Posted on 04/15/2015 6:25:40 PM PDT by concernedcitizen76
Because Hillary Clinton is white and no longer young, a strain of political thought holds that she might lack Barack Obama’s inherent appeal to new and minority voters and thus that she won’t be able to ride the Democratic party’s demographic advantages to easy victory in 2016.
Writing for the Washington Examiner, Philip Klein ably sketches the nightmare scenario for liberals. “If Hillary's performance among black voters retreats to more typical Democratic levels,” he writes, “it will hinder her efforts in swing states such as Ohio and Florida, where Democrats need to rack up huge margins in urban areas to make up for their weaknesses in other parts of the states. ... It's questionable that young voters will flock to vote at historically high levels for a 69-year-old white woman who has been a national political figure since before many of them were born.”
The nightmare for conservatives is a complementary scenario in which Clinton holds the Obama coalition together without issue and simultaneously increases Democratic margins among women and whites. In that world, she defeats her opponent by greater margins than Obama defeated John McCain and Mitt Romney. But there’s no reason to assume that outcome is any more likely than the one Klein alluded to. And there’s also no reason Democrats should tinker with a winning formula. If Clinton can turn out Obama’s voters, she will win.
The challenge, then, is to make sure Clinton’s age and ethnicity don’t discourage Obama’s youthful, diverse supporters from turning out in November 2016. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to make sure that doesn’t happen. Clinton simply has to select Barack Obama as her running mate.
LOL, you might be thinking. Obama can’t be the vice president. That would place him at the top of the line of succession, and the Constitution limits him to two terms. Clinton would end up in court before she ended up in the White House if she pulled something like that.
I’ll grant that if Democrats nominate Barack Obama to be their vice presidential candidate next year, it would be somewhat controversial. But here Democrats can borrow tactically from the literal-minded conservatives who have seized on syntactic oddities to unravel Obama’s domestic agenda. As a purely textual matter, the Constitution merely prohibits Obama from being elected to a third term. It doesn’t necessarily prohibit him from actually being president again, should Hillary Clinton no longer be able to serve. And were he on the ticket, Clinton’s potential liabilities with Obama loyalists would disappear.
As hot takes go, this one is significantly more piping than, say, the idea that Al Gore should challenge Hillary for the nomination. My guru for this argument is Cornell University law professor Michael Dorf, though others have examined the issue, as well.
There are three sections of the Constitution that prescribe limits on who can be president and vice president: Article II, the Twelfth Amendment and the Twenty-Second Amendment. While the former two limit who is “eligible” to serve—natural born citizens, 35 or older—the Twenty-Second Amendment begins “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice.”
Whether its adopters intended it or not, the plain language of the Twenty-Second amendment doesn’t prohibit a former two-term president from succeeding a sitting president and serving out the remainder of her term. It merely prohibits him from running for a third. By using the term “elected” instead of “eligible,” its authors created a loophole large enough for a Clinton-Obama ticket to coast to victory through.
Clinton and Obama couldn’t pull this off without some awkwardness. The last time this issue surfaced, in 2007, it generated enough buzz that Bill Clinton had to pop the speculative bubble on the “Late Show with David Letterman.”
what a plan.....they could use BOTH racism and SEXISM..as the conversation ending hyperbole....for at least a year or two....
No.....If the VP is not eligible for present, he is not eligible for VP.
OMG, they noticed Hillary isn’t black!
Mark Levin shot down this Swiftian proposal today on Constitutional grounds like a skilled skeet shooter tossed an easy clay pigeon.
Considering they hate each other, probably a non-starter.
They are starting to figure out that the broad Hillary has little chance of making it to the general election, much less winning it!
They are looking reality in the face. A Ted Cruz presidency with a super majority in the House and Senate.
Almost a foregone conclusion when you look at the several senators in the Democrat Caucus who are NOT seeking re election this cycle.
Cory Booker will be the Dems’ Veep pick to turn out the black vote again.
“If the VP is not eligible for President, he is not eligible for VP.”
There is no Constitutional prohibition for a two term president from being Vice He could be President once more in the event of the death of the sitting President. The prohibition is against being ELECTED to a third term as President. In the event of his Presidents death, he would not be elected to the Presidency. He would assume office by Constitutional Succession. His election was to the vice Presidency. No Constitutional prohibition against his being elected VP.
It’s a stupid, unconstitutional idea.
Why do these guys think they can just change the rules whenever they feel like it.
Both the 12th and 22nd amendment are in force.
From the 12th: But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.
She is going to have a hard time not going against some of his policies.
She will have to pretty much adopt so much of his agenda. She doesn’t want to go against him and the republican candidate.
Hopefully, a good republican candidate can tie her to him.
That would leave Boehner as prezzy if Hill strokes out again.
Because they can. Who is going to stop them? Not Boehner and Co.
How can some people be so stupid? Like Obama would play second fiddle to Shrillary? Like Moochelle would let him? They’re buying a compound in HI and will be poised to rake in millions upon millions. Stupid desperate liberal people - buy a clue.
The question of whether or not a two term President may serve as Vice President has not been tested in Court. It is argued even to this day both ways since the 12th was ratified 1804 .
And, no one will know for sure until the subject is heard in a lawsuit when and if the subject actually arises.
Example: It took nearly 200 years for a Supreme Court to apply the Second Amendment to state and City governments and not just the Feds. One would have thought the plain words of the Second Amendment would have settled that hundreds of years ago. (See the Heller and Mcdonald cases)
Thats what they make lawyers for. Unfortunately, nothing in the Constitution is a.slam.dunk when Courts get hold of it.
He can’t. If you’re not eligible to be President, you’re not eligible to be Vice President. (That’s in the Constitution.) The reason is that the VP might have to succeed to the presidency.
Actually the better idea is let Hillary run...get beaten by any Republican candidate, and then let Obama come back in 2020 to run against that Republican (it’d be legal then). He might win and then run again in 2024.
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