CHAPTER TEn • THE PREsidEnCy 225
WHo CAn BEComE PREsidEnT?
The president receives a salary of $400,000, plus $169,000 for expenses and a vast array
of free services, beginning with residence in the White House. The requirements for
becoming president, as outlined in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution, are not over-
whelmingly stringent:No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the
time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President;
neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the
Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.A “natural Born Citizen”
The only question that arises about these qualifications relates to the term natural born
Citizen. Does that mean only citizens born in the United States and its territories? What
about a child born to a U.S. citizen visiting or living in another country? Although the
question has not been dealt with directly by the United States Supreme Court, it is reason-
able to expect that someone would be eligible if her or his parents were Americans.Birth Controversies. These questions were debated when George Romney, who was
born in Chihuahua, Mexico, made a serious bid for the Republican presidential nomina-
tion in the 1960s.^1 The issue came up again when opponents of President Barack Obama
claimed that Obama was not a natural born citizen. In reality, Obama was born in Honolulu,
Hawaii, in 1961. Those who disputed Obama’s birth claimed that the short-form birth
certificate released by the Obama campaign was a forgery—even though Obama’s birth
was also recorded by two Honolulu newspapers. The White House later released Obama’s
long-form birth certificate, which was endorsed as valid by every relevant Hawaiian offi-
cial, Republican and Democrat.The Age of the President. Although the Constitution states that the minimum-age
requirement for the presidency is thirty-five years, most presidents have been much older
than that when they assumed office. John F. Kennedy, at the age of forty-three, was
the youngest elected president, and the oldest was Ronald Reagan, at age
sixty-nine. The average age at inauguration has been fifty-four. There has
clearly been a demographic bias in the selection of presidents. All have
been male, white, and from the Protestant tradition, except for John F.
Kennedy, a Roman Catholic, and Barack Obama, an African American.The Process of Becoming President
Major and minor political parties nominate candidates for president and
vice president at national conventions every four years. The
nation’s voters do not elect a president and vice president
directly but rather cast ballots for presidential electors,
who then vote for president and vice president in the
Electoral College.- George Romney, father of Republican presidential candi-
date Mitt Romney, was governor of Michigan
from 1963 to 1969. Romney was not nomi-
nated, and the issue remains unresolved.
LO1: Identify the types of people
who typically undertake serious
campaigns for the presidency.in 1960, John
F. Kennedy became
the youngest person
elected president of
the United States.
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