Washington Post: Let Obama Run For A 3rd Term

Washington Post: Let Obama Run For A 3rd Term

An opt-ed in the Washington Times by New York University professor Jonathan Zimmerman states that we should get rid of terms limits for the presidency so Obama can run for a third term in 2016.

Hmmm, maybe university professors should be drug tested for ‘kool-aid’.

As President Obama faces a small revolt within his own party, a Washington Post op-ed is calling for the United States to end presidential term limits and allow him to run again in 2016.

“Barack Obama should be allowed to stand for re election just as citizens should be allowed to vote for — or against — him,” writes New York University Jonathan Zimmerman professor of history and education. “Anything less diminishes our leaders and ourselves.”

Zimmerman argues that the president would enjoy more deference on such unpopular initiatives as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the recent nuclear-arms deal with Iran if he had a legal opportunity to seek additional terms in office.

“Many of Obama’s fellow Democrats have distanced themselves from the reform and from the president,” he writes. “Even former president Bill Clinton has said that Americans should be allowed to keep the health insurance they have.

“Or consider the reaction to the Iran nuclear deal,” Zimmerman continues. “Regardless of his political approval ratings, Obama could expect Republican senators such as Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and John McCain (Ariz.) to attack the agreement. But if Obama could run again, would he be facing such fervent objections from Sens. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Robert Menendez (D-N.J.)?”

Zimmerman is untroubled by the prospect that long-term control of executive apparatus, along with the natural advantages of incumbency, might smooth the way for continuing rule by a president regardless of genuine popular will. The Obama Internal Revenue Service targeted the president’s political enemies before the 2012 election. The history of presidents for life in other nations shows ever-growing popular votes for the incumbent that in most cases masked widespread popular discontent.

The Post op-ed also avoids an important pro-executive argument for term limits — that a second-term president freed from electoral hurly burly can focus on matters important to the nation. Obama made this argument explicitly to Russian President Dmitri Medvedev in March 2012, saying that he would have “more flexibility” to make concessions to Russia after his last election.

Nor does Zimmerman entertain the possibility that Democrats may be fleeing Obama’s policies out of practical good sense, a move that they are free to make when not under pressure support a candidate for re-election. He notes correctly that George Washington established the two-term precedent not out of political philosophy but because he thought the republic was in good shape. But he does not specify what crises — other than the ones of Obama’s own making — the country is now facing that would require a third term.

Source: dailycaller.com
Photo: Justin Sloan


Share

3 Comments

  1. l

Leave a Reply

Pin It on Pinterest