Z")
I can imagine seeing Schwarzenegger in the White House. Of course, it’ll be Katherine, Christina, Patrick or Christopher. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/32 "2013-08-08T18:13:10Z")
Did anyone else read the OP title as: "Is there a chance for Schwarzenegger to become pregnant? " No? ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/33 "2013-08-08T19:09:09Z")
He already travelled that road. ---
**Author:** ![Cheshire\_Human](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Cheshire\_Human](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheshire_Human)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/34 "2013-08-08T19:20:42Z")
It’ll never happen. Assume for the sake of argument that only 1 in a million people would make a good president. That leaves about 250 people. And that’s just counting the people who would make a _good_ one\*. Far more _can_ run. There’s no shortage of candidates, even excluding the foreign-born. There’s just _not_ going to be any popular support for such an amendment, unless by some miracle there’s a wildly popular foreign-born politician to drive that support. \*Do you _really_ think most of the clowns who run in the primaries, in either party, comes from that 250? I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/35 "2013-08-08T19:30:59Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > What I mean is quite simply: Why do agree with not letting someone who is a United States citizen but who was foreign-born becoming President? Why do some people like Vaseline on toast? I don’t like the idea that folks born somewhere else can get elected to anything, much less elected President. That’s my position on the issue. I’m fairly certain I don’t have to explain nor justify it. Back to the OP, the chances of Schwarzenegger becoming POTUS are less than zero. Like when the 22nd Amendment was proposed it included a clause to exempt the current occupant of the White House, if the clause prohibiting foreign born individuals from becoming POTUS were repealed it may very well include a clause prohibiting any foreign born alive at the time of repeal from being eligible. Even if it didn’t, by the time such a change to the Constitution were ratified Arnold would be so old (or dead) he’d be politically irrelevant. Plus there is the fact that RINO’s like him usually can’t win national office as evidenced by Romney, McCain, Dole, etc… ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2013, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/36 "2013-08-08T19:35:20Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Did anyone else read the OP title as: "Is there a chance for Schwarzenegger to become pregnant? " No? He already did! > **[Junior (1994) ⭐ 4.7 | Comedy, Romance, Sci-Fi](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110216/)** > > 1h 49m | PG-13 ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/37 "2013-08-09T01:31:46Z")
A serious question: Could a state (like California) or The Congress pass a law that defines Arnold Schwarzenegger to be a natural born citizen of the United States, since that is actually never very well defined anywhere, insofar as I know? And then Arnold could run for president using that law as legal cover if it ever got brought to court? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/38 "2013-08-09T02:27:34Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > If we let foreigners become President, what’s to stop King George from sending over a spy to get elected President and then impose his will on us? If we let foreigners become President, why would King George need to send a spy? He could just run himself. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/39 "2013-08-09T02:28:55Z")
> [@astorian](#): > > He already did! > > [Junior (1994) - IMDb](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110216/) No he didn’t. That movie never happened. Don’t ever bring this up again. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2013, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636/40 "2013-08-09T02:50:13Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > Plus there is the fact that RINO’s like him usually can’t win national office as evidenced by Romney, McCain, Dole, etc… But, they always have a better chance than any True Conservative. You **do** understand that, don’t you? Romney was the one and only Pub in the field last year whom Obama would have had to work to beat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-chance-for-schwarzenegger-to-become-president/665636.md?page=3)