Monday, January 19, 2009

Could Obama be Elected to more than two terms?

As much as I hate to ruin everyone's day, I feel compelled to report the following:



As Inauguration Day approaches and Barack Obama prepares to assume his first term as president, some in Congress are hoping to make it possible for the Democrat to not only seek a second term in office, but a third and fourth as well.



The U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary is considering a bill that would repeal the Constitution's 22nd Amendment prohibiting a president from being elected to more than two terms in office, something that would have never happened before November of last year.



Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., earlier this month introduced the bill, H. J. Res. 5, which, according to the bill's language, proposes "an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President."



In the past, some presidents have been critical of the 22nd Amendment, including Eisenhower, Clinton and Reagan.



In 1807 Thomas Jefferson, however, warned that presidents not bound by term limits could use their popularity and power to become kings.



"If some termination to the services of the chief magistrate be not fixed by the Constitution or supplied in practice," Jefferson wrote to the Legislature of Vermont, "his office, nominally for years, will in fact become for life; and history shows how easily that degenerates into an inheritance."



Presidential term limits, however, were not "fixed by the Constitution" until ratification of the 22nd Amendment. Congress passed the Amendment on March 21, 1947, shortly after the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first and only president to be elected to more than two terms – in Roosevelt's case, four. The Amendment was ratified by the required number of states on Feb. 26, 1951.



Funny thing is, the democrats were consistent in their criticism of the "Bush Dynasty," which they equated to a "Tyranny" because two Bushes were elected to a total of three terms.



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