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.
Now please explain your reasoning that the above means there is no one eligible to be President.
I mean, that's OBVIOUSLY what the framers meant, right? To make it so that once their homies all died out NOBODY could be elected President of the USA ever again!
Here is the relevant wording from the 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.
Now please explain your reasoning that the above means there is no one eligible to be President.
The comma between "United States" and "at the time ..." makes the phrase "at the time of the adoption of this Constitution" applicable to natural born citizens as well as foreign born ones. So all the eligible citizens died long ago. ;^)
Don't believe it? Try this: "Smith, or Jones if he has red hair, can be President." Obviously, Jones needs red hair but Smith's can be any color, or missing. HOWEVER, "Smith, or Jones, if he has red hair..." means both need to be redheads.
I'm sure the Founders meant to say something else, but that's what they actually said.