September 22, 2008 - PPM - Article II, Section 1

This week’s PET PEEVE MONDAY (PPM) is topical because we are currently in an election year.

The U.S. Constitution was written in 1787, but not fully ratified until 1789, a full 13 years after our Declaration of Independence. Amazingly, people gripe about the pace of progress of Iraq’s new government.

There are many issues within our Constitution that bother me. I’ve previously blogged about the Second Amendment.

People want to consider our Founding Fathers as infallible. Does anyone remember their solution for slavery? They weren’t any more intelligent or politically savvy than today’s Congress. How is our current business regulation policy going?

My PEEVE is about Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution. Before you Wikipedia it, let me be specific.

My PEEVE is about the clause that 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.”

NOBODY has the ability to decide where they were born. We can only decide WHERE we live.

NOTE: I have 3 kids that were born in Kentucky but I am working to get that removed from their Birth Certificates.

Now, I’m not influenced by my chance meeting last week with Arnold Schwarzenneger’s wife, Maria Shriver. Arnold has proven his ability to lead our largest state, California. However, Arnold cannot be our President becasue he was born in Austria. Based upon her politics, I doubt Maria would vote for Arnold any way.

I’m concerned that this law and its relevance are out of date. This Constitutional Clause eliminaties several outstanding candidates. Don’t we live in a GLOBAL time?

There were some Democrat operatives that were trying to establish that John McCain should be disqualified to be President because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone, a U.S. Territory. Never mind that McCain served his country and was a POW for 5 and ½ years. What else can he do to prove he is a True American?

It’s time to eliminate this obsolete, restrictive requirement. Because of this clause we have prevented the following people from leading our country:

Albert Einstein, born in Germany, was probably the smartest man of his time. Einstein could actually say, in fact, why, yes, it is Rocket Science.

William Shatner, born is Canada, was the able Leader of the Star Ship, Enterprise, before his promotion by Star Fleet.

Bruce Willis, born in Germany, has saved Cities (Die Hard), Airports (Die Hard 2), States (Die Hard 3) and the Country (Live Free, or Die).

Come on, we need leaders like John McClain, or was that John McCain.