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.
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.
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.
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!
