EDITORIAL- Terminate unfair clause in Constitution

What’s to stop a B-movie-actor-turned-governor-of-California from becoming president? An… What’s to stop a B-movie-actor-turned-governor-of-California from becoming president? An Austrian accent and the pesky circumstance of being born overseas.

But a Silicon Valley-based group wants to revise the U.S. Constitution to allow foreign-born, naturalized citizens to be president. The group will run ads asking for such a change, unofficially kicking off Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2008 presidential bid. Schwarzenegger has already said that he supports this alteration, a move both self-serving and in poor taste — but then, so was “End of Days.”

Self-serving or not, it’s time to loosen the requirements for being president, if only a little. Currently, the president must be a natural-born U.S. citizen, be older than 35, and have lived in the United States for 14 years. Under the change, a president would have to be a natural-born or naturalized citizen.

And get a majority of the electoral votes, of course.

This change wouldn’t suddenly open the presidency to being taken over by Boris and Natasha. Instead it would only slightly broaden the candidacy pool, to include people who’ve become citizens — which involves a seven-year waiting period — and have lived in the United States.

Clearly, such people have made an effort to become part of this country. They’ve become Americans by choice rather than by the circumstance of birth, and deserve an equal shot at being involved in the political process, even to the highest office.

There’s truth behind the cliche that we’re a nation of immigrants. Schwarzenegger has contributed to the United States, by becoming governor of California in a total recall, and protecting a small boy from killer robots. And who could forget the cultural masterwork that was “Junior”?

Of course, none of this is a guarantee that he or any other foreign-born running man (or woman) will win. Schwarzenegger’s marriage to a quasi-Kennedy, stances on abortion and stem cell research and his admitted sexcapades probably won’t go over in the red states.

And, prejudiced as it may be, some voters might be turned off by the fact that he pronounces it “Cal-eee-fornia,” to say nothing of what he’d do to the word nuclear. (Then again, the current president doesn’t have that one down either.)

But, hey, isn’t being president a step down from being Mr. Universe anyway?