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Comment by justncase80 | Hacker News Reader

More likely she would want to draw it out as much as possible so she could get immunity as president.

Presidents aren't immune to the law. But it's theoretically possible that she would be convicted and impeached, and then pardoned by Vice President Bill Clinton after he takes office.

> Vice President Bill Clinton

I don't think that the First Husband would have clemency powers ;)

If Hillary Clinton becomes the president, Bill would be colloquially referred to as the "First Gentleman", per tradition.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Lady

This whole thread is a case study for why we just shouldn't host discussions like this on HN. There are a million better places to do it than here.

Clinton is probably not legally eligible to be Vice President --- a position that, were he to occupy it, would give him no authority over any prosecution (except possibly an impeachment trial --- over which he would preside, but not control).

Clinton is definitely not eligible to serve as President, even if he is the Vice President at the time his President is impeached. The next in succession after VP would be sworn in as President.

> There are a million better places to do it than here.

Where is there informed, intelligent, valuable discussion of politics? I'd love to find it.

MetaFilter isn't bad. Although it's a lot more than just politics.

Plug: I'm launching Discoverboard.com for this in a couple weeks

Great! How will you improve the quality over other boards?

You'll have to verify your phone number to sign up, which will make moderation more effective (hard to make an additional account after getting kicked out).

If it grows and that isn't enough to keep it respectful, I will add a $1-2 signup fee for new users.

I'm also going to be spending most of my time recruiting quality people to join the discussions.

Feedback from one potential user: I won't sign up if I can't do it anonymously. 1) I don't like being tracked, 2) the bad behavior of others who track users has made me resent the practice, and 3) people need to be able to express political opinions without thinking they will be tied to their phone numbers. It threatens the civil rights of unpopular minorities, and I've come across several studies which conclude that people self-censor in those situations.

But how to promote quality? One thing I would like to see is a forum that cracks down on thoughtless posts, especially hyperbole ad rants. It's not only a waste of time but that kind of behavior spreads like a virus.

While I empathize, anonymity makes moderation very hard. Most people I've talked to prefer the tradeoff of reduced anonymity for improved moderation. If you email me at zach@discoverboard.com I can set you up with a pre-verified account that you can use anonymously.

Quality is hard. I don't think there's any silver bullet, but you can check out the community guidelines at discoverboard.com/about which hope to curtail the thoughtlessness you're talking about.

facebook

It's not very nice to shoo someone away from discussion and then continue the discussion yourself.

> Clinton is definitely not eligible to serve as President

This has never been established. The 22nd Amendment prevents him from being elected President.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/3/19

Subsections (a), (b), and (d) [every succession category] of this section shall apply only to such officers as are eligible to the office of President under the Constitution.

That all applies when there is no Vice President to act as President. None of it applies to the scenario here, which is wholly covered by the 25th Amendment.

"In case of the removal of the President from office or of his death or resignation, the Vice President shall become President."

No caveats.

Eh, that they said "elected" and not "eligible" in the 22nd amendment makes me think there is plenty of room for lawyering on this point.

This is Putin becoming a prime minister for a couple of years to fix the constitution type of politics.

Please see the Twelfth Amendment, particularly the last sentence.

And?

Edit:

There are a couple ways to become president, and only one of them is through an election. Article 2 talks about "eligibility", but says nothing on term limits. Amendment XII only says "eligible" again. Amendment XXII brings up term limits, but only says "elected", never "eligible".

There's a "but obviously..." reply to be made, but I see plenty of opportunity to play word games here.

You all see how silly this thread is, right? It's premised on the idea that Bill Clinton would be Hillary Clinton's VP.

I think today is a good a day as any for having a giggle.

I'm pretty sure Bill can't run for VP. And the 3rd in line after VP is Speaker of the House (Paul Ryan, IIRC).

The Twelfth Amendment ends with the following sentence:

"But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."

It would seem the Constitution agrees with you.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelfth_Amendment_to_the_Unite...

So then, they get Ryan to be VP and install Bill as Speaker. Then they get Ryan to resign. Worth at least two seasons on Netflix.

If she honestly believes she is innocent, she would want it over with ASAP so it doesn't effect her chances in the General Election in Nov.

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