Requirements to be a President

The President of the United States of America heads both the state and the government of the United States of America. He is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The office of the President is the highest political office in the United States of America. The President heads the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and is one of the two nationally elected federal officers. Along with the President, it is the Vice President, who is elected nationally. The election of the President is an indirect election, which is done through the Electoral College. An individual is elected to office for a term of four years. There was an amendment (twenty second Amendment) made to the US constitution in 1951, due to which the presidents have been limited to two terms. Do you want to read about the 27 amendments to the US constitution? Coming back to your question, what are the requirements to be a President of the United States? Find the answer to this question below.

What are the Requirements to be a President of the United States?

To become the President of the United States along with the nerves of steel, charisma, skeleton-free closet, network for fundraising, thick skin, etc., these are some important criteria, which must be fulfilled by the person, who is running for the office of the President. The requirements include:

Citizenship: The person has to be a native born U.S. Citizen. If the person is born abroad, but only to parents who were both citizens of the United States, he or she is also eligible to run for the Presidential elections. There is a small loophole in the eligibility rule, when the Constitution was first adopted. According to the Constitution, the person may not have been born in the United States, but has to be a citizen of the United States, when the Constitution was adopted. However, this can no more be used as the Constitution was adopted in 1789. This clearly means, that immigrants cannot run for the Presidential elections. There is rising criticism to this criterion, especially after Arnold Schwarzenegger became the elected Governor of California. He is an Austrian by birth, but a neutralized citizen of the United States.

Age: The person should have completed at least 35 years of age to be eligible to be a President of the country. There is no highest age limit to become a President. John F. Kennedy was the youngest President of the United States. He was elected to office when he was 43 years old. On the other hand, when Ronald Reagan left the White House in 1988, he was 77 years old.

Knowledgeable: To run for the Presidential elections, the person should have stayed in the United States for a minimum period of 14 years and he has to be a natural born U.S. Citizen. This will help the person to be aware of the general issues, which have their impact on the American population. However, there is ambiguity in this criterion, as the Constitution does not clearly mention, if the 14 years are consecutive years and what is the precise definition of residency. To this date, however, this requirement has not been challenged, hence there is no big uproar on the subject as yet.

For more information, read:

• How Does the Electoral College Work
• Electoral College Pros and Cons

Along with the above mentioned explicit requirements to be a President, there are some other requirements as well. The citizens of the country expect the President to be of good character. More often than not the morals and ethics of the Presidential candidates are carefully scrutinized, more so by the opponents. Along with charisma, the candidate's public speaking skills and being clear about the major issues affecting the country is equally important.