At the time that the Republican 80th Congress passed the 22nd Amendment in 1947 and passed it on to the state legislatures to ratify, there were many who might have regretted that amendment.
But the amendment, which limited future Presidents after Harry Truman from matching Franklin D. Roosevelt’s four elections to the Presidency, was in the long run, a good measure, and former President Bill Clinton’s statement today that had it not been for the amendment, he would have wanted to be in the Presidency “until I was carried away in a coffin, or defeated in an election” is excellent proof of the value of that amendment.
The point is that change in the executive branch is necessary, as the power of that office can lead to corruption if any President feels he is indispensable. Just as the Pope or anyone in any position high or low can be replaced, so can the President of the United States, and the four Presidents who have had two complete terms since 1953 are proof of why it is good there are term limits.
Dwight D. Eisenhower was 70 at the end of his second term and was smart enough to realize that his age was a limit, that it was better for a younger man to have that responsibility.
Ronald Reagan was starting to show signs of mental deterioration in his second term and left at 78, certainly an age when no one should be having the burdens of the Presidency on his shoulders.
Bill Clinton had already lowered the dignity of his office by the Monica Lewinsky scandal in his second term, and the thought that he would have the gall to have run again endlessly if there was no amendment, is itself a good enough justification to have been fortunate to have term limits.
And, of course, George W. Bush having a possible third term or more is enough to give any sane person a nightmare beyond belief! 🙂
So the 22nd Amendment is intact, ironically due to the GOP, which has had three of the four Presidents who might have been eligible for a third term were it not for what the party did in 1947. At least back then, they actually brought about something constitutionally that made sense!