No 22nd Amendment

How would a removal of the 22nd Amendment impact our history? Prior to FDR, all Presidents followed the 2-term tradition. Then, in 1947 the 22nd Amendment limiting a President to 2 terms was passed.

Although technically Truman could run again in OTL, he backed out after getting stomped in the NH primary in 1950.

I doubt Eisenhower would run again in 1960 after the heart attack. JFK was assassinated, LBJ didn't run for a 2nd term, Nixon was impeached, Ford lost in '76, and Carter lost in '80. I doubt Reagan would run again in '88 with the Alzheimer's already beginning to set in. Bush lost in '92.

So .... would Bill Clinton have run again in 2000? Would we have seen the mythic Clinton-W Bush election and if so what would have happened?

Clinton would be president,Al Queada would be radioactive dust now and the economy would be booming

SurfNTurfStraha said:

Clinton would be president,Al Queada would be radioactive dust now and the economy would be booming

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Yes, Clinton would have won hands down, its one of those awful ironies of history that the Democrats felt bound to put up Gore who was about the only person who sounded more boring than Bush, and as inspiring as a dirty tea-towel

There is a question though, about Nixon and impeachment - maybe if he was looking at getting re-elected ad infinitum he would have fought even harder. Don't forget he did stuff like sack his OWN investigative team. He could well have tried to find unorthodox ways around things

Grey Wolf

SurfNTurfStraha said:

Clinton would be president,Al Queada would be radioactive dust now and the economy would be booming

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Aw, c'mon. Clinton was good, but he wasn't *that* good... Or that stupid (Getting NATO on board for nationbuilding - sure. Invading a country - well, maybe. If they're really evil. But nuking Afghanistan? Not to mention what the Chinese may have to say about westerly winds and all that.)

Wakie: If Truman got stomped in the NH primary in 1950, it might have been because there was no primary that year...

An interesting POD, before Clinton's third term (and sadly, I agree that he would have won in a walk...though I suspect it would have been a very bad thing...), there would almost certainly have been a third Reagan term. What with his Alzheimers, what happens then?

If it became public, he'd resign and Bush would finish out the term as president....

This presumes of course that it is publicly announced, that someone in the 'inner circle' decides to come out with it. Now, in the case of Reagan, I am confident that this would happen, in fact I am sure that Reagan himself would insist. That said, what happens if some hypothetic president DOESN'T come forward. Some (rare) cases of Alzheimer's are associated with paranoia, and some presidents surround themselves with a coitere (say, FOBs?) who owe their entire political existence to the president. What if they simply decide to keep it quiet as long as possible...

Before anyone says that this cannot happen, consider Wilson's wife, or for that matter, Harding's...