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Nor does the last sentence of the 12 th Amendment disqualify him. 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. That amendment provides: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice …” (emphasis added). Their prior relationship should enable them to come to an acceptable understanding about significant responsibilities for Obama as vice-president.įaced with the prospect of a career-ending defeat partly of her own making, Harris should accept Obama’s selection, especially if she is assured of some significant post in the new administration, giving her additional time and opportunity to burnish her credentials.Īt first blush, the 22 nd Amendment might be thought to preclude Obama from being on the 2024 ticket. Now, turn-about should be fair play, and Obama should be willing to run in second place along with the incumbent president. When Biden agreed to sign on as Obama’s vice-presidential running mate in 2008, Biden was the veteran with decades of service in the Senate, including chairmanships of both the judiciary and the foreign affairs committees. By contrast, Obama was a junior senator in his first term. While the idea of Obama running as Biden’s vice president would, at first, not appeal to either of them, their concern for the good of the country suggests that they should carefully consider this course. 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. 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. Harris’s unpopularity compounds voters’ concerns about Biden’s stamina and even his survival through a new term. Biden has two crucial but connected problems - his age and his vice president.

As I will explain, the Constitution permits this kind of gambit - and, despite the apparent unlikelihood of it happening, both Biden and Obama owe it to the country to consider using it.īiden 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. I think that 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.