http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=6770098
"California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger arrived in Japan on Wednesday on a trade mission that some think could also be aimed at showing off his diplomatic prowess as a prelude to a possible presidential campaign in 2008."
Schwarzie as president in 2008?
Shouldn't he be concentrating more on that little matter of the necessary constitutional amendment?
Apparently this is a non issue for Republicans.
A Marriage Definition amendment with a white-men-from-any-country-can-be-president amendment not far behind.
I imagine they don't _think_ they'll meet much resistance in the primarily Republican Congress.
A reminder: please keep tounge planted firmly in cheek for all hk0 political commentary.
the STATES have to approve a constitutional amendment. In theory, that's at the most 50 times harder than pushing it through just the federal congress. In reality: Some states (like mine) will block such a thing regardless, some will pass it regardless, and most (like California) will be tangling with where the hell they should stand on the issue. Partisan politics will probably go out the window on this one, as it goes straight to the core of one of our foundations: Is a foreigner, who may still have foreign interests, the best representative of the people of the US? Is it possible, that if the constitution was amended, various foreign plants could infiltrate the government?
Of course there would be safeguards to this, as a constitutional amendment is such a serious undertaking. I think it would be silly to think the government would dive head-first into it considering the rammifications. This is also why the so-called "gay marraige ban" amendment was probably just propaganda.
the constitution as originally written said this:
> No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the
> United States, shall be eligible to the Office of President;
> neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall
> not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been
> fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
it was amended to preclude naturalized citizens in 1804 with the 12th amendment, as an anti-british reaction.
personally, i don't want arnold to be president, but i think its silly to uphold kneejerk nationalism out of a personal dislike of one man.
its naive to say "do the right thing and it will all work out", but thats how i feel. and you all know that theres nothing american or progressive about the 12th amendment.
"Last year, Schwarzenegger began a speech to a convention of travel agents this way:
"Thank you very much for changing the Constitution of the United States of America, and I accept the nomination for president
...
Wait a minute, this is the wrong speech!"
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05037/453020.stm
I think that naturalized foreigners should be allowed to run for President... perhaps with some qualifiers such as you have to have lived at least half your life here, or something. But anyway, to say that someone like Arnie, who has lived the very definition of the American dream over here, is any less American than Dubya or Kerry is silly in my opinion.
That being said, I do not want Arnie to be prez. I live in California, and he's really not all that great; just better than Gray Davis (though a poo-flinging monkey would be better than Gray Davis). He's too much flash and not enough substance. I really wish my man Tom McClintock would have won the gubernatorial race instead.