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borgslayer
Rear Admiral
Joined: 27 Aug 2003
Posts: 2646
Location: Las Vegas
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 Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:05 pm Groups advocate allowing foreign-born president |
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| Quote: | WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's forefathers envisioned a president born in the good ol' U.S. of A.; a red, white and true-blue chief executive for when the band strikes up "Hail to the Chief."
In 1787, they put it in writing: Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution: "No person except a natural born citizen ... shall be eligible to the office of president."
More than 200 years later, in a diverse nation with more than 33 million immigrants, the push is on to alter that venerable document and allow naturalized U.S. citizens -- Americans like Arnold Schwarzenegger from Thal, Austria, and Jennifer Granholm from Vancouver, British Columbia -- to become president.
The number of foreign-born in the United States is increasing at a rapid pace: more than 1 million a year between 2000 and 2004, according to a recent study. Those millions, however, aren't the ones some proponents of the constitutional change have in mind.
Think California Gov. Schwarzenegger. Perhaps Michigan Gov. Granholm.
A Web site, Amendforarnold.com, promotes the effort with photos of the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger and a mention of the Canadian-born Granholm. "Amend for Arnold and Jen," it proclaims. The same people who are sponsoring the Web site have bought ads on California television, hoping to create a groundswell of support.
Several measures have been introduced in Congress, including a joint resolution by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-California, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, which proposes a constitutional amendment that would extend eligibility for the presidency to immigrants who have held U.S. citizenship for at least 20 years.
Schwarzenegger became a citizen in 1983, Granholm in 1980.
Prohibiting foreign-born Americans from occupying the White House is "hard to justify in a nation where there are so many people who have become naturalized citizens," said Mark V. Tushnet, a professor of constitutional law at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Among those who think it won't happen is Schwarzenegger's wife, Maria Shriver.
"Forget about it," California's first lady says in an article in the January edition of Vanity Fair, which is scheduled to hit newsstands Wednesday. "It is not going to happen. The process takes years, and this is as far as it goes."
She said there "absolutely" should be an amendment that would allow naturalized citizens to run for president.
Madeleine Albright, the former secretary of State who was born in the former Czechoslovakia, recently backed amending the Constitution.
"We are a country of immigrants," she said. "I think that it would be not a bad thing to try to figure out how to allow foreign-born people to become president."
The odds are against proponents of the change, which would require two-thirds majority votes in the House and Senate, then approval by three-fourths of the states.
Part of the problem, according to proponents, is a post-September 11, 2001, climate in which many Americans are wary of immigrants, even legal ones, and want to tighten immigration laws.
A recent CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll found that 67 percent opposed changing the Constitution to allow immigrants to be president. When half the poll sample was asked the same question with Schwarzenegger's name, opposition dropped slightly to 58 percent.
Proponents also must contend with the political impression that the nascent movement is being mounted for one Republican.
"Democrats may be nervous putting in place a constitutional amendment that might have the immediate impact of promoting Governor Schwarzenegger's candidacy," Tushnet said.
Also, Democrats, who saw President Bush increase his support among Hispanics in the 2004 election, might be loath to fight anything that boosts opportunities for immigrants.
Tushnet said any Democratic reticence about Schwarzenegger could be dealt with by deferring the effective date of the change to 2012, similar to what Congress and the states did in 1951 when they ratified the 22nd Amendment but exempted President Truman from the limit of two terms.
A deferred date, however, could cost the effort Republican support, especially among those in the GOP who dream of bodybuilder-actor-politician Schwarzenegger as commander in chief.
Still, proponents remain optimistic that like the California recall effort that made Schwarzenegger governor, changing the Constitution might capture widespread public support.
"I wouldn't bet the mortgage against it, and I wouldn't bet it for it," Rohrabacher said in a telephone interview.
Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones, former mutual fund manager behind the Amendforarnold Web site and ad campaign, said: "On an intellectual level, it's virtually impossible. Intuitively, this is a no-brainer. You can feel a groundswell starting."
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http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/30/foreignborn.president.ap/index.html
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Jeff Miller
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 22 Nov 2001
Posts: 23947
Location: Mental Ward for the Mentaly Unstable 6th floor, Saint John's 1615 Delaware Longview Washington 98632
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:16 pm |
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I think we should be able to have a president that can be a outsider to say that he has to be born in this country seems kind of wrong and mean.
-------signature-------
| ~Tony Montana wrote: | | You know what you need people like me people for you to snub your nose at and point at saying there is a bad man. Well guess what This bad man is leaving. Say goodnight to the BAD MAN! |
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Superman
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 06 Dec 2003
Posts: 10220
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:21 pm |
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I think a foreign person should be President if they have lived in the country for awhile, worked there and has something to offer. Almost five years into the new millennium, the world really does need to start thinking as one, there should be no borders in this world. It shouldn't matter what soil a person is born on, if they can prove they can be U.S. President, then they should be given that opportunity.
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IntrepidIsMe
Pimp Handed
Joined: 14 Jun 2002
Posts: 13057
Location: New York
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:40 pm |
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I agree, if they've proven themselves worthy of the position, why should something like that have any effect? It's not as if they chose to be born somewhere else, why make them pay for it?
-------signature-------
"Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He's always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
-Wuthering Heights
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Founder
Dominion Leader
Joined: 21 Jun 2004
Posts: 12755
Location: Gamma Quadrant
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:52 pm |
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Um.....I kinda agree with you all.
Foreigners should be allowed to be President in TWO conditions.
A. The rest of the worlds allows it. Why should we be the only one letting foreigners become leaders?
B. They had to have lived here a LOOOOOOONG time, there loyalty DEFINTILY lays within the US.
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Superman
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 06 Dec 2003
Posts: 10220
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 7:54 pm |
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| Quote: | | B. They had to have lived here a LOOOOOOONG time, there loyalty DEFINTILY lays within the US. |
Good point. Perhaps something like twenty years of living and working in the U.S. Maybe twenty-five years. Definitely no less than twenty, IMO.
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Arellia
The Quiet One
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 4425
Location: Dallas, TX
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:11 pm |
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I'm not quite sure how much I like this idea. They would've had to be here a LONG time...and even then, I wouldn't be sure. I think the framers had the right idea here. But, eh...
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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:20 pm |
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I don't care, if the people don't support him or don't like the idea of a foreign President, he won't get elect anyway.
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Arellia
The Quiet One
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Posts: 4425
Location: Dallas, TX
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| Tue Nov 30, 2004 11:23 pm |
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Possibly. But, we're not immune to bad presidents...we had a close scrape this year... *cough* Not to open that one up, but...I...suppose it's okay...nyeh. I d'know. Something to me screams 'no.'
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