Soccer Dad

One six year term?

Thinking about President Bush's recent travails, I've started to wonder if maybe the constitution needs to be changed and allow presidents to be elected for only a single six year term. The Chicago Tribune recently laid out the difficulties recent presidents have encountered during their second terms.

Dwight Eisenhower endured a recession and a scandal involving his chief of staff, Richard Nixon was consumed by Watergate and Bill Clinton suffered impeachment. Ronald Reagan had the Iran-contra scandal ...

I was only thinking about the current president and President Clinton. But is there something about the way our two party system is configured, the responsibilities of the job and perhaps some other factors that will end up hobbling a president in his second term?
To read some recent blog entries and opinion pieces, President Bush has single handedly destroyed the Republican Party with his second term political failures. With President Clinton it was his personal failures that came to light and nearly derailed his presidency.

Now it's true as the Tribune observes

But the president shouldn't be too pessimistic. Circumstances can change in unforeseen ways. History may judge him more kindly than current opinion polls. And if there are days when he thinks his decision to run for re-election was a big mistake, he can take comfort that at least it's one he will never repeat.

Perhaps I'm acting rashly. On the other hand isn't it possible that second term failures are the result of the inevitable stresses of modern day governing and that by limiting a president to a single term we will ensure that we are governed more effectively?

Presidential Term Limits.

Posted by SoccerDad at June 7, 2007 4:52 AM