Posted by
Roxanna M. on Thursday, April 17, 2008 5:51:03 PM
A friend of mine dropped me an e-mail this morning telling me, among other things, what he remembers about when his oldest brother went to work for the FBI as a fingerprint clerk. He said the background check was beyond belief, as the FBI went back to his childhood years, including grade school friends and teachers. Yet, no background checks are done on those running for President because the Constitution does not require one.
All the Constitution says is: "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."
With his history of draft dodging, speaking against America on foreign soil in a time of war, and womanizing, Bill Clinton could never have passed a background check. The FBI wouldn't have hired him as a janitor. Yet with his election, he was immediately given access to all of this nation's secrets and had his finger on the nuclear button.
If the FBI has the right to probe the past of a person who is applying for an entry level position, we certainly have the right to probe the pasts of people who aspire to this nation's highest office. We have a right to know who they associate with and who their friends are. We have a right to know if they cheat on their spouse, 'cause anyone who'll lie to and cheat on the person they have sworn to love above all others will most assuredly lie to and cheat on me. We have a right to know if they drink too much. We have a right to know what drugs they are taking and why, because I don't want someone on prozac answering the red phone at 3:00 in the morning. We have the right to know if they kick their dog.
These people aren't running for president of the student body, nor did they just suddenly show up. They have pasts, and what they have done in the past is the only way we have to judge how they might behave in the future. What they're saying and doing now to get themselves elected isn't anywhere near as important as what they have said and done for the entirety of their lives.
Think about that come November.