Schwarzenegger 2020: Equal Opportunity to Govern

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Anders

You could limit it to people who have held high political office and lived in the U.S. for 35 years. I mean, that's stricter than the rules for Senators who actually get to make the laws.

In order to determine how plausible various paths to a point where Schwarzenegger can run for President are, I kind of need to know whether or not modern Americans consider the 'natural born clause' important or controversial.

I realize that political opponents will always try to make insignificant details into scandals, but I've never noticed any widespread public sentiment to the effect that Ted Cruz, to take a random example who would be legally barred from the Presidency, was completely unsuitable as a candidate just because of his place of birth.

In an alternate world where Arnold Schwarzenegger was significantly more popular and politically powerful than in ours, would a significant number of actual voters* care overly much about his place of birth?

Obviously, he'd have to somehow overcome the legal obstacle to taking office, but I don't have a good handle on how much of a political problem being born in another country would be.

Is there a widespread perception in the United States that if Alexander Hamilton or James Wilson had been allowed to run for President, something terrible would have happened?

*The correlation between Internet outrage and actual voting is pretty low.