If you've been following our conversation about the effect of the 22nd Amendment on President Reagan, you'll know that there is a difference of opinion as to whether The Gipper (1) could have won a third term had he been eligible and (2) would have run if he could.

Lou Cannon, the gold standard of Reagan biographers, weighs in:

Reagan's mid-November Gallup rating in 1988 was 57 percent and his December rating 63. He was higher in other polls, notably CBS-NY Times. When he left office, he had higher ratings than any predecessor except those who died in office and Eisenhower. But I think poll ratings are beside the point in answering this question.

Reagan never had an intention of seeking a third term. He believed that two terms were enough for president—or in any office if we're talking about four-year terms.

When Gov. Reagan finished his second term in California in 1974, some members of his kitchen cabinet wanted him to go for a third term; others favored a run for the Senate against a vulnerable , Democratic incumbent [Alan Cranston]. Reagan turned them down. He was on record as saying that two terms should be the limit for a governor or a president. I know he said it to me but he also said it publicly.

Your questioner is probably right in saying that Reagan could have won a third term. Indeed, I think one of the reasons that George H.W. Bush ran into trouble was that he didn't realize that a number of the people who voted for him were in effect voting for a third Reagan term. But Reagan would never have sought a third term. He was a few weeks away from his 78th birthday when he finished his second and he was eager to get home to California. I was one of a handful of reporters who accompanied him on his flight home on Jan. 20, 1989, and he was a happy man, not at all reluctant to relinquish presidential power.

Tags: A Look Back in Politics