Quick, name the only thing that President Obama has in common, politically, with Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Give up?
They are the only American citizens 35 years of age, with no criminal records, who are constitutionally forbidden to run for president. The 22nd Amendment, a post-World War II congressional hissy fit, is overdue for the kind of calm, modern-day review its certainly not going to get in the harshly partisan climate of our current Congress.
U.S. Rep. Jose Serrano, D-N.Y., has proposed repeal of the two-term limit on presidents. In some of the more bizarre realms of the blogosphere and talk radio, Serranos House Joint Resolution 15 prompted panicky predictions of an imminent Obama dictatorship.
Relax. Its not going to happen, for all the wrong reasons.
Its the eighth time Serrano has introduced the idea, with nary so much as a judiciary committee hearing on it. He appears to have no co-sponsors, nor a Senate companion for his resolution, and his amendment lacks the one thing that might give it a remote chance -- a present company excepted provision.
Term limits feel good but theyre a bad idea. Its easy to complain about career politicians, and its true that members of Congress get safe seats in Washington and lose contact with the people -- if not with reality itself. But the solution is for voters to pay attention and defeat the bad ones.
The Eight is Enough theme of the term-limit advocates, who wedged the mandate into the Florida Constitution in 1992, assures turnover in state offices. But theres no guarantee that the replacements will be improvements.
The history of the 22nd is interesting. The Constitution was silent on the matter, but George Washington and Thomas Jefferson declined to seek third terms, fearful of putting too much power, too long, in even swell guys like themselves. Ulysses Grant took a one-term break and wanted to come back in 1880 but narrowly lost the nomination to Garfield.
Grover Cleveland served two terms four years apart and wanted another. Republicans had baseball-themed lapel buttons with an umpire shouting, Out stealing third! in 1940. But Franklin Roosevelt wasnt -- he even won a fourth in 44.
Read the rest here:
A third term as U.S. president?