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The California Progress Report is published by Frank D. Russo, a longtime observer of and participant in California politics.

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No, Schwarzenegger Can't Run for Vice President Either

By Frank D. Russo

San Francisco Chronicle editor Carla Marinucci created a bit of a stir yesterday with her article "Bloomberg-Schwarzenegger in '08?"

If the language of the Constitution itself before amendment was not clear enough by itself, the 12th Amendment has the following language which rules this out: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution states:

"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."

If you're looking for strange news, Bill Clinton is eligible to be elected Vice President, according to some pretty good Constitutional authority.

Our Governor clearly has the wanderlust for national office, having been out of state more than any other governor in California history. He'll be going out of the country to visit Prime Minister Tony Blair and taking a trip to early primary state Florida also in the coming days. But he's not getting out of his gubernatorial duties by election in 2008 to higher office.

By the way, I think he should be able to run for President or Vice President, but that would take a Constitutional Amendment. Reminds me of the California Democratic Convention in the 60's I attended as a youngster where I ran into a room full of delegates wearing buttons that said "Ronald Reagan for President." I just about swallowed my bubblegum, wondering if I was in the right room, until I noticed the fine print--"Share the burden equally."

Posted on June 20, 2007

Comments

Just noticed that this idea is also surfacing from Warren Buffett at the end of this week's Time magazine cover article, which states: "Buffett thinks it's a great idea, and when he first heard it, he turned to the Constitution. "I wanted to see if Schwarzenegger could be his Vice President," Buffett said. "I think he could." It states that the President must be native born, but it's silent on the Vice President. "That would be one hell of a team, wouldn't it?""

Posted by: Frank D. Russo at June 20, 2007 08:33 AM

It doesn't matter what lobbyists or any other problem with McCain, because Obama, his close friends, and supporters are racists. No other white candidate could have even run for city dog catcher with the kind of racism that surrounds Obama.

Why would any white person see any benefit from electing a bigot? Do you see black people cheering at a klan rally?

Posted by: R. Right at July 22, 2008 11:12 PM

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