Obama: If I Could Run Again, Michelle Wouldn't Let Me

President Barack Obama said Thursday his wife wouldn't let him run for a third term in the Oval Office even if the law allowed it.

"Not only the Constitution bars it, but Michelle bars it — and you can’t change Michelle’s mind," Obama said, according to The Hill.

The 22nd Amendment was passed in 1947 and ratified by the required number of states in 1951, on the heels of Franklin D. Roosevelt's unprecedented three-plus terms in office. He was elected to a fourth term but died less than three months after it began in 1945.

Before Roosevelt, no president served more than two terms — an unofficial guideline that began with the nation's first president, George Washington, who declined to run for a third time. His successors mostly followed suit, with a few launching unsuccessful campaigns at four more years.

"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of President more than once," reads the 22nd Amendment.

"But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term."

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