If this report is true and based on actual fact, regarding Kerry's need for clearance if he were President, my question is whether a formal clearance is necessary or required when one is holding the most powerful position in the United States. Is that clearance not given automatically? I don't know. Does anyone out there have the facts?
This is quite possibly the dumbest argument I've ever had on FR.
Do you remember any bold headlines in the Newspapers and on TV in 1992 or in 2000 between the vote of the Electoral College and the Inaguration saying "Clinton Receives Top Secret Clearance, Can Serve as President" or "Bush Passes Security Check, Inauguration Plans Go Forward."?
How exactly do you visualize the process of someone being elected President and then not having access to any classified material? Or being prevented from being "President" by failing a background check?
Being elected President has little in common with being hired to shuffle papers on a desk at the CIA as an analyst.
Sorry. The way it goes is anyone elected by the people has full access to all classified material.
Otherwise the Presidents wouldn't be selected by a vote of the people and the Electoral College; Presidents would be selected by a small group of mid-level CIA and FBI bureaucrats.