This is a big fucking deal: Happy 70th Birthday VP Joe Biden!

[meegbear]

https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/270894831100887040/photo/1

[Gidney N Cloyd]

1. Jeebus, I hope Iook that good at 70.

[DemoTex]

19. My reaction, too. 70? NO WAY!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Vice-President!

[etherealtruth]

30. He does look excellent ... for fifty, much less 70!

[proverbialwisdom]

2. Great photo, K&R!

[William769]

3. Happy Bitrthday!

[Royal Sloan 09]

4. Happy Birthday, VP Biden!

70!! Really Dude ya lookin' Good, must be the good livin' Enjoy your B-Day, Sir!

[JNelson6563]

5. Here's the picture!

What a great picture of two great men! Happy Birthday Mr. Vice-President!



Julie

[dmr]

7. This picture makes me laugh out loud!

Makes me wonder what they've got up their sleeves.

I love their smiles.

Happy birthday, Mr. Biden.

[glinda]

6. Happy Birthday Mr. VP.

[malaise]

8. Yes indeed

Happy Birthday VP Joe Biden !!

[blaze]

9. The comradarie between these two

is so obvious in all the photos that get posted. You just can't fake that kind of "like"

Happy B-Day Joe!!!! We're so glad you're there.

More than you may ever know.

And yes. It's a BFD!!!!!

[Brigid]

10. Happy birthday, Mr. Vice President!

Love the photo! It just cries out for a caption by EarlG.

[SnowCritter]

12. Something like

"Remember when Mitt said..."

[handmade34]

11. Happy Birthday!

I Love You VP Joe Biden

[TuxedoKat]

13. Happy Birthday Mr. Vice President!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

[gateley]

14. What a team! I love that they have truly become friends!

Happy Birthday, Joe -- I wish you love and happiness.

[Euphoria]

15. Happy birthday Mr Vice President Biden

You've had our backs and Obama's back the whole time.
We love ya!

[Patiod]

16. Happy Birthday! Keep Amtrak alive for us, Mr Biden!

You just know Romney would have gutted Amtrak like he wanted to gut the Post Office, but Fightin' Joe will NEVER let that happen on his watch!

[sheshe2]

17. Happy Birthday Joe!

Excellent picture of 2 Great Men. Thank you for your service to our country!

[Third Doctor]

18. Happy B-day Joe!

[skeewee08]

20. Happy Birthday VP Joe Biden.....

70 years young....looking good....

[James48]

21. you know...I've been thinking. Hillary says no. So....here's an idea.

Why not?

[Jim Lane]

23. Unless you want Michelle to run, your ticket isn't legal.

The VP must be someone who's eligible to be President. By 2016, Barack Obama won't be eligible, having served two terms.

[James48]

36. Yes, it is perfectly legal.

The 22nd Amendment doesn't prohibit a former president from running for VICE president.
It only prohibits him from being elected again as President.

See?

"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.

Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress."

It would be LEGAL to have Barack and Joe switch for 2016, and, in the unlikely event anything ever happened to Joe, then Barack COULD legally become President again, under terms of the 25th Amendment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

Whether or not America would go for that, I don't know. I DO know it would be perfectly legal if they did.

[Jim Lane]

37. You missed the Twelfth Amendment.

The last sentence, after describing the procedure for election of a Vice President, states: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

I think I've seen this idea floated as to both Reagan and Clinton, who ended their second terms with high approval ratings and might well have won a third term if eligible. The idea was that the incumbent President could run for Vice President with a running mate whose platform was a promise to resign immediately after being inaugurated. This doesn't work, because of the Twelfth Amendment.

[James48]

38. Read it again

There is nothing which Constitutionally prohibits Obama from being eligible FOR THE OFFICE oF President (Only requires age of 35, and a natural born citizen to HOLD the office, and have been a U.S. resident for 14 years).

The 22nd only says he cannot be ELECTED. It doesn't say he cannot be elevated by a way OTHER THAN ELECTION.

Qualifications for the Office of President

Age and Citizenship requirements - US Constitution, Article II, Section 1

No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.

Term limit amendment - US Constitution, Amendment XXII, Section 1 – ratified February 27, 1951

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.

[Jim Lane]

39. My guess is that your interpretation would not be accepted by the courts.

As John Marshall said, the nature of the Constitution

requires that only its great outlines should be marked, its important objects designated, and the minor ingredients which compose those objects be deduced from the nature of the objects themselves. . . . . In considering this question, then, we must never forget that it is a Constitution that we are expounding. (McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 407 (1819)).

A court would be likely to rule that the relevant amendments didn't specifically spell out that Obama couldn't serve a third term by the type of arrangement you describe, but that saying so didn't end the inquiry. Reading the provisions to bar an Obama candidacy for Vice President would be an example of deducing minor ingredients from the nature of the objects of the provisions.

There's very little chance that we'll ever find out how the courts would rule on this question. All I can tell you is that, looking at all these provisions, and bearing in mind what I've seen of courts in action, I would offer steep odds that Obama would be held to be ineligible for election or appointment to the Vice Presidency. The alternative, requiring a literal-mindedness run amok, is not how courts actually function, especially in the realm of constitutional law.

[No Vested Interest]

22. Yes, All best wishes

to VP Joe Biden.
I loved it when the President called him "America's Happy Warrior" in his victory speech Nov. 6. So apt.
I never knew our original Dem. Happy Warrior - Al Smith- but doubt that he could have out-laughed our Joe Biden.

[Cha]

33. Thanks for that, N V I! nm

[Hugin]

24. Happy B-day, Joe!

Hope you like the present we got you!

Four more years!

[EmeraldCityGrl]

25. Biden makes 70 look great! Happy Birthday Joe.

[greatauntoftriplets]

26. A really BFD!!!

Happy birthday, Vice President Biden.

[psychmommy]

27. Happy bday Veep.

You are a very special man and you are much loved. I wish you many more.

[dimbear]

28. Could say many happy returns but Joe got them earlier this month. n/t

[graywarrior]

29. My birthday too!

[Cha]

32. Happy Birthday, Graywarrior!

[graywarrior]

34. Thanks, Cha!

[meegbear]

35. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

[Cha]

31. Happy Birthday, Joe! Pic of him and his wife, Dr Jill, from a few years ago.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/joe-biden-birthday-age-70_n_2165142.html