Hi, I'm Bill Nigut. Welcome to On the Campaign Trail.
This is a series in which we are going to be taking you step by step through the 2016 presidential contest,
all the way up to Election Day in November of next year.
So do you want to be president? Are you ready to run right now? Not so fast!
There are requirements to what you have to do to become president.
It's really very simple.
The rules are laid out in Article II, Section I of the US Constitution.
Let's read it: "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 for the office of President;
neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained the age of
35 years, and been 14 years a resident within the United States.
Ok. So let's break that down. Why 35?
Well the Founding Fathers believed that wisdom and maturity were important requirements for someone
who wanted to serve as president.
Well is there anything magical about the age of 35?
No, I think we all know people who at age 35 really don't seem very mature or very wise.
Nevertheless, when you look at that having been created back in the 18th century,
you have to realize that people's lifespans were much shorter.
And so the Founding Fathers probably thought 35 was a much more advanced age then
than we consider it to be now.
Natural born citizen. What does that mean?
Well that's easy. It just means someone who was born in the United States.
But here's why it's important.
It does remind us that at the time the Constitution was written, most of the people who lived here had come
from another country. And the Founding Fathers wanted to make sure that a
person running for president would have some genuine physical tie to the country.
The matter of having been a resident for 14 years is really kind of interesting.
We think that the Founders probably wanted to make sure that those people
had spent time here before they could become president.
So the Constitution sets out the requirements very simply.
But what are some of the unwritten qualifications?
That's a little bit harder to pin down.
It used to be assumed that it was essential a candidate serve in the military.
After all, the president is Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
But 12 presidents including Bill Clinton, Franklin Roosevelt, and our
second president John Adams never served in the military.
Most candidates for president have background in elected office.
They've been governors or congressmen, for instance.
But if you've been following the race this year, you probably know that the candidates who
served in office, on the Republican side at least, are at a very big disadvantage.
Right now, the GOP candidates leading the field are Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Carly Fiorina.
And none of them has ever been elected to any office at all.
Why are they so popular?
Well most people think it's because voters are very angry at politicians
and those who've been serving in office, and they're turning to new comers.
There was a time not long ago when there were some other informal qualifications.
The candidate almost always had to be a white Christian male.
Of course, President Obama shattered that barrier in terms of race.
Right now we have two women, Carly Fiorina and Hillary Clinton,
running for president to become the first female president.
But to this day there has never been a Jewish president or a Muslim president.
In fact, Jewish candidates and Muslim candidates haven't even filed to run for
president at this point.
Some would say that having a grasp on foreign and domestic issues matters.
But that's pretty subjective.
After all, we may look at the candidates and where they stand on the issues and decide that the person
who knows the most is the one who happens to agree with our points of view.
So there you have it. If you want to run for president someday just remember the
only formal requirements are that you be at least 35 years old, that you've lived
in the United States for 14 years, and that you're a natural born citizen of this country.
Once you get to that point, I wish you well in your pursuit of the White House.