New rule: No Federal Senator or Representative may run for President...

[originalpckelly]

until 6 years after their term has ended.

That's the only way to put the kybosh on all this Presidential nonsense. They need to stop being Presidential candidates and start being Senators.

[TechBear_Seattle]

1. That would require amending the constitution

Any conditions on who can or can not run for president must be laid out in the Constitution. Any non-constitutional requirements would be illegal.

[originalpckelly]

12. Yes, indeed.

We may have to force it down their throats.

These people aren't even doing their jobs, they are so busy being a candidate for President.

[baldguy]

2. How 'bout "no more Presidents from Texas"?

[sanskritwarrior]

3. I hope that's sarcasm

I'm from Texas......How about no more Presidents from whatever state you are from.

[originalpckelly]

13. Well, y'all don't exactly have a great record. LBJ and GWB...

were both Texas politicians.

But I think this is a joke.

:rofl:

[WiseButAngrySara]

28. And where was JFK shot? I'm from texas too. ....n/t

[brazos121200]

10. I'm from Texas also and I think that might be a good idea,

look at the history of Presidents from Texas:
LBJ (Vietnam)
G. Bush senior (Panama and Iraq)
G. Bush junior (Iraq)

It looks like Texas Presidents have a fixation on war and violence.

[sanskritwarrior]

11. So let's

practice discrimination against a whole state??? yeah that's the ticket.

BTW Johnson also signed the Civil rights Act..........

[brazos121200]

31. Of course I'm being facetious, but Texas does have a culture

of violence. Bush while Governor executed 113 persons, which must be some kind of record.

<http://www.commondreams.org/views/020900-105.htm>

[originalpckelly]

14. Neither Bush is not "from" Texas.

get your facts straight. They were both just Texas politicians.

[brazos121200]

32. But when you are raised in a state you can become immersed

in its culture and values. Yes, he was born in Connecticut but W grew up in Midland and Houston, and does reflect many of the values of rank and file Texans, who elected him governor twice, and supported him for President twice.

[nuxvomica]

41. Perhaps Connecticut is the problem

It produced the two Bushes and Lieberman.

[ashling]

27. Oh yeah. We would have been so much better off

without the Civil Rights Act of 1964 . . . War on Poverty . . . College Work Study . . . Elementary ans Secondary Education Act of 1965 . . . Job Corps . . . Housing and Urban Development . . . VISTA . . . Community Action Agencies . . . Medicare . . .et al.


all a product of the efforts of Lyndon Baines Johnson.

[originalpckelly]

34. Yeah, but everyone cares about all the Americans he was responsible for dying in Vietnam.

No el-BJ, no Vietnam escalation. (Of course, Goldwater was an even greater risk, people thought he'd use tactical nukes on Vietnam. :crazy: )

[ashling]

37. I certainly care about Viet Nam

I have friends who never came back from Viet Nam, and certainly would not want to gloss over LBJs role in that. It would be unfair, however, to blame all of those deaths on LBJ and not give him credit for the good things that came from his administration.

I can grieve for the bad and give thanks for the good.

Compare the anquish of LBJ to the Smirk of Shrub. On second thought, there is no comparison.

[Warpy]

26. .....or California?

They gave us Nixon and Reagan.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Why Do You Hate Powerful Women?

(Just kidding)

[unblock]

5. yeah, lincoln and kennedy sucked!

:sarcasm:

on edit - lincoln didn't win his senate race....
on reedit - but he was in the house before that....

[originalpckelly]

15. Yes, way before he became President.

He would have qualified for the Presidency.

[sandnsea]

6. Clinton ran as Governor

Richardson is running as governor. The problem isn't the candidates, it's cablenews and now chat boards, that need something to talk about. They wouldn't be announcing if WE weren't paying attention.

[MADem]

7. That would have ruled out both Kennedy AND Johnson.....

It would have knocked Edwards and Kerry off the ballot. It would have prevented the joy of a Vice President Gore.

Look, we don't need to be making up stupid "don't step on the crack" rules. We simply need to insist that both houses of Congress do their fucking jobs, and call any individuals on showboating and parsing and running away from the tough issues. The five day work week for these overpaid types is a good place to start.

[silverweb]

8. "...until 6 years after their term has ended."

HUH? Isn't that just a little bit arbitrary?

:crazy:

[originalpckelly]

16. Well, it could be shorter...

true. Four years? Two years? Aren't the terms of Senators/Representatives arbitrary to some degree? Why not five years?

[ellisonz]

9. I beg to disagree...

and purport that your rule is fundamentally opposed to the idea of a democratic republic such as ours.

:silly:

[aquart]

17. Moronic idea.

But that's JMHO.

[iamjoy]

18. Why Not Include Governors Too

or any one in any public office?

Why single out people from the Legislative branch?

[sanskritwarrior]

19. no military either

they might not have the correct values.............. :sarcasm:

[originalpckelly]

23. The Senate may not get a thing done in the next two years...

because people are planning on running for President. It's ridiculous, and it's hurting America.

[iamjoy]

36. Better Solution - Campaign Reform

Don't allow the campaigns to start so early.
It's ridiculous, that they start two years before the election.

I don't know enough about campaign laws for the specifics, but you could certainly limit options for raising money, etc.

Have laws regarding when primaries, etc. could be held, the Iowa caucaus is 10 months before the election, which stretches campaigns.

[onenote]

20. what about vice presidents?

Or cabinet members? Or members of state legislatures, city councils? How about school superintendent? Why not throw in officers of PTAs?

[tkmorris]

21. Or pretty much anyone with a job of any kind

Running for President interferes with one's ability to perform their current job, therefore all candidates must be unemployed for one year minimum prior to announcing their candidacy.

Pretty silly idea.

[originalpckelly]

24. Most local and state officials do not gain as much attention...

secondly they are not exactly qualified to run for President, and their chances are usually very slim.

Senators and Representatives, they garner national attention, so much so that their candidacy for President hurts their performance as Senators. They might vote for one measure or another, were they not gunning for an imminent Presidential election.

[onenote]

29. what does attention have to do with it? and there are only three "qualifications"

to be president: you have to be natural born citizen, have attained the age of 35 and have been a resident for 14 years.

Barack Obama has been a US Senator for 2 years. Befor that he was ...a state official. He is not "qualified" under whatever standard you're applying? Is he less "qualified" than someone who has never been elected to state office, such as, say, Wes Clark?


And what about that guy, whazzits name, Abe Lincoln. He never served as a Senator or member of the House. He was a state legislator though (although not at the time he ran for pres in 1860 if I recall).

Finally, haven't seen your response about sitting (or recently serving) governors or VPs?

[originalpckelly]

33. Lincoln was member of the US House for one term.

He vigorously opposed the Mexican-American war, and that basically ended his chances of being re-elected.

[tinymontgomery]

22. How about

they have to resign as soon as they announce (or start their exploratory committees, their replacement is named by the gov of the state and must be from the same party.

[originalpckelly]

25. Now, that's a very good idea.

But the problem seems that they might still be tempted not to vote a certain way in the Senate or House during the period from where they start considering a run.

And on top of that, Senators might delay announcing for President until later, while STILL acting sheepish in the Senate.

I want to make sure people know it's an idea in reaction to the Democrats and even Republicans acting different than they might have if they weren't running for President. John McCain is going to the right, and Democrats are going to the center. Iraq may literally last longer because of this bullshit. It's outrageous that these people can't do their jobs appropriately in the Senate because they are thinking of running for President.

[onenote]

30. what about governors: should they resign? and who picks the replacement

[originalpckelly]

35. Look at Mitt Romney formerly governor in Massachusetts...

I distinctly remember MA Dems complaining about him gallivanting all over America, because he was so interested in being President.

If they resign, it would be no different than a standard resignation in each state. Most of the time a Lieutenant Gov. would take over the job.

It might be a good rule for every elective office at the Federal level, because one has to wonder how well a person can perform their current job if they are spending time trying to get another.

[onenote]

38. of course, romney still hasn't "declared"

at what point should an official resign..when they start thinking about running? form an explatory committee? declare?
Romney did all of his running around while governor, but he hadn't declared, didn't have an "explatory committee" etc. So should he have resigned?

What about Evan Bayh? Should he have resigned when he set up his explatory committee, even though he then decided two weeks later not to run?

[salin]

39. Vote for me! I have been outa work for six years!

signed presidential candidate frm senator and represenative Y.

That's a winning resume! :D

[Nevernose]

40. How about "No More Presidents From California"?

Reagan, Nixon... Can you believe that people were actually talking about amending the constitution so that Arnold Schwarzenegger could run for president?