President Barack Obama’s climbing approval ratings may have gone to his head. During a speech in Ethiopia, he said he could win a third term in the White House, if only the Constitution would let him. But would Obama really win if he were to run again? Only one president has ever served more than two terms ‒ Franklin Delano Roosevelt. And, with only a 50-percent approval rating, Obama is no FDR.
But that didn’t stop the president from talking about how “there’s a lot that I’d like to do to keep America moving” with that magical third term, a possibility that has been prohibited since the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1951.
“I actually think I’m a pretty good president,” Obama said. “I think if I ran I could win. But I can’t!” “The law is the law, and no one person is above the law, not even the president,” he added.
The remark was a not-so-subtle jab at African leaders who have a tendency to remain in office after term limits kick in. Like the president of Burundi, who was in the audience. Obama, like FDR before him, espoused the spread of democracy.
“No country is perfect, but we have to be honest, and strive to expand freedoms, to broaden democracy,” the president said in Ethiopia. “The bottom line is that when citizens cannot exercise their rights, the world has a responsibility to speak out. And America will, even if it’s sometimes uncomfortable… even when it’s sometimes directed toward our friends.”