Many countries have a tradition of inviting foreigners to rule them.The English called in William of Orange in 1688，and，depending on your interpretation of history，William of Normandy in 1066.Both did rather a good job.Returning the compliment，Albania asked a well-bred Englishman called Aubrey Herbert to be their king in the 1920s.He refused—and they ended up with several coves called Zog.
America，the country of immigrants，has no truck with imported foreign talent.Article two of the constitution says that ’no person except a natural-born citizen..，shall be eligible to the office of the president’.This is now being challenged by a particularly irresistible immigrant：Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Barely a year has passed since the erstwhile cyborg swept to victory in California’s recall election，yet there is already an Amend-for-Arnold campaign collecting signatures to let the Austrian-born governor have a go at the White House.George Bush senior has weighed in on his behalf.There are several ’Arnold amendments’in Congress：one allows foreigners who have been naturalized citizens for 20years to become president.（The Austrian became American in 1983.）
It is easy to dismiss the hoopla as another regrettable example of loopy celebrity politics.Mr.Schwarzenegger has made a decent start as governor，but he bas done little，as yet，to change the structure of his dysfunctional state.Indeed，even if the law were changed，he could well be elbowed aside by another incomer，this time from Canada：the Democratic governor of Michigan，Jennifer Granholm，who appears to have fewer skeletons in her closet than the hedonistic actor.
Moreover，changing the American constitution is no doddle.It has happened only 17times since 1791（when the first ten amendments were codified as the bill of rights）.To change the constitution，an amendment has to be approved by two-thirds of both houses of Congress，and then to be ratified by three-quarters of the 50states.The Arnold amendment is hardly in the same category as abolishing slavery or giving women the vote.And，as some wags point out，Austrian imports have a pretty dodgy record of running military superpowers.

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