The Guardian fails U.S. Civics 101

In an article on Mad Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s offer to be an “observer” (H/T: Hot Air) in the 2008 presidential elections, Robert Tait of the Guardian—and his many layers of fact-checkers and editors—missed a vital fact of the American presidency. How many of you readers can figure this one out?

Having failed to win a response with an 18-page letter to President George Bush or to a request to visit the site of the September 11 2001 attack on New York, Ahmadinejad has offered himself as an observer in next year’s presidential election.

The proposal came in a speech to volunteers with the Basij, a pro-regime militia. He said he was prompted by a belief that Americans would vote against the current administration in a truly free poll.

However, the terms of Ahmadinejad’s offer appeared to betray some confusion about the potential candidates.

“If the White House officials allow us to be present as an observer in their presidential election we will see whether people in their country are going to vote for them again or not,” he said. The US constitution prevents Bush from seeking a third consecutive term, while no member of his administration is expected to be in the running in next November’s poll.

Here’s a hint: It’s the last sentence of the quote.

Give up?

The 22nd Amendment says nothing at all about consecutive terms. The amendment states only that the president cannot be elected for a third term, with the exception of having served two years or less to fill a term. Witness:

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Now, we can argue that it’s mere semantics. But the Constitution is all about semantics. By using the modifier “consecutive,” the Guardian implies that President Bush could run for another term at a different time, which he cannot.

Oh, come on. How could I resist taking a shot at the Guardian and Mad Mahmoud in the same post? Because Ahmadinejad is so uneducated in the American political system, that he doesn’t get our two-term limit for the presidency (if only we had that for Congress). Plus there’s the fact that Mad Mahmoud is so stupid he thinks that American voting isn’t free. Sorry, Mahmoud, but not all countries are like Iran, where you have to have your candidates approved by the Mullahcracy.

Of course, what Ahmadinejad is really doing is what the experts in modern victimology do the best: They claim victimhood by taking the charges made against their tyrannical regimes, such as the fact that Iranian elections are not really free, and trying to turn them around on the nations that call them on it. It’s the same logic the Iranians use to pretend that Iranian Jews are happy to remain in Iran, and that many mainstream media outlets are quick to parrot. What is never mentioned is the fact that Iranian Jews are not allowed to take a family holiday in another country without leaving at least one member of the family hostage in Iran. And while they’re constantly pointing out that Iranian Jews have a seat in the Iranian parliament, Iran and its lackeys in the media fail to mention that Iranian Jews are not in charge of their own religious schools—they’re run by Muslims, and have an Islamic agenda—and Iranian Jews are forced to go to school on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

In Iranian terms, freedom isn’t really free. But you won’t know that if you don’t dig a little more deeply than the media surface level.