Bill cannot be in any position that may ascend to the presidency, IIRC.

Killer,

U.S. expressly recognizes the possibility that people may hold one of the offices, which are in line for the presidency, even though the people holding the office are ineligible to be President. For instance, if someone is not old enough or was not born in the U.S., the 3 U.S.C. Sect. 19 states that you go down to the next person.

There is no prohibition on being Speaker of the House, President Pro Tempore or Vice President merely because you cannot become President if needed. Rather, if the office holder in line to be President is not eligible, for any reason, (age birth residency etc.), that person is skipped and the next eligible person gets the job.

I am certainly not endorsing the idea of Clinton being on a ticket. The bigger point, however, is that in a Democracy we can elect anyone who is eligible to any office we want. There are no “implied” prohibitions in the Constitution restricting our ability to vote for an eligible candidate. If someone wanted to put Bill Clinton on their ticket as the VP nominee, they would have no constitutional barriers.

Personally, I think he is one of the most effective campaigners of all time and any candidate that did not ask for his help campaigning does so at their own peril. The fact is he would never take the VP spot and no nominee would want to be in the shadow of their running mate either, which would inevitably happen with Clinton in the shotgun seat.

As someone said earlier, this is a great discussion for the halls of academe and among political junkies; but it is also sheer fantasy.

slainte,
cl

You should have pictured domestic turkeys (white). Those are the ones that are too dumb to come in out of the rain.

http://article.nationalreview……BiNWJlYjE=

So, the wingnuts at the National Review obsess over Clinton’s penis for three years, throw everything at him from Vince Foster to Whitewater, try to impeach him over an affair, and then – when he points out how they screamed ‘wag the dog’ when he went after Bin Laden – they blame him for being distracted over that whole impeachment thing they fomented. Right.

I wonder … does Byron, or Jonah, or Kathryn Jean Lopez, or Kate O’Beirne ever go past Arlington cemetary and feel even a little guilty? Just a little? Do they soldiers in an airport and ever feel just the tiniest twinge of guilt?

I guess not.

Noonan @ 78

South Orange County Democrat @ 72

Two articles caught my attention in this morning’s L.A. Times.

First, an article about GOP data-mining abilities, in pursuit of individual (not bloc) votes. “Surveying the Democrats’ efforts to close the technology gap, [Donna Brazile] insists her party is making gains. “Unfortunately, she said, “it’s late and last minute. We’re still perfecting drive-by campaigning.” HUGE sigh.

As a teacher, I felt I should present material for all candidates in my classroom back on ‘04.

To this end, I signed up as a volunteer for every party. I was an active Kerry ward captain, but the GOP still sends me invitations to work on their behalf.

Let me tell you, the information available through the Republicans was as detailed back then as it is for me now as a candidate.

The catch – I was only a volunteer for the Republicans, and that was two years ago. Their interface was much more intuitive and user friendly that what I have access to today. I can only imagine how much more refined their database is now. Of course, they are still sending stuff to me…

Reminds me of a lesson from Stephen King’s “The Stand” when good and evil split into two camps. The evil camp “has the lights on and trains running because the ‘techies’ tend to respect order and go where their skills are appreciated”. There is an important IT and Data Mgt lesson in that for all us “lefties”.

I’ll bet the Iraqi people wonder which side they got. Mr. Ole 60 Grit picked the squad to represent the techies and they still can’t keep the lights on.

me to me @
108

is bill allowed to be vice president?

stupid question, he’d never do it, just for acameia, is he allowed?

Sadly, no — one of the constitutional qualifications for Vice President is that you are qualified to be President (and he is disqualified). He could, however, be a cabinet member — even one that is in the succession line to be President…

Immanetize:

We are certainly getting into hardcore political navel gazing here, but for what it is worth, there is no Constitutional prohibition to Bill Clinton taking the oath of office as Vice President. The only prohibitions or political and practical.

Note however that if he ran on the same ticket as Hillary, they would necessarily need to be residents of different states. The Clintons have plenty of time to discuss the pros & cons of that type of separate living arrangement and I will not weigh in on it. Should he be the vice nominee for a candidate in another state, there is no issue.

Relative to qualifications to be Vice President, there is no requirement that someone be eligible to become president. Rather, 3 U.S.C. Section 19 (I can’t do a damn “section “ symbol on this thing) see, http://www4.law.cornell.edu/us…..-000-.html states that whoever the next “eligible” person in the line of succession will take the office.

The 25th Amendment prohibits a person from being elected more than twice or serving more than half of an unelected term and then also being elected a second time. Service as Vice President, however, is nowhere prohibited and unquestionably allowed. It is just doubtfully wise both for the Big Dog and a nominee.

The only arguably sound constitutional basis for keeping “Vice President Bill Clinton” from office (or rather from “staying in office) is the prohibition of service as President of more than 10 years, i.e. 2 or more years of an unelected term plus two elected terms is prohited. You only get less than half an unelected term plus two elected terms or one elected term if you’ve already served more than 2 years of someone else’s term. Assuming the Constitution were to be interpreted analogously relative to the 10 year bar in the bizarre circumstance where a former president takes over for a dead or incapacited sitting president, than “Vice President Bill Clinton” could not ascend to the Presidency in a case of presidential disability or death for more than 23 months and one month minus a day. Any longer and he would become ineligible to be President and the mantle would pass to the next in line.

Bizarre hypothetical but that’s how it works.

slainte,
cl