While Barack Obama cannot legally run for president again, there’s a push by some on the political left to have the former president run for vice president with Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket in 2024.
Among those promoting such a ‘Hail Mary’ attempt is Philip Allen Lacovara, who has served as deputy solicitor general of the United States, counsel to the Watergate special prosecutor, and president of the District of Columbia Bar.
“To bolster his chances for reelection, Biden needs to engage in some out-of-the-box creativity,” Lacovara writes in a new column posted on the Messenger.
He says “Biden’s stumble across the stage after speaking at the Air Force Academy on Thursday will certainly feature prominently in Republican campaign ads aimed at reinforcing the theme, already gnawing at even his most ardent supporters, that Biden is too old and frail for another four years. The unpopularity of backup, Vice President Kamala Harris, only aggravates the problem.”
“Biden might rescue his faltering hope of reelection in one seemingly impossible way – asking the highly popular, former President Barack Obama to step in to replace Harris on the 2024 ticket.”
“The idea is not as crazy as it sounds at first – although the former president, enjoying his life as a private citizen, might not be crazy about the idea.”
Lacovara thinks “Obama has been wrongly excluded from discussion about the 2024 race because it is simply assumed that he is constitutionally barred from running as a candidate on the national ticket. That is a mistake.”
He admits Democrats are in serious trouble as the election approaches:
“Biden continues to sink in the polls, with a recent Washington Post/ABC poll showing him actually behind Donald Trump, something considered almost unthinkable even before Trump’s indictment in New York three months ago. Biden has two crucial but connected problems – his age and his vice president. Harris’s unpopularity compounds voters’ concerns about Biden’s stamina and even his survival through a new term.
“Since Biden shows no sign of willingness to step aside himself, both his low approval ratings and the danger to the country from Trump’s potential return to the White House make it imperative that Biden select a running mate who best enhances his chances for reelection. Obama is the only person who could practically guarantee Biden’s reelection, whose qualifications cannot be disputed, and who could replace Harris without alienating a major constituency.”
He notes that “at first blush, the 22nd Amendment might be thought to preclude Obama from being on the 2024 ticket. That amendment provides: ‘No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice … (emphasis added). While Obama is precluded from ever running again for election as president, the amendment does not prohibit him from running for any other office, including vice-president.”
Also, there’s the matter of the last sentence of the 12th Amendment which stipulates “no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States” (emphasis added).
“This requirement does not expand Obama’s inability under the 22nd Amendment to run for election as president,” Lacovara claims.
He adds an obvious concern “is whether this election ticket would survive an inevitable challenge from an unsuccessful Republic candidate, whether Donald Trump or someone else. … Would a Supreme Court dominated by conservative justices appointed by Republican presidents invalidate the certification of a Biden/Obama win or even allow states to exclude this slate from the ballot?”
Lacovara claims the Supreme Court “should not be a problem.”
“There are good arguments that this is the kind of ‘political question’ that the Constitution commits to a separate branch, specifically the outgoing vice president and Congress in accepting and counting the certified results of the electors in each State. That should have been settled on Jan. 6,” he states.
“But if the court were to reach the merits, both precedent and ideology would sustain the validity of the ticket (and would prevent individual states from excluding a Biden/Obama ticket from the ballot).”
Another famous Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, has also been thought by some to jump into the 2024 race, but not as a vice presidential candidate.
“Michelle Obama will run for president in 2024 and base her candidacy on a life story that is more racially divisive and very nearly as fictitious as that of her husband Barack,” says Joel Gilbert, author of “Michelle Obama 2024: Her Real Life Story and Plan for Power.”
“As the best-loved Democrat, Michelle has been preparing to run for president since 2016 by following the same formula as Barack did before her. This includes writing an autobiography, giving the keynote speech at the Democrat National Convention, and heading up a voter registration organization.”
TELL YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT CITIZENS JOURNAL Please keep us publishing – DONATE
