The 22nd Amendment

This amendment is near and dear to me.  You see, my hometown hero is singularly responsible for it.  Before him no one thought a President would serve more than the two terms, a tradition set by George Washington himself.

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.
This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several states within seven years from the date of its submission to the states by the Congress.

But then came Franklin Delano Roosevelt (D-NY), to save the nation at the time of the Great Depression.  He saw his duty and hung on for four terms to lead the nation through the depression, into the World War and died just prior to the creation of the Nuclear Age. 

He gave us fire side chats, and the imprisonment of the Japanese-Americans living along the west coast.  He attempted to pack the Supreme Court of the United States with extra judges, and created the social security program we have today and American’s loved him for all he did.  Of course, back then the press didn’t see the need to tell the average American he was an invalid and couldn’t get himself dressed without the help of his black butler.  I point out his butler’s color only because Franklin made little effort to end the discrimination that existed in the South, including Washington DC during his term. 

If the blacks had a voice in the White House it was Eleanor’s, and not Franklin.

But he did love himself some power and the prestige that came with being the savior of the nation.  At the end of his term he allowed the Russians to gain control of Eastern Europe and never confided in his VP the potential of the atomic weapon he had authorized.  His death in Warm Springs Georgia left the nation in morning and his VP trying to figure out what were the most important issues to face right now.

The Congress authorized this Amendment in 1947 and it was ratified by the 36^th state in 1951.  I think JFK was the first subject to its restriction.