General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis is a big fucking deal: Happy 70th Birthday VP Joe Biden!
https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/270894831100887040/photo/1Gidney N Cloyd
(19,847 posts)DemoTex
(25,403 posts)Happy Birthday, Mr. Vice-President!
etherealtruth
(22,165 posts)proverbialwisdom
(4,959 posts)William769
(55,147 posts)Royal Sloan 09
(406 posts)70!! Really Dude ya lookin' Good, must be the good livin' Enjoy your B-Day, Sir!
JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)What a great picture of two great men! Happy Birthday Mr. Vice-President!
Julie
dmr
(28,349 posts)Makes me wonder what they've got up their sleeves.
I love their smiles.
Happy birthday, Mr. Biden.
glinda
(14,807 posts)malaise
(269,157 posts)Happy Birthday VP Joe Biden !!
blaze
(6,373 posts)is so obvious in all the photos that get posted. You just can't fake that kind of "like"
Happy B-Day Joe!!!! We're so glad you're there.
More than you may ever know.
And yes. It's a BFD!!!!!
Brigid
(17,621 posts)Love the photo! It just cries out for a caption by EarlG.
SnowCritter
(810 posts)"Remember when Mitt said..."
handmade34
(22,757 posts)I Love You VP Joe Biden
TuxedoKat
(3,818 posts)Hope you have a wonderful day!
gateley
(62,683 posts)Happy Birthday, Joe -- I wish you love and happiness.
Euphoria
(448 posts)You've had our backs and Obama's back the whole time.
We love ya!
Patiod
(11,816 posts)You just know Romney would have gutted Amtrak like he wanted to gut the Post Office, but Fightin' Joe will NEVER let that happen on his watch!
sheshe2
(83,898 posts)Excellent picture of 2 Great Men. Thank you for your service to our country!
Third Doctor
(1,574 posts)skeewee08
(1,983 posts)James48
(4,440 posts)Why not?
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)The VP must be someone who's eligible to be President. By 2016, Barack Obama won't be eligible, having served two terms.
James48
(4,440 posts)The 22nd Amendment doesn't prohibit a former president from running for VICE president.
It only prohibits him from being elected again as President.
See?
"Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.
Section 2. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress."
It would be LEGAL to have Barack and Joe switch for 2016, and, in the unlikely event anything ever happened to Joe, then Barack COULD legally become President again, under terms of the 25th Amendment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-fifth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Whether or not America would go for that, I don't know. I DO know it would be perfectly legal if they did.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)The last sentence, after describing the procedure for election of a Vice President, states: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
I think I've seen this idea floated as to both Reagan and Clinton, who ended their second terms with high approval ratings and might well have won a third term if eligible. The idea was that the incumbent President could run for Vice President with a running mate whose platform was a promise to resign immediately after being inaugurated. This doesn't work, because of the Twelfth Amendment.
James48
(4,440 posts)There is nothing which Constitutionally prohibits Obama from being eligible FOR THE OFFICE oF President (Only requires age of 35, and a natural born citizen to HOLD the office, and have been a U.S. resident for 14 years).
The 22nd only says he cannot be ELECTED. It doesn't say he cannot be elevated by a way OTHER THAN ELECTION.
Qualifications for the Office of President
Age and Citizenship requirements - US Constitution, Article II, Section 1
No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen years a resident within the United States.
Term limit amendment - US Constitution, Amendment XXII, Section 1 ratified February 27, 1951
No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.
Jim Lane
(11,175 posts)As John Marshall said, the nature of the Constitution
A court would be likely to rule that the relevant amendments didn't specifically spell out that Obama couldn't serve a third term by the type of arrangement you describe, but that saying so didn't end the inquiry. Reading the provisions to bar an Obama candidacy for Vice President would be an example of deducing minor ingredients from the nature of the objects of the provisions.
There's very little chance that we'll ever find out how the courts would rule on this question. All I can tell you is that, looking at all these provisions, and bearing in mind what I've seen of courts in action, I would offer steep odds that Obama would be held to be ineligible for election or appointment to the Vice Presidency. The alternative, requiring a literal-mindedness run amok, is not how courts actually function, especially in the realm of constitutional law.
No Vested Interest
(5,167 posts)to VP Joe Biden.
I loved it when the President called him "America's Happy Warrior" in his victory speech Nov. 6. So apt.
I never knew our original Dem. Happy Warrior - Al Smith- but doubt that he could have out-laughed our Joe Biden.
Cha
(297,655 posts)Hugin
(33,198 posts)Hope you like the present we got you!
Four more years!
EmeraldCityGrl
(4,310 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,749 posts)Happy birthday, Vice President Biden.
psychmommy
(1,739 posts)You are a very special man and you are much loved. I wish you many more.