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Comment by forty | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how long it will take for Musk to run for the Whitehouse. Such a good way to have people talk about him even more, he cannot not do it.

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He cannot do it.

The Constitution places a few limitations on who can be President. One of these is that you must be a natural-born US citizen.

Wow that's a very bad law.

I wonder if changing the constitution will cost him less than buying Twitter.

Wow that's a very bad law.

I don't think so at all. The system is designed so that the American people, in the framework of the system, make it run. There's no need to worry that we only got the 2nd best person in the job, because we're not counting on their excellence to work miracles for us.

While on the other side of the coin, it's still possible for a bad actor in that position to wreak a lot of damage (especially given the historical erosion of controls on government action and the gradual abdication of Congressional oversight).

So it's more important to avert a potential disaster, then to avoid the cost of missing our one potential savior.

you make it sounds like a naturally born Citizen is less likely to be a bad actor. I guess there must be this magic dust falling on the cradles in the US and not elsewhere which makes people be good guys ;)

I think it's assumed that a natural-born citizen is less likely to have a hidden agenda favoring a different nation. Or looking at it from the other side, more likely to have a vested interest in the good of the nation.

That's a pretty poor assumption. In practice people that choose to become citizen of a country are often prouder and more worthy of it than people who just happened to be born there.

Yes, I'm married to one such.

Let me ask you: would you go even a step farther? Should we allow non-citizens to hold the office? If not, why not?

Well each country have their own rules and traditions to decide who can be citizens or not, which give them the rights and duties that come with citizenship, I think it's fine. What bothers me with this law is that it depends on how they became citizen, making them half citizens or citizens on probation, something like that. And I'm sure they don't have half citizen duties.

He was not born in the US. Like Arnold, unless the law changes he won't be able to do it. Unfortunately.

Musk can never be the POTUS, because he's not a natural-born US citizen.

Well, at least not until the Constitution is amended to remove that requirement. But it is not likely, I agree.

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