Joe Biden VP Odds Favor Sen. Kamala Harris, Could Former President Barack Obama Be Picked?

Posted on: April 8, 2020, 03:00h. 

Last updated on: April 8, 2020, 01:56h.

Devin O'Connor @CasinoorgDevinO Read More

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Former Vice President Joe Biden is now nearly a sure thing to win the Democratic nomination for president following Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ exit, and that’s prompting speculation regarding who he might tap to be his running mate.

PredictIt has several former 2020 Democratic presidential candidates as the frontrunners for Biden’s VP pick.

In March, Biden said during a Democratic debate that if he wins the party’s nomination, he would choose a woman as his running mate.

“I commit that I will, in fact, appoint a woman to be vice president,” Biden declared at the time. “There are a number of women qualified to be president tomorrow.”

Biden additionally said if he becomes President and the opportunity presented itself, he would “appoint the first black woman” to the US Supreme Court.

What About Obamas?

Both of them – former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama – are two favorites among some Democratic supporters for the vice presidential nomination. But PredictIt has Mrs. Obama’s shares trading at a distant four cents.

The online political betting exchange doesn’t offer odds on the former President being picked by Biden, bringing into question whether the Constitution even allows it. The answer isn’t completely clear.

The 22nd Amendment states, “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.”

Of course, Obama has already served two full four-year terms as commander in chief. However, the way the 22nd Amendment is worded, the key words appear to be “elected to the office of the president.”

In 2015, Cornell Law School Professor Michael Dorf said he believes a past president who is ineligible to seek the Presidency through an election can still run on a ticket as a vice president. His comments came when some asked whether a Biden-Obama ticket could occur in the 2016 election.

“The drafters of this language [22nd Amendment] knew the difference between getting elected to an office and holding an office. They could have just said ‘no person may hold the office of president more than twice.’ But they didn’t.”

Uniting Against Trump

The Democratic Party has one unified goal: defeat President Donald Trump.

“The primary is over, but we’re just getting started,” Biden tweeted today. “We’re building a campaign to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that America finally lives up to our founding promises.”

Trump tweeted following Sanders’ ending of his campaign, “Bernie Sanders is OUT! Thank you to Elizabeth Warren. If not for her, Bernie would have won almost every state on Super Tuesday! This ended just like the Democrats & the DNC wanted, same as the Crooked Hillary fiasco. The Bernie people should come to the Republican Party, TRADE!”

As for the presidential election, the PredictIt market has Trump leading at 50 cents to Biden at 46 cents.