"UNTIL President Reagan's current travails, Reagan enthusiasts rushed around the country clamoring for repeal of the two-term limitation for presidents.
Ratified 36 years ago, the 22nd Amendment states that ``No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.'' Only a few months ago Rep. Guy Vander Jagt, chairman of the House Republican Campaign Committee, declared that Mr. Reagan was one of ``the greatest American Presidents of all time and I want to keep him on the job.'' ``The Democrats had FDR for four terms,'' he said. ``We deserve to have Ronald Reagan for at least three.'' Saying ``the 22nd Amendment be damned,'' a Portland, Ore., gentleman launched a committee to repeal the Constitution's prohibition against third-term presidents. And a New Hampshire Republican formed a national organization to mobilize repeal of the 22nd.
Reagan came to the White House supporting the 22nd.
Sometime early in his second term, however, he changed his mind. He repeatedly now says he believes the 22nd violates the people's democratic rights. The people ought to have a right to decide who their leaders will be, he says: ``If they want to vote for someone, we shouldn't have a rule that tells them they can't.''
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Reagan isn't alone. A third of the general public, according to a Gallup poll (last October), say they would like to see this amendment repealed so presidents could run for more than two terms. A spring 1986 Wall Street Journal poll found even stronger support for repeal. (Not surprisingly, twice as many Republicans as Democrats favored repeal.