Thursday, October 25, 2007

A Terminator for President?

I have seen some suggestions that Arnold Schwarzenegger, currently the Governor of California, could be the star that the Repulican party has long awaited. However, as much as I dislike to throw cold water on other's dreams, there are a few problems with this scenario.

Problem Number One is the simple fact that the United States Constitution, Article II, Section 1, Paragraph Five clearly states,
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.

Simply put, this disqualifies Governor Schwarzenegger from becoming President. Although I have absolutely no doubts of Governor Schwarzenegger's loyalty to this country, the COnstitution disqualifies any non-native-born citizen from being elected PResident. Governor Scwarzzenegger was born in Austria. Therefore he cannot become President unless this part of the Constitution is re-written.

Problem Number Two assumes that somehow Problem Number One is legally circumvented. However, Governor Schwarzenegger shares some of the same strengths and weaknesses as Rudy Giuliani. Both men are relatively liberal on social issues and the Republican Party is much more conservative. Should former Mayor Giuliani win the REpublican nomination, this would not perhaps pose as great a problem, but at the present time, I cannot see Governor Schwarzenegger gaining much greater approval than Mayor Giuliani.

In conclusion, I think Governor Schwarzenegger would be a good President. He has done an acceptablee job as Governor, especially considering that California's Democratic Party is one of the most violently Left-leaning in the entire nation. However, until and unless the two major issues delineated above are somehow resolved, Governor Schwarzenegger cannot become President of the United States. If the Republican Party is looking for a future star, I would suggest looking no further than Louisiana, where Republican Bobby Jindal, an American born of Indian parents, has just won election to the Governorship with over fifty percent of the vote. Should Governor Jindal perform as competently as he has in the past, he would be a wonderful candidate in 2012, should the Democrats win the White House in 2008.

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