Reasons to love the 22nd Amendment: take a look at who is in the White House

My eyes sprung open wider than if I'd had intravenous caffeine when I read the Op-Ed in the NYT this morning, calling for a repeal of U.S. presidential term limits. Its authors claim:

>>AS George W. Bush's leadership flounders a little more than a year after his re-election, we are seeing a return of an old affliction in American politics, "second termitis." The protracted woes of Richard Nixon's Watergate, Ronald Reagan's Iran-contra affair, and Bill Clinton's impeachment were all, in part, manifestations of that malady.

Is there some human failing that affects second-term presidents, like arrogance or sheer fatigue? To some degree, perhaps. But the main problem is not personal but institutional - or rather constitutional, as embodied by the 22nd Amendment limiting presidential tenure. << http://tinyurl.com/du6uk

So, the Watergate break-in was due, somehow, to the fact that Nixon was running his last campaign? Or are the authors claiming that Congress wouldn't have had the nerve to pay *notice* to the Watergate break-in if Nixon were powerful enough to run for a third term? And Clinton wouldn't have found Monica quite so appealing if only he could have run again? Is that what they're claiming? Or is it, again, that Congress would have been too timid to bother with a presidential blow-job, knowing the prez might bounce back in public opinion, and had the power to hit back?

Of course, it's not just the strangeness of the argument that has my eyes popping. The only thing that keeps me clinging to hope for our country is the fact that the authoritarian would-be monarch, George W. Bush, is barred from a third term.

The authors, as support for their claim that the 22nd Amendment is not what the founders intended, note that Hamilton was against term limits. Uh-huh. Wouldn't it have been nice, (since, as educators and historians, they are obviously extremely well-informed on the topic), for the authors to have pointed out that Hamilton's vision of the presidency was to have something closer to a monarch?