Presidential Term Limits in American History: Power, Principles, and Politics

Notes

notes chapter 1 The epigraph is from John M. Carey’s article, “The Reelection Debate in Latin America,” Latin American Politics and Society, Spring 2003, 120. 1. See, for instance, the polls discussed in the following stories: Miles Benson, “Clinton Still Strong Draw in Polls,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, November 12, 2000, and Hilary MacKenzie, “Clinton Looks Good After Lame Debate ,” Ottawa Citizen, October 5, 2000. 2. See Jennifer Steinhauer, “Guiliani Says He Won’t Seek a Third Term,” New York Times, October 4, 2001. 3. David W. Chen and Michael Barbaro, “Council Backs Bloomberg Bid to Run Again,” New York Times, October 28, 2008. 4. Michael Barbaro and David W. Chen, “A Slim Victory Has Mayor Mending Fences,” New York Times, November 5, 2009. 5. “Obama’s Victory Speech,” New York Times, November 5, 2008. 6. While Obama’s opinion ratings fell significantly throughout his first two years in office—causing some speculation that even a second term might be a difficult achievement—it is important to remember the low points that both Reagan and Clinton experienced in their first terms, prior to their winning second terms. 7. See the Fox News Dynamics poll from 2003, where 75 percent of Americans were opposed to repealing the Twenty-second Amendment and only 20 percent advocated repeal. Dana Blanton, “Most Oppose Allowing President Third Term,” June 5, 2003, Fox News, http://www.foxnews.com/ story/0,2933,88691,00.html, accessed January 22, 2007. 8. Peter Finn, “Putin Says He’ll Retain Influence in Russia After Term Ends in ’08,” Washington Post, October 26, 2006. 9. Craig Timberg, “Bid to Allow Nigerian a Third Term Hits Snag; Lawmakers Lining up Against the Amendment,” Washington Post, May 13, 2006. 10. “Chad President Inaugurated Amid Opposition Ridicule,” Agence France Presse, August 8, 2006. “Uganda’s Museveni Sworn in for Third Term,” Agence France Presse, May 12, 2006. 11. Carey, “Reelection Debate in Latin America,” 119, 124. 12. Hannah Strange, “Emboldened Hugo Chavez to Speed Up His Bolivarian Revolution,” Times Online, February 16, 2009, http://www.timesonline 172 notes to pages 3-8 .co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article5747992.ece, accessed February 16, 2009. 13. John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Peter Laslett (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 368. 14. See, for instance, Locke’s discussion of the limits of legislative power, in Two Treatises, 355–63. 15. Although prime ministers sometimes offer an important analogue to presidents, given the differences between parliamentary and presidential systems, connections will be made almost exclusively between the U.S. presidency and other presidencies. Parliamentary systems not only draw no strong distinction between legislative and executive branches of government , but prime ministers tend to have less power than presidents. Additionally , prime ministers often have flexible terms (their parties have some control over when to hold elections) and are ultimately dependent on the “confidence” of the legislative body to maintain themselves in office. While this model certainly has something to contribute to debates over executive tenure, the differences are significant enough to make analogizing these models problematic. For an elaboration of these ideas, see Theodore J. Lowi, The Personal President: Power Invested, Promise Unfulfilled (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985), 97–99. Notwithstanding these differences, prominent critics of the Twenty-second Amendment pointed to the long-serving Prime Ministers Gladstone (England) and King (Canada) to highlight the presumed flaws of presidential term limits. See, for instance, Henry Steele Commager , “Only Two Terms for a President? New York Times, April 27, 1947. 16. The Twenty-second Amendment provides for a president who has assumed the office through vacancy—such as a vice president becoming president due to the death of the president—to run for “reelection” twice if he or she has served less than two years of the previous president’s term. Ford, for instance, had he won election on his own in 1976, would have been barred from running for reelection in 1980, given that he served more than two years of Nixon’s term after the latter’s resignation in the summer of 1974. 17. See “Republican Contract with America,” http://www.house.gov/ house/Contract/CONTRACT.html, accessed January 20, 2010. Republicans had some internal disagreement with regard to term limits in the House, and an additional proposal in the Contract called for members of the House to be limited to only three, rather than six, terms. 18. For information on governors’ term limits, see “Constitutional and Statutory Provisions for Number of Consecutive Terms of Elected...