# Say that Bill Clinton or Arnie started a massively popular drive to the presidency **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 24, 2008, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999 "2008-09-24T15:36:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2008, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/41 "2008-09-28T20:10:34Z")
Let’s get this out of the way now… > [@](#): > > ``` > Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term. > > ``` > > Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress. It is clear to me (at least) that the text 'No person shall be elected to the office of the President…" indicates that such persons shall not be eligible to receive votes from electors when the electoral college meets. They could run, they could win states, their electors could be seated, and votes from those faithful electors would be considered null and void at counting time. Whether that would mean the #2 vote getter would win I have doubts and likely see a constitutional crisis at hand. But I see nothing to prevent them from **running** again. As for the limits on the constitutional amendment process? As I recall there IS none. If an amendment is passed wherein Clinton or Arnold is allowed to run again and is passed on November 3rd this year and specifies that they count then they could be seated and theoretically become President. The Amendment process (and the never used since the beginning Constitutional Convention process) is WIDE OPEN, people. It could, theoretically, declare the existing constitution null and void and appoint Robert Mugabe Dictator-for-Life if that’s what passes and is ratified. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/42 "2008-09-29T05:36:08Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Just like the press “knows” a car cannot run on water. > > The press “knows” there is no bigfoot. > > The press “knows” there is no pill that can make you lose weight. > > The press “knows” horoscopes are bull. > > Etc., etc. > > It doesn’t matter if they can’t become president unless the constitution is changed; it would be a _huge_ story and it would be in every media outlet’s best interest to run stories making it sound like it just might happen, because - out of joy or fear - that’s what people would want to hear. We shall have to agree to disagree on this. There may be hope, no matter how ill-placed, that a car one day could run on gas or Bigfoot appear. I think horoscopes are crap, but many do believe in them. However, no one is going to be president that the Constitution bars from being president without an amendment changing it, period; that’s a given, and to promote Arnie or Bill’s presidency without first promoting an amendment would be a losing proposition, one that I don’t think the press would waste its time on. I believe there was at one point a small push to get Arnie to run, years ago when he first became governor, and it predictably fizzled out. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/43 "2008-09-29T13:53:31Z")
IIRC, when asked, Ah-nuld went so far as to say he favored amending the Constitution to permit naturalized citizens to run (still subject to the 14-years-a-resident requirement of Art. II, Sec. 1, cl. 5), and wouldn’t mind an effective date sometime in the future, so that he or anyone similarly-situated couldn’t immediately run. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/44 "2008-09-29T15:03:49Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > We shall have to agree to disagree on this. There may be hope, no matter how ill-placed, that a car one day could run on gas or Bigfoot appear. I think horoscopes are crap, but many do believe in them. However, no one is going to be president that the Constitution bars from being president without an amendment changing it, period; that’s a given, and to promote Arnie or Bill’s presidency without first promoting an amendment would be a losing proposition, one that I don’t think the press would waste its time on. I believe there was at one point a small push to get Arnie to run, years ago when he first became governor, and it predictably fizzled out. Yeah, but that constitutional amendment is orders of magnitude more likely to happen than bigfoot, water as fuel, or a horoscope predicting anything. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/45 "2008-09-29T19:16:50Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Yeah, but that constitutional amendment is orders of magnitude more likely to happen than bigfoot, water as fuel, or a horoscope predicting anything. Horoscopes predict lots of things. You mean predicting something _accurately_. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2008, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/46 "2008-09-29T23:29:06Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Horoscopes predict lots of things. You mean predicting something _accurately_. Semantic. You knew what I meant. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/47 "2008-09-30T03:27:13Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Yeah, but that constitutional amendment is orders of magnitude more likely to happen than bigfoot, water as fuel, or a horoscope predicting anything. I dunno. Have you ever tried to get a constitutional amendment passed? Look at the ERA. And the last one actually enacted, about 10 or 15 years ago, took 200 years! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2008, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999/48 "2008-09-30T04:29:44Z")
Bigfeets: 0 Free energy: 0 Bat/human hybrids: 0 Number of times science has destroyed the world: 0 Constitutional amendments: 27 I rest my case 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/say-that-bill-clinton-or-arnie-started-a-massively-popular-drive-to-the-presidency/464999.md?page=2)