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Tue 5 Oct, 2004 02:32 pm
This morning, Senator Orrin Hatch chaired a Judiciary Committee meeting to examine whether or not the Constitution should be amended to allow foreign-born citizens to be President of the United States.
What do you think?
shrug.
I believe that a great leader could come from anywhere in the world, and therefore we are somewhat limiting ourselves with this rule.
But the person in question, imho, would have to have lived in America for some ridiculously long time period, like 25 years or more.
Just my opinion.
Cycloptichorn
Close... it calls for 20 years.
Nope, Bill. Has nothing to do with naturalized citizens, either. I think the U.S. Constitution should be tamper resistant. I thought it interesting that had McCain become president, there would have been a challenge because of his having been born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was a possession of the U.S.
Almost all of our ancestors came from somewhere else. I understand concerns about residual national loyalties to one's former country, but after a reasonable time (25 years seems a lot), I don't see why not.
Any citizen should be able to hold any position in the government.
I've heard (this may or may not be true) that the prohibition against allowing foreign-born persons to run for President was written into the constitution specifically to prevent Alexander Hamilton from becoming President. Hamilton was born in the West Indies.
At least Arnold S. would be able to win a duel.
Letty wrote:Nope, Bill. Has nothing to do with naturalized citizens, either. I think the U.S. Constitution should be tamper resistant. I thought it interesting that had McCain become president, there would have been a challenge because of his having been born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was a possession of the U.S.
Wouldn't that still make him a natural born citizen? I doubt he had to be naturalized.
Schwarzenegger stuns the nation in Fall 2008 with the release of his new blockbuster action thriller...
Natural Born Citizens![/b]
Cycloptichorn
Letty wrote:Nope, Bill. Has nothing to do with naturalized citizens, either. I think the U.S. Constitution should be tamper resistant. I thought it interesting that had McCain become president, there would have been a challenge because of his having been born in the Panama Canal Zone when it was a possession of the U.S.
Darlin, it's quite tamper resistantĀ
it requires a 2/3s voteĀ
and you would be pretty miserable if it were tamper proof, because than you wouldn't even have an opinion.
Hey, FreeDuck. I think you misinterpreted what I said about McCain. Watch out, folks! One amendment leads to another.
Letty, I think it's probably that I don't know exactly what the constitution says about who can be pres. Do you have to be born inside the continental US, even if you are born a citizen?
I say no because of the transparency of the motive behind the amendment........why not just call it the Schwarzenegger amendment and get it over with?
I vote absolutely not, and before you ask, if the democrats were up to the same transparent nonsense I would disapprove if it also.
Honey, It has been made difficult to amend, but not totally resistant, don't ya know. That's for Bill of Florida. <smile>
I heard Bill Maher make a comment about this a couple weeks ago. Something like...
I say we allow foreign-born citizens to run for office, as long as we also allow ex-presidents to run again. Then we can have who we really want running. Arnold Shwartzenegger vs. Bill Clinton.
The Terminator vs. The Sperminator!
kickycan wrote:I heard Bill Maher make a comment about this a couple weeks ago. Something like...
I say we allow foreign-born citizens to run for office, as long as we also allow ex-presidents to run again. Then we can have who we really want running. Arnold Shwartzenegger vs. Bill Clinton.
The Terminator vs. The Sperminator!
I heard that Maher episode...problem is...then bush would run again...and again.....and again.....and again.....I believe we amended the constitution for that not to happen when FDR was in office....
For FreeDuck:
McCain was born in Panama when it was a possession of the U.S. That made him a natural born citizen. Later, the U.S. relinquished the canal to Panama. See the problem? Also, children born abroad are considered natural born citizens of the U.S. if their parents are U.S. citizens, such as in diplomats, etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/584627.stm
If anyone else can explain it better, please do.
Letty wrote:For FreeDuck:
McCain was born in Panama when it was a possession of the U.S. That made him a natural born citizen. Later, the U.S. relinquished the canal to Panama. See the problem? Also, children born abroad are considered natural born citizens of the U.S. if their parents are U.S. citizens, such as in diplomats, etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/584627.stm
If anyone else can explain it better, please do.
does that mean allwabi can run for president because iraq is a US possession?
Hey, Bi the brat.....laughin' now. Anyone who can wear a green velvet suit with aplomb can't be all bad.
Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the United States Constitution:
"No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, 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."
We would need 2/3 of the House and 2/3 of the Senate to vote for the amendment. Then we need 3/4 of the states to ratify the amendment. Shouldn't be too tough, eh?
Letty wrote:For FreeDuck:
McCain was born in Panama when it was a possession of the U.S. That made him a natural born citizen. Later, the U.S. relinquished the canal to Panama. See the problem? Also, children born abroad are considered natural born citizens of the U.S. if their parents are U.S. citizens, such as in diplomats, etc.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/584627.stm
If anyone else can explain it better, please do.
Thanks, Letty. So, was McCain a natural born citizen then? Assuming that his parents were both citizens, wouldn't he qualify? Would it matter that we gave back the canal later? I'm sorry if I'm just being dense today but I really am curious about it.
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