Bill for VP! The law doesn't stop a former 2 term president from running for vice president.

[Freelancer]

It appears by the text of the 22nd Amendment that, if some disaster made him president, a VP Bill Clinton could only serve out the remainder of Hillary's term and not run again. However, the law does not specifically preclude a former 2 term president from running for vice president. I guess it's not something that post-FDR legislators could see as a potentiality.

Hey -- he's vetted. Think about it.

-------------------------------

Here's 22nd Amendment:

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.

[NWCorona]

1. No thanks!

I'm hoping for someone fresh

[Freelancer]

2. Oh, Bill's been fresh plenty of times. But let's not go there ;)

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[NWCorona]

3. 😂

[840high]

17. .....

[Squinch]

4. No. The first woman President should not have her husband as VP.

[Phlem]

5. !

[MineralMan]

6. I'm afraid you've misinterpreted the Amendment.

The provision you mention only applied during the presidency in place when the amendment was created. It does not apply to Bill Clinton at all.

He cannot be VP, because he cannot serve as President again. That's already settled law.

[Freelancer]

9. It says...

The law says no person can be ELECTED president more than twice -- not that he cannot serve as president more than twice. It's intent may be what you suggest, but the wording left this crack open in its literal interpretation, IMHO.

[MineralMan]

13. You're wasting your time.

Bill Clinton is not eligible to be President again, so cannot be elected as VP, either. See the 12th Amendment. To interpret the Constitution, one has to be familiar with the entire document, not just the part you are looking at. Sorry.

[sofa king]

42. One possible exception:

There does seem to be a possible opening in which Mr. Clinton could be nominated as VP in the last two years of Mrs. Clinton's term, if there is a vacancy.

At that point Mr. Clinton is eligible to serve for an additional two years before his ten-year eligibility expires, and some argue that the eligibility to be elected is mooted by the timing of the event, which is a nominee approval process and not an election.

It's so dicey and so likely to cause accusations of nepotism and general electoral backlash that the Clintons would be highly unwise to attempt it.

[Yupster]

58. Last sentence of the Twelfth Amendment

seems to clearly rule it out.

In this case it would be a horrible idea anyway.

[David__77]

38. According to Wikipedia, it is contested.

"While it is clear that under the Twelfth Amendment the original constitutional qualifications of age, citizenship, and residency apply to both the President and Vice President, it is unclear whether a two-term president could later serve as Vice President. Some argue that the Twenty-second Amendment and Twelfth Amendment both bar any two-term president from later serving as Vice President as well as from succeeding to the presidency from any point in the United States presidential line of succession.[8] Others contend that the Twelfth Amendment concerns qualification for service, while the Twenty-second Amendment concerns qualifications for election, and thus a former two-term president is still eligible to serve as vice president.[9] The practical applicability of this distinction has not been tested, as no former president has ever sought the vice presidency, and thus the courts have never been required to make a judgment regarding the matter."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

[awake]

7. Obama for VP

[Motley13]

31. No, Obama for Supreme Court justice

That will fix the repubs.

[DawgHouse]

46. True!

[Mass]

8. "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice

TPresident" (12th amendment) his seems to close the question concerning Bill.

Anyway, the symbol of the first woman president having her husband as VP would be terrible,

[LongtimeAZDem]

11. And besides, in Bill's case, Vice President is already an honorary title :D (nt)

[Lord Magus]

34. 12th refers to eligibility to BE president. 22nd refers to eligibility to be ELECTED president.

Since it's possible to become president without ever being elected, that's an important distinction. Bill Clinton is obviously ineligible to be elected president again, but whether he's eligible to become president is another question entirely. Based on the most obvious reading of the Constitution, the answer is yes.

[LongtimeAZDem]

10. The 12th amendment specifiaclly precludes it

"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States"

Since the the 22nd Amendment says:

"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."

Bill Clinton is Constitutionally ineligible for the Presidency, and therefore, he is ineligible for the Vice Presidency.

[MousePlayingDaffodil]

24. The plain terms of Amendment XXII do not say . . .

. . . that a person that has been elected to the office of the President twice is thereby "ineligible to" the office. It just doesn't say that. Rather, by its plain terms, the amendment specifies that a person who has been elected twice cannot thereafter be elected again.

Accordingly, the requirement of Amendment XII that a Vice President must be "eligible to" the office is beside the point. Bill Clinton is "eligible to" the office of President, even though he cannot "elected" to that office.

Consider that, at the time the XII Amendment was added to Constitution, Amendment XXII had, of course, not been enacted. Therefore, perforce logic, it cannot be the case that the language of Amendment XII -- "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of the Vice President" -- embraced the situation of a person twice-elected to the office of President. That is to say, at the time Amendment XII was enacted, a person's having been twice elected to the office of Presidency was not in view as one of the things that made said person "constitutionally ineligible."

Rather, the reference is to a person needing to be at least 35 years of age, a natural born citizen, etc. -- the conditions specified in Article II.

Recall, too, that prior to Amendment XII, the Vice President was the person who finished second in the Electoral "college" voting for President; the assumption was that anyone for whom the Electors would vote for President would necessarily be "eligible to" the office. With the change to the voting system worked by the Amendment XII (i.e., where a separate vote was taken by the Electors for the office of Vice President), it became necessary to specify that the Vice President must have the same measure of constitutional "eligibility" as did the President.

In short, Amendment XXII, on its face, does not operate to render Bill Clinton "constitutionally ineligible to the office" of President, and therefore Amendment XII would not operate to preclude him from serving as Vice President (or, for that matter, assuming the office of President should something happen to the President thereafter).

Indeed, under this analysis, Barack Obama is eligible to serve as Vice President, as is George W. Bush.

[Freelancer]

12. Okay. Well, so much for that. Thanks! -nt

[Travis_0004]

14. There would certainly be a court case

The 12th amendment says

"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

This is a tough one. Bill is no longer eligible to be elected to the office. Does that mean he is not eligible for the office?

And what if something happened to Hillary. The supreme court would have to decide if Bill is eligible to be the president. If he is not, then welcome president Paul Ryan.


Yes, a very strict reading would say that if Hillary stepped down, Bill is not 'elected', but the supreme court often looks at intent, and not always a strict reading of the law.

Freedom of speech gives one the right to go wave a flag around. That is not speech, it is understood that the intent of the 1st amendment was to give people the freedom to express their views.

[bigwillq]

15. No, thanks (nt)

[Vinca]

16. No. Absolutely not.

[MoonRiver]

18. OMG

[panader0]

19. That would be a disaster and would help Trump.

Americans are nervous already--this would put people over the edge.

[zenabby]

20. I wish Bill would go away..

We are advancing the narrative that Hillary needs Bill , or some man to help her succeed. Stop please.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. But common sense does. Nt

[speaktruthtopower]

22. The Putin Technique!

[CobaltBlue]

23. Absolutely Not.

[Warren DeMontague]

25. Why is everyone so convinced there is a talent deficit for the Veep slot?

It's like HOLY FUCK WHAT WILL WE DO IF WE CAN'T FIND A BABY BOOMER GUY WITH A WELL KNOWN HOUSEHOLD NAME, PREFERABLY FROM THE EAST COAST OR WELL-CONNECTED IN THE BELTWAY!

Biden! Clinton! Obama!



Come on, people. Is our potential bench really that bad, we have to snag someone from a previous administration?



Warren. Franken. Booker. Newsom. Harris. Brown. Merkley. Hickenlooper. .....that's just off the top of my head.

[mentalsolstice]

43. Franken! I think he would energize younger voters!

And MN has a democratic governor.

[Warren DeMontague]

44. I'd be happy with Al Franken.

I think someone like Newsom would also energize millennials, particularly since he supports marijuana legalization.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. OH, GOD, NO!!!

[coco77]

27. No!

[Roland99]

28. Oh good gawd NO!

[dflprincess]

29. No, no, no!

I just want Bill to go away.

[creeksneakers2]

30. Bill said not possible

I saw Bill say he's constitutionally ineligible in an interview. He said it depends on the way its read, but he said he believes in interpreting it to make every provision make sense with all the others.

[Tarc]

32. Bill is not eligible

To be a VP, the person must meet all requirements to be president as well; since Bill cannot be elected president, he cannot become the VP.

[Lord Magus]

35. He can't be ELECTED president, but the 12th doesn't say the VP has to be eligibile to be ELECTED.

Just eligible to serve as president.

[Shrek]

41. Exactly

Gerald Ford served both as VP and as President, and we wasn't elected to either office.

But obviously he was constitutionally eligible.

[Tarc]

45. This has been parsed over for years, and while a fun parlor game, you're wrong

If a person is not Constitutionally eligible to be elected president, then that person is ineligible to be vice-president. There is no wiggle room here.

[Lord Magus]

48. But that's not what the Constitution actually says.

The 22nd Amendment says "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." It's solely about eligibility to be elected president, it says nothing about whether a person who had been president for 2 terms would be eligible to become president via succession.

Suppose Bill Clinton had run for a House seat and got chosen as Speaker of the House and then the president and VP both died, were impeached or resigned. There's nothing in the 22nd Amendment that would block him from becoming president at that point. He's clearly eligible to be president, just not eligible to be elected president. Likewise the language of the 12th Amendment is that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States." No mention of eligibility to be elected.

Had the drafters of the 22nd Amendment wanted to say that no one could become president for a third term by any means rather than just that no one could be elected president three times, they were obligated to actually put that in the text. They did not.

[Tarc]

56. Nearly every Constitutional scholar...y'know, ppl with actual legal education...

disagree with your hair-splitting interpretations. Bill Clinton cannot, by any permutation, become the president again, nor can be serve as the vice-president.

[Doctor Jack]

36. Ewwww

He might have been an ok president in the 1990's but he seems very out of touch now. That is like suggesting that the Chicago Bulls should bring back Michael Jordan in 2016. No, his time has passed and so has Bill's.

[jimw81]

37. he's toast

he's done with this campaign .

[David__77]

39. While it occurs to me that Bill Clinton could be elected vice president, I would not support this.

I think that that would be terrible.

[Faux pas]

40. Oh

HELL THE FUCK NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

[DawgHouse]

47. I like Bill but even if he were eligible, he's got his hands full with the foundation.

And grandchildren. He should spend his time enjoying them.

[pnwmom]

49. Absolutely not. No way. Forget it. No. Just no. n/t

[MohRokTah]

50. You should have probably deleted this since the 12th Amendment prohibits all who cannot run for Pres

from running for Veep.

[EffieBlack]

51. Constitutional crisis on steroids . . .

[doc03]

52. Hell no! n/t

[larkrake]

53. vp cannot be from the same state

[Yupster]

59. That's not true

Electors cannot vote for Prez and VP both from the electors own state.

So let's say Bush picked Cheney and Cheney said he was from Texas.
Everything would be okay except Texas. Texas electors could not vote for both Bush and Cheney,.

So they vote for Bush and Colin Powell for VP.

With no one having a majority of electoral votes for VP, the House of Reps would choose one voting one vote per state. The House would choose Cheney.

[w4rma]

54. Don't ya'll think this is just a little *too* much support for Clintons?

The Democratic Party is not the Clinton Party.

[sheshe2]

55. No thanks.

[Her Sister]

57. The problem is that he won't be able to do more than 2 years as President

if need be, so a situation like that could cause unnecessary problems if the VP was needed earlier than at the 2 year mark of a Presidency. It is interesting though!

Also there is still the unanswered question of whether a President is disqualified to be VP, from what I understand. Again another interesting question!