WI: Naturalized Citizens Could Run For and Become Presidents of US

C. McKay

I've seen many threads about adapting or doing away with the 22nd. What if, at some point, we do away with the birth requirement for running for President in the US.

How could this happen? When could this happen?

Who would be our naturalized Presidents?

President Kissinger instead of President Ford?

President Schwartzenegger (sp?)?

President Albright?

More importantly, what do you think?!
 

mr1940s

If. . . Naturalised citizens could run for President-then we would probably have a greeter acceptance of Foreign born Americans in politics-hence more Governors, Senators and Congressmen etc. . .

But from the OTL Crop

-Jerry Springer (D-OH), a few different choices (such as not hiring a prostitute) and the UK Born son of Jewish refugees from Hitler could be a Democratic President

-Robert Wagner
(D-NY) Born in Germany-the man has a great record for Labour laws and the National Recovery Administration-Perhaos a New Deal successor to FDR in 1940?

Madeline Albright D-DC

Senator Michael Bennet D-CO

and of course, President Arnold Schwarzenegger
 

C. McKay

This is a good start, Mr1940s! I hadn't known that Jerry Springer, Robert Wagner, & Michael Bennett were born elsewhere.

I wonder, though, what would have caused the US to allow naturalized citizens to run for President. Not allowing them at first was probably the right choice to maintain our independence, but when would it have been "okay"?
 

David T

The problem is that whenever it is proposed to change the "natural born citizen" requirement, the advocates of the change almost always have some particular candidate in mind--which leads opponents of that candidate to oppose the change. For example, everyone knew that attempts to drop the requirement in the mid 2000's were made with Schwarzenegger in mind (even if to make it seem non-partisan, advocates also pointed to Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan).
 

C. McKay

An earlier POD (say right after WWII) might have worked, but I am not sure how except that it might have to do with the afterglow of winning the war.
 
Grey Wolf

Grey Wolf

Donor
Nixon and Kissinger discussed getting the constitution changed, but Watergate overtook them. I think Kissinger definitely had some ambitions that way

Schwarzenegger would definitely be a populist trying to do what Dubya tried to pretend he was doing in 2000

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 
Meadow

Meadow

Grey Wolf said:
Nixon and Kissinger discussed getting the constitution changed, but Watergate overtook them. I think Kissinger definitely had some ambitions that way

Schwarzenegger would definitely be a populist trying to do what Dubya tried to pretend he was doing in 2000

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
Click to expand...

I could see Kissinger being the bottom half of a ticket in a Cheney '00 way, but the man surely wouldn't have made it through a primary season and become the POTUS nominee.
 

C. McKay

Grey Wolf said:
Nixon and Kissinger discussed getting the constitution changed, but Watergate overtook them. I think Kissinger definitely had some ambitions that way

Schwarzenegger would definitely be a populist trying to do what Dubya tried to pretend he was doing in 2000
Click to expand...

Ah ha! I am not surprised, Grey Wolf. Perhaps this might have happened if Watergate did not. And, in any case, butterflying Watergate does not butterfly Agnew's problems, so Kissinger could have become Nixon's new VP if Agnew had to resign or Nixon had to drop him from the ticket. (I agree with you, Meadow, about K's fate in the primaries.)

Schwarzenegger in '00 would be an interesting TL although, of course, 9/11 comes into play. For what it is worth, I'd rather have Jeb in charge for 9/11.
 

Dathi THorfinnsson

There's the old joke about Henry Kissinger converting to evangelical Christianity. Being 'Born Again', this second time in the US....

While the restriction is fairly silly, IMO, there isn't any great hue and cry to change it. And, as pointed out already, those people with the greatest interest in changing it (on behalf of their candidate) are precisely the ones that would attract enough opposition to prevent it passing.

I think the best bet is to have an amendment that changes/regularizes a handful of things in the Constitution, and allowing a naturalized President would be just one of a list of things changed.

Alternately, you could have a crazy situation where the President and Vice President die (are killed, whatever) and the next person in line (who'd do a great job) is naturalized. Thus the Presidency skips to #4, who fouls up horribly. People say 'if only we'd been able to get guy #3'. Even that might not be enough.
 

Kung Fucious

You could have the POD that when the *Constitution was being written, it was decided that Naturalized Citizens could run for President after spending a certain period of time within the US (I dunno, 15 years or something).
 

David T

Kung Fucious said:
You could have the POD that when the *Constitution was being written, it was decided that Naturalized Citizens could run for President after spending a certain period of time within the US (I dunno, 15 years or something).
Click to expand...

Well, that would belong in the "POD before 1900" section. But if it were to come about, two obvious possibilities:

(1) Carl Schurz--Liberal Republican (and Democratic) candidate, 1872.

(2) John Peter Altgeld--Democratic/Populist candidate, 1896.

More recent possibilities like Robert F. Wagner, Henry Kissinger, Arnold Schwarzenegger, etc. have already been discussed here.
 

ChewyGranola

I know the Constitution prohibits anyone from running for President if they are not a natural born citizen? Does it say anything about Vice President? Could a non-natural born citizen be VP and then President after an assassination or something?
 

Glass Onion

ChewyGranola said:
I know the Constitution prohibits anyone from running for President if they are not a natural born citizen? Does it say anything about Vice President? Could a non-natural born citizen be VP and then President after an assassination or something?
Click to expand...

The constitution would mark off that possibility as well.
The Twelfth Amendment said:
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
Click to expand...
 
Indigo

Indigo

Probably one of the more likely foreign-born people to be elected is Governor John Peter Altgeld in 1896 or so, simply because he was a major leader of the progressive Democrats at the time and actually had some support in the Midwest.
 

David T

Perhapsburg said:
Probably one of the more likely foreign-born people to be elected is Governor John Peter Altgeld in 1896 or so, simply because he was a major leader of the progressive Democrats at the time and actually had some support in the Midwest.
Click to expand...

He lost the Illinois governorship race in 1896 pretty badly (though he did outpoll Bryan in the state). http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=263300 I doubt that he could defeat McKinley nationally. To do this, he would almost have to carry Ohio, which Bryan lost by almost five percentage points, which usually voted Republican in presidential elections, and where McKinley had a home state advantage. http://psephos.adam-carr.net/countries/u/usa/pres/1896.txt
 

AgentRudda

I guess that would make Obama eligible for the Presidency[/joking/pretending to be a Tea Party troll/I swear I'm joking/please don't ban me]

:p
 
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