Democrats Have a ‘Plan C’ for Their Biden Problem (Place Barack Obama on the ticket as VP)

PJ Media ^ | 7/7/2024 | Matt Margolis

[Signalman]

Joe Biden appears to be in a free fall in the polls, yet he appears unwilling to drop out of the presidential race. His campaign, the White House, and the Democratic Party are all in chaos. If Biden won't leave, what is the party to do? If "Plan B" is replacing Biden and he won't go, a left-wing scholar is advocating a "Plan C" to save the president's floundering campaign.

Supporters of this plan suggest a straightforward strategy to counter Trump’s growing campaign momentum: replace Vice President Kamala Harris with former President Barack Obama.

“A Biden-Obama ticket would have a much better chance of beating Trump,” explained John Banzhaf, a professor at George Washington University Law School.

“Barack Obama is likely one of the few individuals whom a majority of Americans would want and trust as president," he claimed, without evidence. "Making Plan C possibly the least objectionable of several unappealing options now available to Biden and the Democratic Party."

Banzhaf argues that none of the alternatives to Biden appear to be in any better position to win the presidency, and even if they were, the money raised by the Biden-Harris campaign can't simply be transferred to another campaign.

You're probably thinking, "But what about the 22nd Amendment?"

Banzhaf argues that the 22nd Amendment, often cited as a barrier to Barack Obama serving as president again, doesn't actually prevent him from becoming vice president and then succeeding to the presidency.

The 22nd Amendment:

"No person shall be elected to the office of the president more than twice, and no person who has held the office of the 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 the president more than once."

[CA Conservative]

Being President prior- for two terms IS an ineligible Constitutional definition— for either being a VP in the first place and President in the second.

If you were dealing with logic and common sense, you would be right. But you are dealing with politics and the law. In the case of the law, words have specific meanings that can cause some very illogical outcomes. In this case, the 22nd Amendment says nothing about how many years a president may serve - it only deals with how many times he may be elected. It also says nothing about how the VP is affected by the restriction on the president.

If the Dems tried to do this, they would argue that the 22nd Amendment prevents Obama from being elected president again, but does not prevent him from serving as president if he we to be elevated to the office by some other method than being elected president. There are several ways someone can become president without being elected to the office. First of course is by being elected vice-president and having the president leave office. Another would be being Speaker of the House or a cabinet officer and have everyone in the line of succession ahead of you die or resign. Anothe is one that already has happened in recent history - the VP resigns, another person is appointed VP and is confirmed by Congress, and then the president dies or resigns.

Under normal circumstances, I agree that Dems trying that would be ridiculous. However, they have shown there is almost no length to which they will not go to keep Trump out of the White House again. And I could see SCOTUS punting like they did in 2020 on the election cases, calling it a political issue.

[Zathras]

Laws only apply to Republicans.
They can probably justify anything and get away with it.
When has the GOP ever blocked any of their agenda?
Even the Supreme Court saying Biden couldn’t forgive student loans was ignored.
Not even a sternly worded memo.

Hate to bring this up but GWB and Rove have spent more time attacking Trump than they have attacking Biden.