The 22nd Amendment sucks - A 3rd term of Obama shouldn't be prohibited

[AdamGG]

I understand the idea of not wanting a President to gain too much power through incumbency. I get why 4 terms of FDR led Congress to create the 2 term limit. Although, I think it worked out very well that FDR was around to cope with both the depression and WWII.

But, IMO, the 22nd Amendment should only prohibit someone from serving 3 CONSECUTIVE TERMS. If someone who is young enough takes a term off and then, having seen their work, the public decides they want them back, that shouldn't be banned. Winston Churchill was voted out of office after WWII, but then elected again later.

It's stupid to eliminate someone with that level of job experience, where the voters know exactly what they're getting. People think there was a precedent set by George Washington that two terms should be the norm because he chose not to run for a 3rd. But, Washington might not have done that on principle. He died two years after he left office; he likely didn't feel physically up to a third term.

If Barack Obama was a candidate in the primaries now, he'd probably be polling at 70%. He would obliterate Trump in a general election. And, it's not like being a 2 term former President necessarily makes you a strong candidate. George W. Bush was so unpopular that he didn't even attend the Republican convention in 2012.

[tblue37]

1. It might be the last thing that blocks Trump's dictator for life ambitions--that and his stupidity.

And his incompetence. And his laziness. And his distractibility.

But he has fascists around him who aren't incompetent, so it's just as well a third term is illegal, just in case he gets reelected in 2020.

[Shrike47]

8. His age would take care of a 3rd term, I think.

[Callmecrazy]

11. With all the shit he eats...

I'm betting he's dead before 2020.

[qazplm135]

26. I'm not

some people simply survive in spite of everything. My grandad lived to his mid-90s. My dad lived to his 80s even though he was a lifelong chain smoking alcoholic.

Sometimes, you just have the right combination of genes that let you live in spite of your excesses.

[csziggy]

33. Yeah, his father lived to 93, his mother to 88

Though neither were as, um, corpulent as DJT. But given today's medicine he could live a long time yet.

[tblue37]

13. His father, who died of Alzheimer's, was almost 94 when he died. Trump shows

signs of dementia now at 73, about the same age his father's dementia started to show, but the GOP still protects him and props him up. I don't doubt that they would continue to do so as long as he was alive, even with blatantly obvious dementia. And like his dad, he could last another 20 years.

In fact, I wouldn't trust them not to go all Weekend at Bernie's with him if he didn't live through his term, whether it was a third term or a second.

[myohmy2]

19. +1

...

[walkingman]

2. I think Michelle Obama should have run but I can understand why not. Go Dems!

[Celerity]

21. my number one choice by 1000 miles, but alas, she will never run for POTUS

I cannot say I blame her.

[Thomas Hurt]

3. You keep stacking 4 year terms and rather quickly you end up with a King.

None of this Banana Republic Dear Leader for life cr@p.

[AdamGG]

4. That's why I said there should be a limit of 2 CONSECUTIVE terms

It's hard to become a king if you have to take 4 years or more off.

[fescuerescue]

5. How do you feel about a 3rd term of Trump ?

The 22nd is there for a damn good reason.

If the 22nd didn't exist, it's likely that Obama wouldn't have been elected and their would have been a 3rd or 4th Bush term.

If there is only one man in American capable of leading the US (Obama), then something is wrong with the people being led.

[Polybius]

14. Reagan would have easily won a third term, but probably would have resigned to to Alzheimers

The 1992 election could have still been Bush vs. Clinton. Clinton would have won in 2000, maybe even 2004. Then Obama would have still won in 2008 and 2012, and then won in 2016. He'd run again in 2020, and win. I'd be ok with all of this. See, the 22nd sucks. Obama would have easily beaten Trump.

[fescuerescue]

15. maybe

It's all speculation of course but I enjoy what if scenarios.

I doubt reagan would have resigned though. He would have been propped up by his handlers for sure.

[JonLP24]

23. It is probable Obama could have lost to Bush but I think it would be unlikely

Bush was unpopular at the time Obama argued McCain would be a third Bush term. In 2008 most working class people here in Arizona were very pro Obama because of the economy. I don't know how McCain won the state.

[Polybius]

25. You don't know how McCain won AR in 2008?

It was his home state and he was very popular there. Obama at the time wasn't all that known, so he had no long record to run on.

[JonLP24]

30. I know but a lot of working class people were pro Obama

More so than any Democrat. Now most working class people here are anti Trump and this is a red area.

[Ilsa]

6. No thank you.

There are plenty of wonderful, qualified leaders for this job.

[Rebl2]

7. No thanks

Two terms is enough and anyway there is no way Obama would want to be President again I’m pretty sure. I believe he is enjoying his life now.

[anarch]

9. don't worry, it'll probably be done away with in the next couple of years

and no limit to 3 terms either.

(and science will find some way to keep the orange bastard alive for another 100 years...)

[Wounded Bear]

10. The real problem is that the Repubs can do more damge in 8 years than Dems can fix in 8 years.

The Repub party had dominated politics from the Civil War forward until the Great Depression. People were finally fed up.

There's a reason FDR won 4 terms. Now, Dems can't fix what the Repubs break and we keep drifting farther and farther to the right toward authoritarinanism.

Not really anti-22A, because frankly, Reagan probably would have won another term, dementia and all.

[A HERETIC I AM]

12. It should never be forgotten that POLITICAL CONSERVATIVES are the ones who pushed for the 22nd

because they saw that the American electorate would gladly vote for a radically progressive Democrat, in spite of all his flaws and bad policies, over a conservative, if all things are equal.

The American people loved FDR and his perspective so much, they elected him 4 fucking times. The Republicans have NEVER offered up a man as president in ALL OF U.S. HISTORY that the American public wanted for more than 8 years, tops.

[fescuerescue]

16. Only 45 presidents and really only a short 225 years

It sounds like alot but it's not really. The country was founded by our grandpa's grandpa. Not much beyond that.

So taking the notion that no other president could have won more than 2 terms (which is a pretty shaky claim) as granted....Well that doesn't mean that the future will look like the past. (a number of 2 term'ers were urged to run for a nearly certain 3rd term but they declined. Only Roosevelt choose to and that was because of the nations crisis state of WW II )

In today's age of Fox news and social media, election hacking and other corruption....Well the risk of a 3, 4 or 5 term Republican President in the future is virtually a certainty given enough time (but more likely sooner).

All it would take would be a young Reagan type. And the longer they stay in the system, the worse that they shape the system to suit the future to their liking. The current state of the SC and judiciary is a good example.

[onenote]

17. How did it get ratified by 41 out of 48 states?

Maybe it had more bipartisan support than you think.

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Maybe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/80th_United_States_Congress

[AdamGG]

20. Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln & Eisenhower maybe could have gone for 3

Through their history, there were some tolerable Republicans. They became more universally heinous after Nixon employed the southern strategy.

[Retrograde]

32. TR did run for a 3rd term, in 1912,

and was defeated. Lincoln might have, but his death in the 2nd month of his 2nd term sorta put a crimp on that. Eisenhower was the first president to be affected by the 22nd amendment: while he may have considered another term if it weren't in place, his health was not the best in 1960 (he had had a heart attack while in office) and that would have had a bearing on any decision.

[AdamGG]

34. TR wasn't elected to his 1st term and then voluntarily sat out 1908

Good point about Eisenhower, but TR voluntarily sat out the election in 1908 because he pledged that he would when he ran for his 2nd term in 1904. And, 1904 was only his first elected term since he got in in his 1st term as VP when McKinley was shot. TR lost in 1912, but that was because the Republican Party hierarchy stuck with Taft & made TR run as a 3rd party candidate, even though he was much more popular than Taft and had done better in the primaries (though primaries were new and only a few states had them).

So, I'm probably being anal retentive with all that detail, but TR could probably have won 3 terms. And, he was totally different than the small government conservative philosophy of the Republican presidents in the 1920s.

[JonLP24]

22. Congress was heavily Republican at the time

[customerserviceguy]

24. Good luck with that

I doubt that we'll ever see another Constitutional amendment in this country. The legislative and ratification processes require super-majorities, and I doubt we will ever be able to produce them again.

[suston96]

27. We, the People......

Don't need no amendments to change the Constitution.

Simply start off just like before............

We, the People, hereby dissolve the old and enter the new.

Because We ARE the people - the source of all power!

Any objections?

[Iggo]

37. There will be, and there were that other time, too. Got real bloody, according to the history books.

[AllaN01Bear]

28. my dream ticket would be biden. obama biden as prez, obama as veep. if anything happened to biden,

we would get obama. nice to dream eh?

[roamer65]

29. I am absolutely for repeal of ALL term limits.

It should be up to the voters to decide when an elected official is removed from office. Not a stupid law.

[Xolodno]

31. Russia has "term limits"...albeit relaxed...

....looked how that worked out? Putin serves his two terms, installs his puppet, then gets re-elected.

FDR was an anomaly, an anomaly we can't count on again.

Furthermore, I think many Presidents are thankful for the term limit, in their second term, they can take on more risks, do unpopular actions, etc.

[AdamGG]

35. True, but being a lame duck also lets Presidents do last minute pardons and not be held accountable

If Bill Clinton thought that he could take a term off and then run again in 2004 (which is what I was suggesting, not removing term limits entirely), he probably wouldn't have pardoned Marc Rich on his last day. The flurry of pardons Trump will probably throw down on his last day is going to dwarf anything in history.

[KentuckyWoman]

36. I disagree

2 terms is a stretch as it is.
I wish we had the same for the Senate.

Strength in diversity. America has incredible talent that can lead well. We don't need to reach back.

Some won't put their families through this toxic environment. But some are in a position to step up.