As of Monday, there are 798 candidates registered with the Federal Election Commission to run for president of the United States. You will notice I said candidates and not people.
At last count, there were at least two felines and a dog, along with a number of cartoon characters and other questionable characters who had filled out the required Statement of Candidacy (FEC Form 2). The list does leave me wondering how Buddy The Cat, Bailey D. Dog, Luci Fer, and Captain Crunch managed to get by the powers that be that check those applications.
Apparently, it is really very easy to run for president in America, and just about anybody and anything can run. Many of those unknowns in the voluminous list might be feeling proud after one of their own kind, Deez Nuts, of Wallingford, Iowa, actually got his name in a public policy poll survey after he asked to be included in the poll.
Deez Nuts, a 15-year-old high school sophomore by the name of Brady Olson, turned out to have 9 percent support in North Carolina, 8 percent in Minnesota, and 7 percent in Iowa. According to the San Jose Mercury News, Google was reporting on Friday that Deez Nuts had surpassed Hillary Clinton in searches on the Internet. Go figure.
You too can grow up to be president
When young master Olson was asked why he wanted to run for president, he answered, “because I can.” And that’s the wonderful thing about living in America. Anyone can grow up to be the president. Well, almost anyone. And in today’s electronic world, all you need is a computer to sign up.
There are some questions on the form pertaining to campaign financing that require some creative answers, especially if your name is Not Sure, or Buddy the Elf. According to Form FEC-2, the prospective candidate has to have campaign contributions in excess of $5,000 or expenditures in excess of $5,000, or the individual has given consent to someone else to receive or make expenditures on behalf of the individual.
In the case of the last requirement, the person named to act for the prospective candidate has to have contributions or expenditures of $5,000. Complicated? Not too much, but then the form asks you or the person you have given consent to, for a bank’s name, where it’s located, you know, all that good stuff. Oh, one other thing is required, a telephone number.
But let’s get serious for just a minute. There are a few legal requirements under the Constitution. First of all, candidates must be native-born U.S. citizens (or those born abroad, but only to parents at least one of whom was a U.S. citizen at the time) to serve as president of the United States.
Secondly, the candidate must be at least 35-years of age. There is no maximum age to be president. Finally, one must live in the United States for at least 14 years to be president, in addition to being a natural-born citizen. Now the Constitution is rather vague on the 14-year residency requirement because it doesn’t make it clear if the 14-years is consecutive or just a total of years.
