Bob CollinsA good point comes from Washington Wire, the Wall St. Journal’s political blog.
In her video today announcing she’s not running for re-election, Rep. Michele Bachmann noted, “the law limits anyone serving as president of the United States for more than eight years.”
There is no such limitation in years.
Consider Lyndon Johnson, for example. Had he chosen to run for re-election and won in 1968 and served his full term, he would’ve been president for about 9 years. Had Gerald Ford beaten Jimmy Carter and then won a re-election, there was nothing stopping him from being president for almost 10 years except the voters who didn’t want him.
What the Constitution actually says is no person can be elected president more than twice:
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
