A couple of weeks ago, I was writing about Bill Clinton’s desire to see changes made to the 22nd Amendment, which limits presidents to two terms.
At the same time, I noted that Al Franken, among others, has floated a silly scheme whereby someone picks Clinton to be their vice-presidential running mate, then promptly after the inauguration, that person steps aside so Clinton can become president again.
Newsweek described this absurdity as “arguably constitutional.” The magazine went on to say that legal scholars such as Allan J. Lichtman and Darrell West agree that Franken has a point. Even I started to buy into it, though I realized this was more of a fun thought experiment than a legitimate political strategy.
Well, it turns out we were all wrong.
Martin Tullai, of Lutherville, Md., wrote a great letter-to-the-editor to Newsweek, published in the current issue. Tullai wisely puts a stop to this by pointing out that the scheme may work under the 22nd amendment, but not under the 12th amendment.
“[N]o person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States,” the amendment explains.
That settles it. Because Clinton is ineligible to run again for president, he’s also ineligible to be vice-president. Looks like we’ll have to vote for one of the actual Democratic candidates.