Can a president become a vice president

Question

If, for example, Obama names Bill Clinton as his vice president and they are elected...Could Clinton become president if Obama is incapacitated for some reason

Answer 1

The Constitution is unclear on that matter. The 22nd amendment that nobody can be "elected" to the office of president more than twice. It does not say anything about being elected twice and then becoming VP and ascending to the Presidency.

Answer 2

In short, yes.  If you serve two terms as President you can't get elected again.  However, you can serve as many terms as you like as VP.  The constitution gives no limits to how many times you can be elected VP.

Answer 3

It's not 100% clear. Article 2, clause 5 of the constitution imposes the requirements to serve. The 12th amendment declares that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

But term limits, introduced in the 22nd amendment as a restriction specifically on being ELECTED to the office of the president, not as a restriction on SERVICE. It is unclear whether or not that would be interpreted by the Supreme Court to restrict the Vice Presidency to people who could have been elected president.

My gut reaction is that they would allow Bill Clinton, George W. Bush or others who are eligible to serve but could not be elected president due to term limits to be elected Vice President, and then, if called upon by circumstance, to serve as president. But the court may consider this an end run around the intent of amendment and declare this unconstitutional. If a presidential nominee wanted to nominate a former 2 term president as VP, he would have to seek a declarative judgment from the Supreme Court to determine eligibility. John McCain had to do that in 2000 to make sure that his birth on a US military base in Panama was sufficient for the requirement that a presidential candidate be born in the USA.

EDIT: After writing this answer, I found the following link in a wikipedia article which provides a little more detail on the same argument I just made:

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/co...

Answer 4

A former President can only become Vice President if he is still constitutionally eligible to serve as President. William Jefferson Clinton is not eligible for the Presidency, having served the two terms permitted under the 22nd Amendment to the Constitution.  

Answer 5

yes.  a president can only be elected to presidency twice.  but he can have more than 2 terms due to other cirumstances.

for example, LBJ completed JFK's presidential term after the assassination, and was elected president in the next election.  He could have run for re-election but chose not to.

Answer 6

In the case of Clinton, no he cannot. A vice president must be eligible to be president, having already served the two terms allowed by law, he is not eligible.

George H.W. Bush, however, having only served one term, is eligible to be vice president.