Smithers MINNEAPOLIS - Old HALOSCAN comments, please discontinue the use of these comments.
So what if the president dies and the vice president should become president but is foreign-born?
Constitutional crisis!
Floyd Landis . The Mennonite vote will be crucial in 2008.
The framers had that part in one draft but then realized people are smart enough to understand that if the VP has to step in for the P, when it comes to qualifications, the situation is probably too obvious to require elaboration. Apparently they were wrong. 
The office of vice president creates a few constitutional loopholes. My interpretation is that there is neither a constitutional crisis in electing Arnold or Bill Clinton as VP.
US Constitution, Article II:
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.
... and the 25th Amendment clarifies that the Veep is first in line of succession.
22nd Amendment:
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.
... and then I have to overrule myself by dredging up the 12th Amendment, which states that "no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States".
I don't believe this should override the separate criteria for a replacement president that I highlighted in Article II, which is good news for Arnold, but locks Bill Clinton out. That certainly doesn't disqualify any president's son or wife from running, though...
According to Article II, Arnold--a foreign-born citizen--is not eligible to the office of the President. Therefore, according to the 12th Amendment, he is ineligible to run of the office of Vice President.
Andy, thanks for clearing that up -- I read what should be an "and" as an "or" where it has the age and residency requirement.
Commenting by HaloScan
