# prez for 8 yrs/vice for 8? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 11, 2001, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126 "2001-07-11T18:56:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Roger\_the\_Shrubber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@Roger\_the\_Shrubber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roger_the_Shrubber)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/1 "2001-07-11T18:56:30Z")
Something that I’ve always wondered is that, one can only be a president for two terms, and vice president is the same. Is there anything keeping mr. Bar and mr Baz (running mates) to be in office for two terms (Bar=prez, Baz=vice) then switching places and running again? ---
**Author:** ![TexasSpur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a6a055/32.png) [@TexasSpur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexasSpur)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/2 "2001-07-11T19:05:55Z")
No, I am pretty sure there isn’t. Nothing other than ego that is. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/3 "2001-07-11T19:21:23Z")
You can actually be president for up to 10 years. If you’re the VP and the pres. dies with two years left on his term then you can finish that term and run for two more terms. Also, I think this only applies to consecutive years but I’m not sure. I think if you take a break from being pres. in there somewhere I believe you can run again for another two terms. If that is so could Mr. Bar and Mr. Baz flip-flop indefinitely? ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/4 "2001-07-11T19:25:35Z")
The qualifications for being Vice President are the same as the qualifications for being President, and one of those qualifications is that you haven’t already been President more than once (per [Amendment XXII](http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxxii.html). ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/5 "2001-07-11T19:29:45Z")
This has been discussed very thoroughly here, in several threads. Search for old threads in GD or GQ about Clinton having a third term (through being elected VP). I don’t think a consensus was ever reached, due to a bit of ambiguity in the Constitution. ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/6 "2001-07-11T20:07:42Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by friedo \* > \*\*The qualifications for being Vice President are the same as the qualifications for being President, and one of those qualifications is that you haven’t already been President more than once (per [Amendment XXII](http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.amendmentxxii.html). \*\* As waterj2 said, this has been discussed many a time. One of the major arguments against this theory is the fact that XXII specifically states “elected.” However, the qualifications for becoming VP are, as stated in Am. XII “But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.” This implies eligible to SERVE, not to be “elected”. This is a fine point, and one that would be VERY hotly debated were it ever to come up in actual practice. The odds of such an occurance, however, are very slim. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2001, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/7 "2001-07-11T23:32:48Z")
> [@](#): > > This implies eligible to SERVE, not to be “elected”. This is a fine point, and one that would be VERY hotly debated were it ever to come up in actual practice. The odds of such an occurance, however, are very slim. If you’re not eligible to serve, you’re not eligible to be elected. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/8 "2001-07-12T00:08:48Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* \*\* > [@](#): > > If you’re not eligible to serve, you’re not eligible to be elected. \*\* You can definitely be eligible to be elected even if you’re not eligible to serve. I believe [Mel Carnahan](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=45659) fit that category exactly. Also, IIRC there have been cases of “favorite sons” (i.e. someone well-respected and well-liked, even if he or she was not qualified for a particular office), running for election to an office in which they are not qualified to serve, as for instance, people too young to serve as President running in the primary for a particular state. None of this changes the fact that _if elected_ someone not qualified to serve as President would not be qualified to serve as V.P. ---
**Author:** ![Flymaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c4cdca/32.png) [@Flymaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flymaster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/9 "2001-07-12T02:58:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RealityChuck \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > This implies eligible to SERVE, not to be “elected”. This is a fine point, and one that would be VERY hotly debated were it ever to come up in actual practice. The odds of such an occurance, however, are very slim. > > If you’re not eligible to serve, you’re not eligible to be elected. \*\* You have it backwards. While this may be true, subject to the Carnahan exception, you may be eligible to SERVE but not be eligible to be elected. Again, I’m no constitutional authority, and this would have to be decided by the courts, but the wording of the document makes it seem semantically possible. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2001, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prez-for-8-yrs-vice-for-8/72126/10 "2001-07-12T18:53:51Z")
**Whack-a-Mole** – Amendment XXII, as I read it, makes no indication as to consecutiveness: it just states you can’t be elected (and, we are left to presume, got around to taking office as a result thereof) as President more than twice and one single person cannot serve as President more than 10 years total, between his/her own terms and pieces of someone else’s. If we combined this with Amendment XII and attempted the OP scenario, it looks to me like a situation wherein the new VP (old Prez) is only eligible to serve **2** years if something happened to the new Prez. IMO most courts in the land would find that the eligibility requirement for the VP position carries implicit with it that the person must be legally able to serve out the **full** term in office if the Big Guy pulls a W.H.Harrison on us – otherwise you may end up with a Prez who takes his office “with reservation” that he will leave at midterm. On the other hand, I can find nothing in the Constitution + Amendments that prevents someone from being VICE-President an unlimited number of terms, under any number of Chief Executives. That, of course, would be my political dream job – VP (or Lieutenant Governor) for life.