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agreed but....... it's still debatable. the 22nd amendment doesn't address this scenario. the 12th amendment states :
"no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States"
which could be relevant since obama ( or gw bush, clinton ) can't be elected president but...some scholars argue they still meet the eligibility requirement ( 35+, natural born citizen and 14 years residency )
Yet, if the democrats were to take back the house, they could then elect Obama "Speaker of the House" (He doesn't even have to be a congressman) and there is no requirement that the speaker be eligible. Of course, the Speaker is second in the line of succession. I guess if this were to happen, it would have to go to the supremes to sort out.
Been seeing stuff about how Joe Biden could run for presidency and that Obama could be his vice president, but I thought there were already safe guards in place to make a person ineligible for President not be able to run for Vice President either.
Can anyone clear this up for me, with facts.
With the personality and attitude some spectrum of arrogance Trump has, he would never become a Vice President carrying orders under a president - but yeah, if Melania becomes the president then it's a different story. He is scared of her, and will do a good job as VP.
Been seeing stuff about how Joe Biden could run for presidency and that Obama could be his vice president, but I thought there were already safe guards in place to make a person ineligible for President not be able to run for Vice President either.
Can anyone clear this up for me, with facts.
Let me clear this up for you. Obama will not be Joe Biden's VP - despite what you saw on social media.
People( constitutional scholars) have debated this for years.
This really comes down to 1 thing
1. Elect vs serve vs eligibility
3 possible answers
1. Can serve as VP, can serve as POTUS if needed in case of the death of the president
2. Can serve as VIce President , but can not serve as POTUS
3. Can't serve as VP .
The only way you can argue #3 is if you argue eligibility in and of itself , meaning the VP must be eligible to not only serve as VP but be eligible to president as well. Since he has already served 2 terms , he isn't eligible .
This is the narrowest view.
Many scholars disagree with this mostly because of the Line of Succession argument . The Speaker and Pres Pro Temp in the Line of Succession act of 1947( amended in 1967,72,89,2001,2003) do not have to be eligible to be president . This is why #2 Is the most likely. It has the most contextual support.
#1 requires the most liberal reading or if you will , the most literal .
In short, serve means serve, elect means elect. As long as Barack Obama isn't elected president he could technically serve as many times as he wants
Some people believe VP can serve no more than 2 years of another person's term ( bringing the grand total to 10 years for Obama), But the law again states "elected" , not served.
So if you argue the literal text, Biden/Obama could run and Biden could resign day 1 and Obama serve for all 4 years and then Biden could run for the presidency again, win and again resign on the first day and Obama serve for 4 years
So to reiterate
#1 is based solely on the context of serving
#2. Based on Election
#3. eligibility in and of itself
Good rundown. The only potential problem I have with #2 as an argument in allowing a former two term POTUS to serve as VP, however, is that Congress explicitly legislated ways for persons to serve in various posts without being in the line of presidential succession. Such exceptions are not in the Constitution when it addresses the VP succeeding POTUS.
Unlikely or not, there's no Constitutional prohibition that would not allow this.
Vice Presidents have already followed their Presidents into their own presidency; George HW Bush was the last example, so there's nothing to stop Biden from doing the same, and there is nothing to stop any Presidential candidate from choosing a former President as his VP.
There was one instance of a former President returning to Congress; John Quincy Adams went back and served 2 terms as a Representative. So this establishes a precedent for other ex-presidents to return to office, just not the presidency again.
But in the 12th amendment, it does say no person who is constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible for Vice President of the United States. Obama is no longer eligible in my understanding, so he would not be able to be a Vice President pick for a future candidate. If this was the case, you would think Hillary Clinton would have chosen him as her running mate.
Let's refer to the Constitution. It actually covers this quite nicely in Amendment 22:
No person shall be electedto 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 President more than once.
So, bottom line: no, Biden couldn't choose Obama as his running mate (or Trump for that matter) and Pence couldn't choose Trump (or Obama) for his running mate.
Two terms as President, you're done.
Are the operative words not "elected"?
If a Biden/Obama ticket won, and Biden died, Obama would not have been ELECTED to office, but ascended to it due to the succession formula.
I would suggest, yes, Obama could become President again by that manner, however, he could never run for reelection if that were to occur.
Been seeing stuff about how Joe Biden could run for presidency and that Obama could be his vice president, but I thought there were already safe guards in place to make a person ineligible for President not be able to run for Vice President either.
I don't think so. I have been seeing Obama for Oprah's running mate but honestly with how racist we are now (or at least open about it) it wouldn't work to have an all black ticket.
A Biden/Obama ticket would be something similar to what Putin pulled in Russia some years ago after his first stint as President was over he was appointed Prime Minister and really never left power. Fast forward to today and he is still in power. That is one thing about our country that should make everyone who is a citizen here very proud to be an American. No matter what your political views are you have a chance to elect a new president every 4 years, and we have always had a peaceful transition of power.
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