Posted on 12/29/2009 5:55:30 AM PST by GOPsterinMA
That’d never happen. Firstly, Hillary already looks like Helen Thomas’s twin sister, and she ain’t getting any younger. The Dems ain’t gonna put up somebody with a face that can scare small children and your pets. Bubba’s health ain’t great, either (I wonder how much trim he’s getting these days, those kind of heart surgeries are known for being a buzzkill for your boner). Plus, the two of them pissed off too many Black folks last time, and that’s a rodentry no-no.
Reasonable minds may disagree on this, but I will tell you my opinion after long and careful thought over the past 12 years or so:
1. The 25th Amendment does not prohibit a two-term president from ever again acting as president, only from ever again being elected president.
2. The 12th Amendment provides that no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of president is eligible to the office of the VP.
3. Given that a two-term president is not constitutionally ineligible to the office of the presidency, he is not constitutionally ineligible to the office of the VP.
4. Since a two-term president is not constitutionally ineligible to the office of the VP, and there is no constitutional provision prohibiting certain persons eligible to serve as VP from being elected VP, a two-term president may be elected VP.
See my post 82. The 22nd Am. does not prohibit a two-term president from serving as president, only from being elected president again. The language is pretty clear.
If a two-term president was deemed (through judicial activism) to be ineligible to serve as president again, then, under the 12th Amendment, he would be ineligible to serve as VP.
D’oh! I just realized that I referred to the 22nd Amendment (presidential term limits) as the 25th Amendment (appointment of VPs and other succession matters). Please substitute 22md for 25th in my point #1.
I read the 22nd as preventing a person from serving more than 10 years as President. One interesting test would be if, say, Bubba Clinton (or Dubya, for that matter) decided to serve as VP to whomever, and that person is forced out after, say, a year, meaning three years left on the term (and the 22nd explicitly says shall not serve longer than two years of a term to which someone else was elected). Would he then be compelled to step down precisely at that two year mark in favor of their appointed VP, or allowed to serve out all three 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 Presient, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be *elected* to the office of the President more than once.”
If you’ve been elected Pres. twice, you can’t be elected Pres. ever again, even if the second time you were elected you served for a day and then resigned. And if you served or acted as Pres. for 2 years and a day of a term for which someone else was elected (such as, for example, Gerald Ford), then you can be elected Pres. only once. This means that if you’ve served a day under 2 years of someone else’s term you can be elected PRes. twice, so you could serve as Pres. for a day under 10 years (as you noted).
However, nowhere in the 22nd Amendment does it say that you cannot act as Pres. if you’re no longer eligible to be elected Pres., so if Bill Clinton (or George W. Bush) happens to be next in the line of succession (for example, because he’s serving as Speaker of the House or Secretary of State and several people die) he could become Pres. and, in theory, serve more than 10 years in total. Remember, the 10-year limit doesn’t come from the 22nd Amendment, it was computed by someone looking at the likeliest scenarios.
Oh, I should have specifically addressed this point that you made: “the 22nd explicitly says shall not serve longer than two years of a term to which someone else was elected.” That’s not exactly right. The 22nd Am. explicitly states that if you serve for more than 2 years of a term for which someone else was elected then you can’t be elected President more than once, not that you can’t serve more than two years of someone’s term if you’ve already been elected President twice.
Ah I see you may be right. My first thought was that line in 12th amendment would prohibit it.
We don’t know how a court would rule, if I were a judge I’d stick to the plain text of the constitution which does not appear to prohibit this.
I doubt we will ever cross this bridge. I don’t see Hillary wanting Bill as a running mate, with that kind of Imperial type stuff the negatives would outweigh any positives.
I do think she may launch a primary challenger though if Obama looks like a likely loser around the middle of 2011. I think she would wait to pick her running mate until she wins (if she wins). Although Reagan picked his running mate (a RINO Senator) early in his race against Ford. The move didn’t go over well at all, it may have ever hurt Reagan’s chances. 4 years later Teddy Kennedy did not name a running mate in his challenge to Carter.
Once again - well put!
Thank you all for your fabulous information! I knew I could count on you all for the good stuff.
Happy New Year to you all, let’s roll in 2010!!!!!!
Happy New Year GOPster.
May it be better for all than the last, cept for the left!
I hope you don’t have any lingering effects from that spinal torture you got last month.
Thank you Impy!
2010 - The Year We Take Back OUR Country!!!
Thank you for asking. The recovery process is going slow, as most folks with back injuries have told me. I am better than I was a month ago though, no doubt.
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