Second Term Presidents

In 1951 the Twenty-second Amendment of the Constitution set a two-term limit on how many times a person shall be elected to the office President of the United States.

Ever since then each president who was re-elected has had problems that were significant enough that the chances are they would not be re-electable even if they could run for a third term. Could this be the jinks of the 22nd Amendment.

Many reasons could be offered as to why things seem to go down hill. It could be they try too hard on leaving a ‘Legacy’ or by now the media has had enough time to dig up some dirt. Not to mention that no sooner than they have won the election and they are already called a Lame Duck President. Even their own party will gives him grief on proposed legislation. By the second term the charm has worn off and reality sets in. In the case of President Bush the past few months have given us a Supreme Court nomination failure, Katrina, Fema, a spy in the White House and Bush using the No Such Agency to spy on us.

I propose a change to the amendment that would allow for no limit on terms as it was so stated in the original un-ammended constitution. However the third term would require more than a simple majority of the popular vote (and the electorial college requirements), say 56% of the popular vote and the four term would require 60% of the vote to win the election. Raising the bar would give each second term president real goal in order to win our vote and be re-elected.