Misinformed headline of the day: GOP-controlled House not going to give President Obama a third term

President Obama could get 3 terms if H.J.Res 15 abolishes term limits

OK so maybe President Obama would like to be dictator, and certainly there are those of his policies that are anathema to large segments of the American population (though, surprisingly, our liberal friends tend to give him a complete pass on civil liberties and drone killings), but ...

Let's not let paranoia creep in here. At least not that far.

H.J. Resolution 15 (which has been introduced by the same Rep. on multiple occasions and ignored each time) cannot authorize three terms for a sitting President, because, ah--that would actually take a constitutional amendment, including passage by the GOP-controlled House, the almost evenly divided Senate, and ratification by three-quarters of the State legislatures, many of whom are, you know, not controlled by Democrats. (Not that I'm saying Democrats would go for this: I think Hillary, Joe Biden, and John Kerry would all think three Obama terms was a bad idea.)

So it does behoove people in Libertarian circles to be a bit more circumspect and vet what they read with some common sense before passing it around.

Meanwhile, if you really want to read a fictionalized account about the time when such a coup was most possible, try finding a copy of Michael Kurland's The Last President. You can get a copy on Amazon for between $0.01 and $561 [I'm not kidding] if so inclined.

Comments

tom said…

As I've pointed out elsewhere, headlines like this are just FUD.

Anyone who bothers to click through to the GovTrack link (the 2nd one in the article you cite) or otherwise look up this bill would see something like "Prognosis:
0% chance of getting past committee.
0% chance of being enacted or passed."

which of course anyone even remotely familiar with the legislative process and Constitutional Amendment already knew.

April 4, 2013 at 6:36 PM

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