Loophole

Tuesday, August 26th, 2003

I was just thinking. If Bush managed to be elected to a 2nd term, and wanted to go for a third term, he could make a very compelling case that he had only been elected once. (This implies the impossible event that Mr. Bush didn’t try to rig the second election and was elected anyway.)

By UltraBob at 03:58 AM Link to this post here!
9 comment s


  • on August 26th, 2003 04:23 AM kristen said:

    Hmmmm, interesting thought. Not so likely that anyone would buy it, though. I hope.

  • on August 26th, 2003 05:55 AM Sako said:

    Hmmm…

    Looking at the 22nd Amendment, I see that it states:

    Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once.

    Reading this literally, I can see that an argument like the one you propose could be made. After all, he wasn’t elected in 2000 so much as he was awarded the presidency.

    Still, I think the intent of limiting presidents to two terms is pretty clear, even if it is not unequivocally worded. Even the Supreme Court would have a tough time justifying that logic--which is not to suggest that it wouldn’t try.

  • on August 27th, 2003 11:13 AM kevin said:

    Sako, am I missing something? you say

    Reading this literally, I can see that an argument like the one you propose could be made.

    but the 22nd amendment says

    and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President

    He has held the office of the president for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected.

    This means tbat an argument like UltraBobby poses couldn’t be made. Or am I just drunker than I think?

  • on August 27th, 2003 02:49 PM UltraBob said:

    Very very good point Kevin!  I had just thought of that and was getting ready to post it when I saw your comment.

    P.S.  When did I become UltraBobby :(

  • on August 27th, 2003 03:08 PM kevin said:

    You’ve always been UltraBobby to me.

  • on August 28th, 2003 12:56 AM Sako said:

    If you read the wording of the amendment without reading anything into it, what it really says is that a person cannot be elected more than once if he has served more than two years of someone else’s term. If Bush wanted to make the argument that he was not elected but appointed in 2000, he could argue that he was first elected in 2004 (effectively, he would be arguing that no one was elected in 2000, thereby dodging the spirit of the amendment while technically not violating it). It’s a fool’s argument, to be sure, but since when have we known Bush to be anything other than a fool?

    But don’t worry about it. It’s not worth debating in any detail. The likelihood of something like that happening are ridiculously remote.

  • on August 28th, 2003 01:44 AM UltraBob said:

    I’m just debating it in fun.  The same spirit I made the first post in.  And really, Bush is serving all of Al Gore’s term isn’t he?

  • on August 28th, 2003 11:41 AM kevin said:

    I’m just having fun too. grin grin grin
    What it says though, is that wether he was elected or not, hw can only “hold the office of president” for two terms.

    He could be the (whoever becomes president if both the vice president and president die) for somone who is killed in the first year of office, then he servers out the last three… then the same thing happens again, and again, the president is mysteriously assasinated. (I think your site will be getting some visits from the secret service Bob) and again he takes over for the next three years.

    Because he has served more than two years as president each time, he can no longer be elected. even though he was never elected once in the first place.

    I don’t know what would happen if he was chosen to be vice president a third time… or if he was, what would happen when his third president befalls some tragedy?

  • on July 3rd, 2004 05:46 AM tonyz said:

    and I thougth I needed to get laid !