Arnold as Veep
That's the scenario envisioned for California's governor by none other than billionaire Warren Buffett in the kicker to a new, and long, Time magazine article on the political world's latest fun couple --- Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (The story's headline: "The New Action Heroes.")
Referring to the won't-die chatter about Bloomberg running for president as an independent, Buffett says that as he mused about that scenario, he consulted the Constitution. "I wanted to see if Schwarzenegger could be his Vice President," the businessman tells Time. "I think he could," given that the born-an-American-citizen requirement for the top of the ticket is not mentioned for the occupant of the No. 2 slot.
Says Buffett: "That would be one hell of a team, wouldn't it?"
The Time piece refers to the pair as "the Hollywood brute and the Wall Street mogul." And, in light of Bloomberg's diminutive stature, it makes the obvious reference to the film "Twins" (the mayor in the Danny DeVito role and Arnold in, well, the Arnold role).
The piece provides mini-bios of the two men. And it will be music to the ears of their PR staffs. "They're ... doing big things," it asserts. "Specifically, they're doing big things that Washington has failed to do."
-- Don Frederick
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Arnold can't be VEEP either. Last sentence of Amendment XII: "But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
Posted by: Lance Menthe | June 15, 2007 at 08:36 AM
I'm surprised at Mr. Buffett. He is a smarter man than that. If someone is not constitutionally qualified for the office of president, he is not qualified for the job of vice president. He could not serve as president in the event of the death of the president, which is one of the VP's constitutional duties. We learned this in first semester constitutional law, and I'm sure it still applies. Why is this an issue?
Posted by: Max Edison | June 15, 2007 at 12:17 PM
Unfortunately, most of today's politicians have chosen to totally IGNORE the Constitution of the United States of America (or, more likely, have never read it!)
The Consitutiion (in Article 2) clearly establishes criteria for eligibility to the office of President, which include being at least 35 years of age and a native-born American (except for those born here before 1789 -- but I don't think Arnold is that old!)
Amendndment 12 (which separated separated electoral-college votes for President and VP) says: "... [b]ut no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States."
Since Arnold is ineligible for President, he is also ineligible for VP. Like it or not, Schwarzenegger remains Gubernator, at least beyond the inauguration of 2009.
Posted by: Bruce Alan Martin | February 24, 2008 at 09:53 PM