Seven years ago, Orrin Hatch, the sartorially splendid* Republican senator of Utah, proposed an amendment to allow foreign-born Americans who have been citizens for at least two decades to run for president. Hearings were held, but the proposal failed to reach the Senate floor for debate.
Hatch's proposal was the infamous "Arnold Bill" that would have allowed his fellow GOPer, (but unfortunately Austrian-born) California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to become president of the U.S.A. Is it necessary for me to remind you that Hatch's protege Arnold later became the potentate of America's socialist gay-marriage commune? I think not.
The Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks argues the requirement that only native born Americans can be president (Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of our God-given Constitution) is "archaic, anachronistic, myopic, xenophobic." Making America more archaic, anachronistic, myopic, xenophobic is, of course, pretty much the mission statement of the Utah Legislature's Patrick Henry Caucus.
It's obvious that Orrin better start getting his mind right before the 2012 state nominating convention rolls around.
*It apparently doesn't take much -- maybe a contrasting shirt collar -- to pass for "sartorially splendid" in Baltimore.
