Can Bill be Hillary's VP?

[Avalux]

The Constitition specifically states that to be eligible to be elected President you must be a U.S. citizen 35 years old or older and a resident of the United States for 14 years or more. Bill Clinton fits all the constitutionally mandated criteria to be eligible to hold the office of President. He could hold the office of Vice President and then assume the office of President not via an election, but in the event the elected President could not fulfill his or her term of office.

The 22nd Amendment was designed to stop a person from being elected President 3 times in a row. If Bill Clinton was to become President through some other means than an election, he would not be violating the text of the Amendment. The the 22nd Amendment does not mention anywhere the position of Vice President.

It would appear there is no difinitive answer to this question and the Supreme Court does not have any sort of stance on this issue.

Could make things very interesting if Hillary becomes the nominee.

[NoodleBoy]

1. No-- to be Vice President, you have to meet all qualifications to be President,

including having not previously served two terms as President.

[Perky]

12. Actualy...technically he could be Prez for two years.

The prohibition of the 28th is not on two tems it is on ovet ten years.
You are VP. The pres dies in the third year of the first tem... you take over and then run twice and win

If he dies in less than two years you can only run once.

So Bill could be VP... He just could not serve as President for more than two...COuld he serve more than two as VP is an interesting question.

[NoodleBoy]

14. that's assuming you're elected Vice President first.

Bill Clinton was elected President first and served two full terms, he does not qualify.

[LostinVA]

2. Of course not

[onehandle]

3. No. This has been discussed a million times.

The conclusion is always no.

[Bicoastal]

4. Frankly, that would be the kiss of death.

Either an Obama/Clinton or ESPECIALLY a Clinton/Clinton ticket would been seen (correctly) as a naked power grab by Bill.

I wouldn't vote for either ticket if Bill Clinton was on it, on general principle.

[kdmorris]

9. Bill Clinton cannot be VP

He doesn't meet the qualifications to be President (having already served as many terms as he's allowed to serve), which is one of the qualifications to be VP.

[Gman]

16. Well, aren't you a good Democrat here at Democratic Underground

[Unsane]

5. You actually think this is a possibility?

:crazy:

[russian33]

6. No, and as a Hillary supporter, even if this was legally possible...

..i would be against that

[Dhalgren]

7. Obama will be Senator Clinton's VP. Two-fer...

[napi21]

8. IMO NO! A VP must be eligible to be Prez if the Prez is unable to

fulfill the duties of the office. I realize it symantics to say the constitution says "cannot be ELECTED", BUT A vp is TECHNICALLY elected along with the Prez on the same ticket. If I remember right, some TV talk show host asked Hillary that very question several months ago. I think it was Letterman. She said there is debate about that, but in her opinion AND Bill's, the answer is NO!

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. I assume that would include any position in line for the presidency

ie, he can't be a cabinet secretary either.

[Jersey Devil]

18. Nothing would disqualify him from being in the cabinet

The qualifications set forth in the constitution are for president and vice president. There are none for cabinet officers or those in the line of presidential succession. If someone in line is not qualified to be president they'd be skipped over, that's all.

If cabinet officers had to qualify to hold the presidency then people like Kissenger would not have been able to be in the cabinet (he was foreign born and therefore ineligible to be president).

[OHdem10]

11. no--do not even think about it. She will keep him out of sight.

[jaysunb]

13. Why would he need a title ?

We all know what time it is. :evilfrown:

[pampango]

15. He kind of functions as a VP (attack dog) in the campaign now, but I don't

think he can be, or would want to be, the real VP.

[OHdem10]

17. Every Democratic knew when they entered the race, that

Hilary was a candidate. They should have had knowlege and judgent
to know she would be formidable. They have been under a rock if
they claim they did not know the Clinton's are fighters. This
is how Bill Clinton became president. He did not become president
trying to cjum ba yah.

Frankly to a person sitting in the suburbs of Ohio, it has looked
like one group is trying to push the Clinton's out. They might
be setting up the stage for a complete GOP takeover.

If the Party was so concerned with these Ammendments--why in the
heck was this not brought up a couple of years ago. We all believed
Hilary would run. The Establishment should have at that time
resolved it once and for all. Making these arguments now makes
the party look like a back stabbing bunch of jerks.

[Shrek]

19. The answer is far from settled

A subsequent sampling of opinion from professors of constitutional law, former White House lawyers and even a couple of federal judges reveals a simmering disagreement on whether a president who has already served two terms can be vice president. Some agree with the conclusion that the presidential term limit embedded in the Constitution bars someone such as Clinton from returning to the White House even in the No. 2 slot. Others, though, call that a misreading of the literal language of the law.

As the former president might say, it all depends on the meaning of the word "elected." Under Article II of the Constitution, a person is "eligible to the Office of President" as long as he or she is a natural-born U.S. citizen, at least 35 years old and a resident of the United States for 14 years. The 12th Amendment says "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President."

Okay, so that means if you're not eligible to be president, you're not eligible to be vice president. Makes sense. What would be the point of electing a vice president who can't succeed the president in case of death, incapacity or vacancy?

But then Congress and the states added the 22nd Amendment in 1951 to prevent anyone from following the example of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who won four terms. That's where things get dicey. "No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice," the 22nd Amendment says.

On its face, that seems to suggest that Clinton could be vice president because he is only barred from being elected president a third time, not from serving as president. That's the argument of Scott E. Gant, a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner in Washington, and Bruce G. Peabody, an assistant professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. The two wrote a law review article in 1999 called "The Twice and Future President" and reprised the argument this summer in the Christian Science Monitor.

Washington Post

Based on a plain reading of the text, I tend to think it would be permissible for him to run as VP.

[DemCam]

20. My my...what fertile imaginations we have.