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Joke to threat turn-around: ten years

In Demolition Man , Sylvester Stallone’s and Sandra Bullock’s characters have this dialogue :

“Hold it! The Schwarzenegger Library?”

“Yes, the Schwarzenegger Presidential Library. Wasn’t he an actor?”

“Stop! He was President?”

“Yes. Even though he was not born in this country, his popularity at the time caused the 61st Amendment…”

Ha ha ha, very funny. Or so I thought until I read

Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger is still a long way from being elected California’s governor, but proposed constitutional amendments that would allow foreign-born citizens such as the action movie star to become president will be debated in Congress this autumn. One of the proposals, by Schwarzenegger political friend Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, would allow anyone who has been a U.S. citizen for 20 years and has resided in the country for 14 years to be elected president. Hatch denies that he proposed the amendment on July 10 with Schwarzenegger in mind, but it turns out that the 56-year-old actor-businessman was naturalized in 1983.

What a coincidence. This is probably also a coincidence:

Schwarzenegger’s candidacy is not unprecedented, especially considering the Terminator’s record as a campaigner and fund-raiser for Republican causes (I once covered him stumping in West Valley City for Orrin Hatch).

I’m not laughing any more.

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