Of course being an amendment or being part of the original Constitution makes no difference. It’s all equal.
I would almost rather have an immigrant become president. If you have someone who has come to this country of their own free will and has become part of American society, I’m more confident that they will be more appreciative of what this country has given them than someone who has taken it for granted their whole lives.
Duckster
My apologies for the innacuracy. It doesn’t change the argument in the slightest though. I think that section reflects a xenophobic attitude that is outdated and offers a protection that is no longer necessary.
levdrakon
Wow !!! You’ve made it a foregone conclusion that Arnold is the next Governor of California !!!
Don’t forget he still has to deal with Gallagher !!!
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- I think the natural-born requirement is outdated. Sh1t-can it. Not on Arnold’s account, I think he’ll do lousy even though he intends well, just as Jesse Ventura did. I’d bet Arnold is pretty much used to getting whatever he wants. That’s a good learning experience for a dictator or a king, but not a statesman.
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- Ehhhh, without drawing this into an early pit thread, anything you can say about “mindless Republicans voting for Dubya” you can also now say about “mindless Democrats voting Hillary in before her luggage hit the floor”. -And anyway, I didn’t vote Republican because I cared about the Bush clan, I voted Republican because the NRA told me to.
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I’d be willing to bet one big, fat protein shake he will be. Don’t know if he’ll win the next election, but he will replace Davis for now, IMHO.
I also think it’s reasonable to assume if he were to successfully governate California for awhile the next step is… Da Vite Haus. But he’s said he has no plans for that. Well of course he doesn’t. He’s foreign born. And why don’t I believe people when they say they don’t plan on running for something?
You are correct. However, the restriction was written as part of the original document, and not added later. The significance of this is that the Framers didn’t want a foreign-born president instead of the country later realizing it would not be a good idea.
The closest we came to a modern-day perception was JFK. There was much fear that as president he would bow to his catholic heritage (and take orders from Rome) rather than be a “true” American.
FWIW, I would leave the restriction in place, if only to prevent an artifical importance from creating a bigger mistake. This is akin to the calls abolishing the electoral college. When presidential election results are clearly defined, there isn’t a call to abolish the EC. Yet, when an election goes down to the wire, the abolishment calls come in fast and heavy, even though the very purpose of the EC to to address these fine line elections.
I will accept the natural-born requirement only when the call to abolish it is based on ordinary elections, and not because of a popular figure knee-jerk reaction election.
To that end, I propose abolishing the 26th Amendment and raising the voting age to 21. Why? Because it’s the right thing to do and it’s not based on a populist knee-jerk topic currently in the news.
Has the Constitution ever been amended prior to a popular (knee-jerk) reaction requesting it? We’ll never amend the constitution to allow non-native born candidates until we have one, probably. Schwarzenegger is as good a reason as any to have this discussion.
If he weren’t foreign born we’d probably already be discussing his possible, eventual presidential inclinations. When Minnesota elected Jesse Ventura I know my first thought was, “What if he runs for President?”
I say we include the entire south and midwest in the ban. Why? Oh, no reason…
I think we should amend the Constitution so that Ahnuld can become President. Hell, he’s got a better command of the English language than the current occupant of the White House!
Point taken.
However, let’s have some potential candidates who appear to have some substance behind them. Henry Kissinger and Madelyn Albright come to mind here. Regardless of one’s political leanings, both of these foreign-born folks have in my mind, the qualifications to run for the top spot.
OTOH, Arnie’s background does not show a history of community and/or political involvement. His first-day-after-his-announcement interviews across the board expressed his short-comings quite well.
The classic was his interview on the Today show. When asked about family leave, followed by whether he will open up his income statements for the past few years, Arnie complained his earphone wasn’t working. Yet the very next comment from Matt Lauer was thanking Arnie for the interview, which Arnie acknowledged without hesitation. NBC technicians later reported that there were no audio difficulties during the interview. Arnie lied. Not a good way to start a campaign by lying in order to duck answering questions.
If the recall is successful, Arnie will be elected. How he will manage to fix the world’s fifth largest economy, and not risk making it worse and possibly taking the rest of country down with him, is beyond me.
California? Hasta la vista, baby! 
I think that if we were to amend the constitution to allow foreign-born citizens to run for president, it should not go into effect immediately. I see absolutely no reason to amend the Constitution so one person can run for president.
I think that if we were to amend the Constitution to allow foreign born folks to hold the White House, there should be a residency requirement of at least a couple of decades. One can imagine the choas that would ensue if a wealthy nutjob hell-bent on world domination, moved over here, and shortly after taking the oath of citizenship (which would be 5 years after arriving, IIRC), declared his bid for the White House. Better that they be required to live here for a long period of time so that they can get to know us better, and if they’re a totally flake job, the less likely to be interested in gaining control.
BTW, anyone know if any country (other than Israel) allows a foreign born individual to hold the highest elected office?
Ludovic, I almost spit coffee.
Besides, Schwarzenegger wouldn’t know majesty if it came up and bit him in the face.
FISH
That happened once!
Exactly. This should be a minimum at the worst.
In Canada, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides that all citizens have the right to stand for election, without distingushing between natural-born and naturalised:
Since there are no constitutional or statutory requirements to hold the office of the Prime Minister (hell, you don’t even need to hold a seat in the Commons, technically), that means that foreign-born citizens can be the Prime Minister of Canada. (I saw an article in the Globe & Mail a while ago that said about 10% of the current crop of MPs were born abroad, which is one of the higher ratios in a national Parliament or Congress).
Britain goes even further: you don’t need to be a British citizen to stand for election, according to the U.K. House of Commons FAQ:
[QUOTE]
Who may not stand as a candidate?
Anyone who is NOT a British citizen, or who is not a citizen of a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland
Anyone aged less than 21.
Anyone who is DISQUALIFIED as follows:[ul][li]undischarged bankrupts[/li]
[li] those sentenced to more than 1 year’s imprisonment and currently detained[/li]
[li] those guilty of corrupt practices[/li]
[li]members of House of Lords (hereditary peers not sitting in the House of Lords may now stand)[/li]
[li]those holding offices listed in House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975, eg judges, civil servants, armed forces, police and members of the parliaments or assemblies of countries outside the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland.[/ul][/li][/QUOTE]
The double negative is a bit confusing, but I read this as saying anyone who is a British citizen, a Commonwealth citizen, or an Irish citizen is eligible to stand for the Commons.
You guys who want to eliminate the natural-born requirement won’t get very far with Arnie as your poster-child.
Arnie is trying to pull the Hillary Clinton “elect me because I’m a celebrity” stunt.