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Actually, what the 22nd Amendment says is: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...." (My italics)

So there's a legitimate argument that one can Constitutionally succeed to the office of President, even if one has previously been elected twice.

Of course, it's a moot point, because you have to work at CNN to be dumb enough to think that Kerry might pick Bill Clinton as his running mate.

I guess if anyone is up to the task of defining what "is" is it's Bill Clinton. But I still think even the 22 Amendment is pretty clear.

Amendment XXII

Section 1. 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 the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the 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.

"No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...."

You're right, and I've wondered about that for some time. Can the Secretary of State who is not natural born become President, if the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and President Pro Tem of the Senate all resign? He would not be elected but his office would be next in line.

Actually, what the 22nd Amendment says is: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...." (My italics)

So there's a legitimate argument that one can Constitutionally succeed to the office of President, even if one has previously been elected twice.

Yes, but there is a maximum 10 years in office. If Kerry tripped on his chin and died after only one year in office, that would put clinton pulling 11 years, hence he is inelligible.

"Actually, what the 22nd Amendment says is: "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice...." (My italics)

So there's a legitimate argument that one can Constitutionally succeed to the office of President, even if one has previously been elected twice."

Absolutely correct. Either because of poor drafsmanship or intentional nuance, the 22nd amendment merely prohibits a person who has been elected president twice (or who has been elected once and served as president for over 2 years of someone else's term) from being *elected* president again. It does not prohibit such person from *becoming* president because of the line of succession (as opposed to someone who is not a natural-born citizen, who would have to be skipped over if he was next in line---had the president, VP, Speaker and president pro tem all died while foreign-born Henry Kissinger or Madeline Albright served as Secretary of State, they would have been skipped over and the Secretary of the Treasury would have become president). If Bill Clinton was Speaker of the House and both the president and VP died, the current succession statute would make him president, and the 22nd Am. wouldn't stop it.

On the other hand, the 12th Amendment says that no person constitutionally ineligible to the presidency shall be eligible to that of the vice presidency, and some people argue that if you are ineligible to be *elected* president, you should be ineligible to be *elected* VP. But that's not what the 12th Am. says---only if you are ineligible to *become* president are you ineligible to *become* VP, and the amendment does not require any additional qualifications for being elected VP. So Clinton could be constitutionally elected VP, and if the president died he would become president again. It's not going to happen, but it's not unconstitutional.