Tuesday, July 9, 2024

A real election nightmare

 

James Howard Kunstler imagines the unthinkable:


Finally, there’s the novelty solution to this fine mess: “Joe Biden” stays in the race, bumps Kamala, installs Barack Obama in the veep candidate slot, they romp, then somewhere around January 21, 2025, “JB” bows out. . . and cazart! It’s back to the Good ol’ days with President Obama again! What a play!  Genius! You see, the 22nd Amendment only says: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice. Doesn’t say anything about getting elected veep and then being elevated to president by happenstance. If that doesn’t save our democracy, I don’t know what will.


A nightmare prospect indeed!  That'll make it Obama's fourth term, because he's effectively been in command all the way through Biden's first . . .



Peter


17 comments:

Hamsterman said...

A VP candidate has to be eligible to be President for the Electors to vote for him/her into office. That's the vote that counts.

Also, I presume 'bump' does not mean 'bump off'. If the latter, then the VP has to be approved by Congress, once again requiring a vote.

Anonymous said...

Assuming the civil war doesn't happen first.

Rob said...

We have a Republic, not a democracy.

Mind your own business said...

They are really going to need to prove he's not born in Kenya this time. With no room for doubt.

And Big Mike is going to have to go full transparency, there are so many rumors and stories about "her" now.

Dragon Lady said...

The Vice President must meet all qualifications to be President - including the term limits qualification. Obama cannot be the Vice President because he is no longer qualified to be President.

Tree Mike said...

Too late to vote our way out. We're at that awkward stage where it's still too early to choot the bastards.
Ooops! did I say that in my "out loud" voice?

Andrew B said...

This just proves what I have always contended--Obama wasn't their president, he was their prom date. They spoke (and still speak) about him like a 13 year old girl in the 1970s spoke about Bobby Sherman or Shaun Cassidy. He is their Dreamboat-in-Chief. Now I thought Sarah Palin was incandescently hot, but I would never dream of gurgling over her like these pathetic eunuchs.

Anonymous said...

There would be a Supreme Court question on that.
The 12th A says that no person not eligible to be President can be the VP, but the two terms amendment says "can't be ELECTED to more that two terms".
The argument could be made that if Barry was the VP, and stepped up on Bidens' resignation, he wouldn't have been 'elected", and so, could serve out the term.
Easier would be to run Big Mike for either office.
John in Indy

Mikey said...

My prediction:
1. No change to the ticket.
2. Biden and Harris are re-elected by a large margin due to ballot harvesting and late night vote drops.
3. Nobody does anything about it.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps legal, but unlikely. Biden has been firm about staying in power to stop Trump, he's not going to let BO usher him off to the glue factory on inauguration day or play along with any such plot unless forced to. In his mind he "beat" Trump in 2020 and will do it again,whereas BO's secstate and designated hitter (who he was passed over for) was beaten by Trump. His legacy building suffers if either Obama is necessary to put him across the line. He also understands that the Obamas fear direct combat with Donald Trump. They're not going to risk a fair fight. They are younger and can wait for better conditions for Michelle, while even if such a plot was to be initially successful, it would limit BO to one term and possibly queer the pitch for her with voters who dump political dynasties overboard in hard times. These people are unduly impressed with themselves and dread ridicule, and Trump made Obama look stupid predicting trump to lose in '16.There's a lot of ambitious young Democrats who wouldn't mind if the old farts in their party quit hogging the limelight and campaign funds and went home. If Barack Obama is back in Washington officialdom, Hakeem Jeffries and Chris Murphy and other YoungDem's are suddenly below the fold again and fundraising never stops in modern politics.
Biden has nothing to lose by stonewalling. He doesn't like Obama and Obama doesn't like him. And the evil rasputina he's married to won't let him quit until she can extort an extravagant separation package, honors, pardons and loot. She would correctly not trust Obama to keep the agreement. He has a legacy too, but he would prefer a legend.
Rick m

riverrider said...

obama wasn't commanding during his terms much less joe's. he was a puppet and remains so now. watch hakeem jeffries closely.

Dr. Red Guy said...

Because the VP must qualify as president, but time served as VP does not count for Presidential term limits, there are a couple ways around. 1) Keep being VP for different presidents, that can go on until you die. 2) The 22nd Amendment states that a person who is President for more than 2 years of someone else's elected term can only be elected President once. Therefore, get elected as VP, have President die/resign, finish their term. Run as VP again, repeat. By the letter of the amendment, as long as you are never elected President, there's no limit to the number of terms you act as President.

Anonymous said...

We couldn't even get an honest hearing on the birth certificate or "no evidence of election fraud" declaration. These people have set themselves up as the arbiters of truth and we just stand there with a dumb look on our face.

Anonymous said...

An examination of the fallacy of the post Frank the Cripple term limit figleaf:

https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/fac_artchop/1012/

Brace yourself, Obungole could come back, and tthen install Big Mike for terms 5 and 6.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

The winner, whoever the Dems nominate, will be determined by who counts the votes. I've yet to see a "robust" effort bu the GOP to fight for election integrity. Laura Trump with her 100,000 poll watchers and lawyers isn't nearly enough, IMO.

Technomad said...

Ever since the sainted FDR, Democrats have longed for a presidential candidate they could fall in love with. JFK, Jimmy Carter (at least at first), Gore, Obama...the list goes on.

Rich said...

Would everyone PLEASE stop calling it a democracy. It's not a democracy it NEVER was a democracy, nor was it ever intended to be a democracy.
Now all together "It's not a democracy, it's a Constitutional Republic"