Re: Alternatives to the Twenty-Fifth Amendment (on

In article <g4t7d9$1d0ek$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, Aaron Kuperman <akup@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
wrote:
>We could call a new election

Raymond Speer's original article in this thread asked about things
that would require a constitutional amendment.  A special election for
President does not.

>either to fill the unfinished term or to start a new four year
>term. If we wanted to do it quickly, we could either reconvenee the
>party conventions, or have the Congress nominate candidates (as was
>done in the early 19th century).

Surely Congress had no part in nominating Presidents or electing them
(unless the Electoral College did not produce a majority)!  Certainly
party conventions could not elect a president.

>However the United States has always had a fixed term for president,
>and since the emergence of political parties, everyone assumes that
>when they elect a Democrat (or a Republican) they are giving that
>party control of the presidency for four years.
>
>A POD leading to a different attitude would probably have to date to the
>federal period. Note that all the states have a similar system of fixed
>terms, and most provide that the chief executive's replacement will be
>from the same party.

Texas elects several state officials independently of the governor,
and in particular the lieutenant governor can be of a different party
(though by the nature of things usually is not).

-- 
Tim McDaniel; Reply-To: tmcd@[EMAIL PROTECTED]