Three for the Price of One

Akhil Reed Amar proposes Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton share the presidency because, well... its do-able. It certainly would save the Democrats a lot of grief over picking a nominee. Democrats would get credit for another black president and the first women president (but wait there's more! Hillary could throw in the first black president as co-co president to seal the deal). A perfect application of the 25th amendment and the elastic constitution:

...By creatively using the constitutional rules created by this amendment, the Democrats can, if they are so inclined, present the voters in November with a new kind of balanced ticket.

...that the person heading the Democratic ticket would, if elected, take office in January 2009 but would serve as president for only the first three years of the four-year term. In January 2012, the teammates would use the 25th Amendment to switch places, and the person elected vice president would assume the presidency for the final year of the term. There is nothing magical about these dates. Almost any date would do.

While Amar gets goose bumps about the possibilities of packing the White House he forgets to consider whether such an arrangement would actually be good for the country.

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED Mar 20, 2008