Reelect the President?

April 17, 2006 8:50 PM

Could a two-term President be elected/appointed to be the vice president?

example: Dick Cheney dies, could George W. Bush select his father to be the new vice president?

posted by blue_beetle to law & government (12 comments total)

oops, technically I guess it would have to be someone like Clinton (to satisfy the two-term part of the question).
posted by blue_beetle at 8:51 PM on April 17, 2006

No.

No one can be Vice President if they're not elegible to become President, since that's the primary function of the VP.

By the same reasoning, a VP has to be native born, because the President has to be native born.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 8:58 PM on April 17, 2006

Wikipedia.
posted by kickingtheground at 9:00 PM on April 17, 2006

Following up on Wikipedia: even though the justification for allowing a two-term President to be VP is a bit shaky, I can't imagine a scenario where the opposition would mount a legal challenge. I mean, you have a guy that's been elected twice and you want to tell America he's not allowed to take a burnout tour through the executive branch? Wouldn't happen. A two-term prez-as-VP sails through nominations, legally speaking.
posted by deadfather at 9:38 PM on April 17, 2006

Deadfather, on the flipside I don't think anyone would ever try that because of the legal ramifications. It's not a debate anyone really wants to see happen.
posted by borkingchikapa at 9:43 PM on April 17, 2006

So technically it's not out of the question. It would certainly be interesting to see something like a Clinton/Clinton ticket. Could the President and Vice President be married? The father/son relationship of the current president to a former president got me thinking along those lines.
posted by blue_beetle at 9:44 PM on April 17, 2006

CNN ran a column on this very possibility back before the 2000 election.
posted by chrominance at 9:53 PM on April 17, 2006

I can't imagine a scenario where the opposition would mount a legal challenge.

Respectfully, I think it is almost certain that someone would mount a legal challenge. If not the official opposition, then some other group.
posted by grouse at 12:44 AM on April 18, 2006

Yeah, I don't think Bartlett is going to get the nod.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:38 AM on April 18, 2006

heh. (to RiB)
posted by zpousman at 6:16 AM on April 18, 2006

It's technically legal, as pointed out, but I can't see it ever happening. The main reason for this is that nobody ever wants to be overshadowed by his/her VP running-mate. If you pick someone who's already been President for eight years, he's by definition better-known than you are.

Plus, of course, most people who've already been President for eight years would probably not have any desire to play second fiddle to someone else. Can you really imagine Bill Clinton as Vice President?
posted by cerebus19 at 8:22 AM on April 18, 2006

I could absolutely imagine Clinton as a Dick Cheny style VP. Cheny seems to have more power and influence than any recent vice president.
posted by joegester at 10:36 AM on April 18, 2006