(2) Leaving Clinton out of it, shouldn't "We The People have anyone we want to elect as president? It wasn't the founders who wanted to limit the president to two terms. It was tired-of-losing Republicans who wanted to change that. So why can't the Republicans and Democrats and Others of today change it right back?
After all, we're the ones who have to live under the law, so why -- in a democratic republic -- shouldn't we be able to vote for who we want to -- whether he has already served three terms as president or has never held a public office?
I agree with you on principled grounds, but now is obviously not the time if there is any likelyhood of the First Penis being reelected. Besides, I'm still stinging from having been robbed by this amendment of another 4-8 Reagan years, so it wouldn't be right to repeal it until the socialists and other freedom grabbers have been annoyed equally.
Put those rules back in place, and Chris Matthews will be as irrelevant as Bill Clinton -- you won't have a single Democrat elected to public office anywhere in the U.S.
The office of PotUS was designed for George Washington. Some of the framers said that they were content with its powers only because Washington would be its first occupant.
Washington had the task of inventing the presidency with his own precedent-setting behavior--and part of that precedent was the two-term presidential self-limitation. The only trouble with leaving term limits to precedent was that cavalier disregard of precedent, tending to cause dolourous unintended consequences, was the natural description of the first person to break that precedent.
It is an apt description of x42, as well.
As to the quotation of Reagan, it is only natural for any sitting second-term president to wish he was not a lame duck; most two-term presidents before FDR allowed speculation that they might in fact run for a third term. But it is fatuous to suggest that the people are deprived of their choice by term limits. As we saw in the SCotUS ruling on the Florida Electoral Votes, the state legislatures have the authority to name their state's electors. And at a very practical level, it is not necessarily possible to nominate the person who would be most acceptable to the most people. Colin Powell might have been that person, for instance--and his domestic policy would have made him a very divisive choice within the Republican Party. The name of the late Gov. Casey of Pennsylvania comes to mind as another example, for the Democrats.
When passing a constitutional amendment, first it must be passed by the house and senate, then ratified by 38 out of 50 states. In the case of the 22nd amendment, it was 36 out of 48 states. The 22nd amendment was ratified by 41 states. This amendment was first proposed by the 79th congress under the presidential leadership of democratic President Truman. The political breakdown for the house and senate was 79th congress was 228 Republicans, 300 Democrats, and 3 Independents. The proposed amendment was sent to the states March 21, 1947, by the 80th Congress. The political breakdown of the 80th congress was 297 Republicans, 233 Democrats, and 1 Independent. It was ratified Feb. 27, 1951
Thomas Jefferson, the third president, specifically argued for a two-term tradition at the close of his second term. While many bills limiting a president's tenure in office were considered during the next century, few presidents even ran or were nominated for a second term.