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| Hillary and Barack, in younger days |
It is apparently constitutional. Here is a taste of Brian Buetler’s piece:
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.
It will not happen, but it is fun to think about. Hillary wants to establish her own legacy apart from Obama and Obama has too big of an ego to play second fiddle. But if it did happen it would sure be fun to watch and, as Buetler notes, it would certainly shore-up Hillary’s support among African-American voters. It would probably be just as much fun as if Al Gore challenged Hillary for the Democratic nomination. Hey what the heck, how about Bill Clinton as Hillary’s running mate? Or a Bush-Bush ticket?
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