ELECT MALIA IN 2032!

In the finale of 'Life On Mars', we learn that President Obama wanted to be on hand to greet the astronauts when they awoke from their two-year sleep in suspended animation. Unfortunately, her father was ill, so she and her sister had gone back to Chicago to be with him.

So the implication is that one of the Obama daughters grows up to be the President of the United States. But we never learn if it was either Malia or Sasha.

I'm leaning towards Malia, as she would be 37 in 2035. (Born July 4, 1998)

However.... several people, especially among the excellent commenters at Alan Sepinwall's blog, "What's Alan Watching?" (link to the left, citizen), have pointed out that neither of the two girls would have been old enough to be elected President, according to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Article 2 of the Constitution establishes a minimum age limit of 35 in order to be president:

"No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States."

The last election by 2035 will have taken place on November 2, 2032. (One month before, on October 15, it is predicted that Phoebe Buffay from 'Friends' will pass away.) Malia will only be 34 and ineligible to run for the office.

So I thought that maybe she could have been on the 2032 ticket as the Vice Presidential candidate. Maybe at some point after the inauguration but before 2035, the President will have died and so Malia Obama is sworn in as the new POTUS.

And then the 12th Amendment put a kibosh on that:

"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

So much for that... at least, as the Constitution stands now.

Between now and 2032, there is plenty of time to enact a new Amendment that would lower the age to say, 30. There are factions out there trying to amend the Constitution so that foreigners can for the Presidency, for Ah-nuld's sake; so why not lower the age limitation at the same time?

Remember, it's all Toobworld, not the real world. Who knows? Probably by then talking horses will be allowed to run for office as well as vote.

Why not? In the real world, we've already got plenty of asses in government......

BCnU!
Toby O'B

PS:
Remembering that Lisa Bonet's name had been in the opening credits, I thought maybe the producers originally wanted her to portray President Obama, thus showing how she was integrated into Sam's neural stim dream. But I guess she was merely relegated to a voice-over quote as Sam was waking up.