We should have a new Speaker of the House and it should be Barack Obama. We need some psychological

[Pisces]

Warfare on Trump. This would make him insane. We need to start thinking outside of the box. It could be a 2 yr stint until 2020 when we replace Trump! Anyone can be nominated and I think this idea should be considered. Nancy has done a lot but she is not going to make Trump crazy. An Obama/Pelosi team in the House would drive Trump over the edge. We need to play the Art of War game with this lunatic in the Whitehouse. He is not going to change, he is only going to get worse. We need to do something radical to counter him. What does DU think?

[PoliticAverse]

1. Nancy Pelosi will be the next speaker. n/t

[allgood33]

47. Nancy will be fine. No one should think she hasn't already planned for this.

This woman knows here way around the Constitution and the Congress. She isn't where she is today in a "man's world" for not being able to handle what comes her way. It's spineless, and novices that will be the problem. Now is the time for all good Democrats to come to the aid of their country by being a unified, unwavering force to protect the nation and we must be willing to support OUR elected officials as they deal with the impending fascist fuck now in the WH.

[rzemanfl]

2. Line of succession issue. n/t

[Pisces]

7. There is no line of succession. Anyone can be nominated by a House member.

[rzemanfl]

13. I mean should (god not forbid) Drumpf and Pence die. Obama cannot be

President again.

[Pisces]

16. The answer is simple: to avoid even the appearance of unconstitutional action, then-Speaker Obama si

The answer is simple: to avoid even the appearance of unconstitutional action, then-Speaker Obama simply resigns as the Speaker of the House, or possibly, entirely from Congress.

Thus, there is no possibility of violating the Constitution, and enduring the next several years of acrimony, lawsuits, editorials, gnashing of teeth, beating of chests, whining, and all other actions that would ensue with such an untested and possibly illegal action.

[Xipe Totec]

22. You're tying yourself into a pretzel. Plenty of other options. Pelosi for one. nt

[rzemanfl]

23. Way to complicate something simple. n/t

[Separation]

79. But I thought

When dealing with comic(al) villians isnt the best solution at defeating them is also the most convoluted plan that normally involves dental floss that doubles as a garat or even grappling hook, several no name heroes to fight beside you that are expected to take a bullet for you, and to then walk away from whatever is exploding behind you without flinching.

Mission Over, Target Success!

[Polybius]

55. No need to resign

Anyone in line who’s ineligible would simply be skipped. Pretty sure you can also say “no thanks” if you want. Like if Trump and Pense resign tomorrow, Ryan can’t be forced to be President.

[pnwmom]

59. But the person after Speaker is a Rethug. n/t

[pnwmom]

58. If he resigns then the next person in the line of succession is a Republican. n/t

[ProfessorGAC]

85. With Absolutely No Backing Or Moral Authority

So, i don't think that matters much.

[Fatemah2774]

77. Don't so this...

Pelosi is the best Speaker of the House in my lifetime which includes the venerable Tip O'Neil. She has been extremely successful and any path of putting a Hillary or Obama or anyone else is not only not viable but will make the opposition more entrenched and increase the polarization. Please please please refrain from this and let's get the House under Pelosi engaged in the Peoples business starting with subpoenas investigations and stopping any more encroachments against the ACA Social Security and raising taxes on those poor rich folks to keep our country moving forward.

[Polybius]

53. That was already addressed with Madelein Albright

She was ineligible since she was born overseas. If the time of succession were to ever make it that far, she would simply be skipped to the next person in line. So if Bill Clinton, Obama, or Arnold were Speaker, they would be skipped if tragedy occurred.

[rzemanfl]

71. That would be like putting an ineligible player on the World Series lineup card

in this scenario I wish I had never gotten involved with. I am not awake enough to touch "tragedy."

[treestar]

70. He could just be skipped

and the office go to the next person on the list.

[Volaris]

50. Then it should be Hillary Clinton,

Because fuck you Trump, THATS WHY.

[Celerity]

14. 22nd Amendment only says elected, succession is not election

Amendment XXII
Section 1.
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. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

[Recursion]

21. The enabling legislation clarifies that it includes succession

A person Constitutionally ineligible to be elected President, if in the line of succession, is skipped, per statute.

[Celerity]

26. So, if skipped, it doesn't matter then? He could be

Speaker and if POTUS and VPOTUS were incapacitated, then the President pro tempore would assume the POTUS. This would mean Obama could do this (being named Speaker).

Also, couldn't the enabling legislation be challenged, as it is not in the Constitution?

[Recursion]

33. Yes. He can even be Vice President if someone wants him on the ticket

He just cannot succeed to the Presidency.

Interestingly there's actually no limitation on how many times someone can serve as Vice President.

[Celerity]

69. Thank you for the clarification

[Polybius]

75. VP is a no

It's the same constitutional requirements as President. I think at least. I'm off to work, but I will check for sure tonight.

[jmowreader]

43. Not a problem.

If someone in the line of succession isn't eligible to be president and they have to dig down that far to find a new president, the ineligible person gets skipped. All this is academic anyway; the line of succession stuff only kicks in when the president and VP die at the same time...like, for instance, if a thunderstorm started while Trump and Pence were golfing, Trump decided to take Lee Trevino's advice on what to do in this circumstance*, and it didn't work.

* Lee Trevino, one of the finest golfers of all time, was struck by lightning during a golf tournament. A reporter asked him what he'd do if a storm ever came up again. He said, "I will take out my 1 iron and point it to the sky. Not even God can hit a 1 iron."

[CentralMass]

52. My brother kept a Pederson 1 iron in his bag and he could hit with it.

[C_U_L8R]

3. That would be sweet.

CSPAN ratings would go through the freakin roof!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. What if he doesn't want to do it?

And I'll bet you kroner to krugerrands that he doesn't.

[Pisces]

5. Someone could ask him.

[we can do it]

6. Just stop

[Pisces]

9. Why? We are playing the wrong game with Trump. I think we need to be more out of the box.

[Autumn]

8. What do I think? Nancy Pelosi will and should be Speaker of the house.

[stopbush]

51. This

[GWC58]

82. All this talk is rediculous! Nancy Pelosi will be

Speaker of the House, period! Enough of this “in-house” squabbling! 🙃🤪🤔

[BlueTsunami2018]

10. He can't be President again.

So he can’t be third in line for it.

But if we’re just looking to bust balls, Hillary Clinton would be the choice for that.

But no one will do that. Pelosi is going to be Speaker again.

[Pisces]

12. He can't run again.

[Celerity]

15. Succession is not election, therefore no issue

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100211391056#post14

[milestogo]

11. Do we really want to make the man with his finger on the nuclear button go insane?

[Grassy Knoll]

17. Pelosi. EOS!! n/t

[Eko]

18. Yes.

No one else can fight Dump like Obama, its something he would never expect and would upend him. I am all for it.

[Charlotte Little]

19. I wish DU would stop with all of this shit

Hillary nor Obama are going to be SOH. And personally, I think it's insulting to them to think we can just decide they should be for them since it would "make him insane." Think about what you're implying. It's undignified and so beneath Obama to even want to be SOH for that reason.

Honest to God, stop this shit.

[Pisces]

24. It's your opinion. I asked, but we need to be crazy to deal

With crazy. This guy is destroying all the pillars of democracy and we are just standing by to paralyzed to act. We are walking on eggshells and I think we need to shake it up. Why are you so angry by an out of the box suggestion. No one is saying we will make home do anything. But asking a question or making a suggestion is what this site is for. We should be brainstorming and discussing everything, not shutting down ideas because you don’t like them.

[Charlotte Little]

32. You are not offering a viable idea

It's not that I don't like what you're suggesting. It's not about my having an aversion to something. It's that what you're suggesting is complete bunk, disrespectful, and utter nonsense.

Obama is not some crazy weapon for us to use against crazy Trump. And it belittles this site to even have these types of threads and discussions.

Why you can't see how disgusting your suggestion is - is the very reason you shouldn't make it.

And by the way, Obama is doing enough already in trying to change the discourse in this country, to remind us why we should vote, to encourage young people to get involved, and to bring back decency. Show some respect.

[Pisces]

49. I mean no disrespect to President Obama. Just trying to

Fight crazy with a crazy idea. I watched that press conference and I am sick to death of this man. He continues to undermine our democracy at all cost. He has no morals, no guiding compass other than to make money and promote himself. I just feel like we are bringing a stick to a bazaooka fight. And I’m sorry but I saw Nancy speak after him and there was nothing inspiring energizing about it. I did not get the sense that we are going to hold his feet to the fire. I feel like always Dems are going to be practical and take the higher ground and this guy is going to continue to wreck havoc. Everyday I hear this is unprecedented behavior, or we’ve never seen anything like this. All is true, and we don’t have a game plan on how to deal with this crazy behavior. Maybe I am flailing but it sure feels like something drastic is needed at this time, not more of the same. Pres. Obama is the best President of our lifetime and I was not suggesting this out of disrespect, but frustration.

[Fatemah2774]

78. We are all frustrated

Little known...I got beat up on Election Day. My fault, I'm a transgender female and some of my neighbors didn't like that. Frustration I understand but we have a process and what makes us different is that the rule of law and order is paramount and not just some silly word salad which is spat out at a rally. Let's get Pelosi and work another two years and take to the streets today to get our country back.
Hillary, not Obama Barack or Michelle or Oprah or anyone else can help us. We have to do it for ourselves our kids our cats and our country.

[Charlotte Little]

87. Oh, goodness

Sorry to hear that. And it's not your fault your neighbors attacked you. I hope you reported them to the police and I hope you're okay.

[Fatemah2774]

88. Yes I'm ok

And I reported them to the police. Second time in two years I've had hate crime against me.

[EffieBlack]

20. Yes, let's twist ourselves into knots proposing ridiculous and unlikely scenarios instead

of just supporting the woman who earned and is the logical and most qualified and appropriate person for the job.

[dawg day]

25. Love Barack, but let's not strip a woman leader of her power....

It would be telling all the women who ran so hard and so tough this year that what matters is a Y chromosome.

Yeah, I know, unfair, but so is telling a woman leader that a man would be better at the job she earned.

[Pisces]

30. I would agree if she'd never had the opportunity. She

Has had the job and at this moment in time he is uniquely qualified for the position because Trump wouldn’t know how to deal with it. Sometimes you step aside for the greater good. I’m just spitballing ideas. I think we should be open to everything. I’m sure it won’t be a Hail Mary, but some radical ideas have to be thrown out.

[Wintryjade]

27. I like Pelosi. I vote for Pelosi. I want Pelosi.

[skylucy]

28. +1000 Me too!

[Wintryjade]

29. Can we, the Democratic base, be any more clear.

[aeromanKC]

31. Excellent!! Except for

that would make Sen. Grassley (Sen. Hatch until the new session in January) as the next in line after Pence for the Presidency.

And of course I still have that fantasy of Trump and Pence being Impeached!!

[pnwmom]

34. Nancy Pelosi is perfectly capable of psyching Trump out. He hates women,

and he hates her (and Hillary) in particular.

[LoverofDawgz]

35. No. Just no.

President Obama has MORE than done his part.

1. He begged and groveled for turn out in 2010 but the purity brigade stayed home mad (their ultimate weapon; refuse to vote for any Dem who doesn't deliver them their every desire presumably with their magic wand in the first ten months, Republican Congress be damned). The result - Gerry-mandered districts. (notably when the pulled the stunt in 2000 and Nader spoiled for Gore the result was Roberts and Alito and Citizens United and yet they have the nerve to continuously groan and wring their hands over corporate donations, PACS and dark money)

But I digress.

2. In 2016, Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden ALL right up to the 11th hour campaigned for Hillary, warning over and over what would happen if the GOP grabbed all of the Federal Government. Of course the Bernie adulators and the rest of the people who think voting is an inconvenience couldn't bother and the Bernie crowd effectively worked for the Republicans till June, net result that is). So we got McConnell and 3 generations of rightwing courts bottom to top, Trickle Down 3, The daily President Oink horror show, assults on the free press, 3 trillion dollar annual deficits ensuring the last of the middle class benefits are history and an effective race war waiting to happen.

3. For the past eight weeks Obama has broken precedent and traveled all over the country again campaigning for Democrats, and again Michelle Obama and Joe Biden groveling for democratic voters to turn out. They STILL didn't - at least not in big enough numbers. Had they, we'd be saying Senator Nelson, Governor Gillum, Senator Donnolly and McCaskill right now.


Barrack and Michelle Obama have done their part and then some, much like the Clinton's before him. Joe Biden sure as hell has too. Truly, I'm so disgusted I couldn't blame one of them if they didn't so much as answer the phone again.


4. We just MUST stop looking for celebrities and magic tickets. We have 30 years of strategic planning and work to catch up with.
That's how the GOP converted former Democratic strongholds. They did the WORK. From PTA meetings and local offices to churches across the nation. It's hard work and it's tedious work but now they have a legion of loyal footsoldiers who turn out to vote like clockwork. Winning office let them gut the fairness doctrine, stack the courts and funnel unGodly amounts of money into the system, to destroy labor (the Democratic former foot soldier network), create massive, formidable propaganda networks and corrupt , well near, everything. The truth is near everyone is afraid of them.

5 We just MUST stop looking to placate the radical left, Greens and the purity bridages. They don't want to win and they don't care about the issues they say they do. If they did they wouldn't serve as spoilers over and over again. They're not reliable voters, time to face facts.

6. We have to think in margins. Like Obama did. Example: he didn't need ALL of the evanglical vote, but 10 pct can swing an election. And did. Just like Bush understood 10 pct of the black vote in Ohio could swing the election to him. And did.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

76. This! Thank you!

[jrandom421]

36. Don't even think about it

Michelle hates being in DC and the political circus that surrounds it. She wants out as soon as Malia graduates. With Her attitude, I doubt Barak is going to cross her. Would you?

[Pisces]

41. Her attitude??

[jrandom421]

48. Yes, Michelle's attitude towards DC and the political circus

With this mindset, you think Barak is going to oppose her and take a position that keeps him in DC?

[MrsCoffee]

74. Dude, I doubt there is any such strife in their relationship.

Interesting picture you paint there.

[Thekaspervote]

37. With the leadership Pelosi has given the Dems, now is not the time to jump into the unknown

[OhZone]

38. How about Hillary Clinton?

[LoverofDawgz]

39. see above

[Pisces]

40. She doesn't make Trump crazy.

[lunamagica]

42. You haven't been paying attention. trump is obsessed with her

[pnwmom]

60. You have got to be kidding. "Lock her up, lock her up, lock her up!"

Any woman with power drives him crazy.

[MrsCoffee]

73. So much for taking this thread seriously.

Are there any women you would suggest for the job?

[markpkessinger]

44. Why would you even wish that miserable job on a man who served so ably for 8 years? n/t

[jmowreader]

45. Seriously, Pisces?

Trump hates Nancy Pelosi about half as much as we hate him - which means he despises her with every fiber of his being. He's probably already got her nasty nickname dreamed up.

As to "making Trump crazy," that young lad is already so crazy shithouse rats question his sanity.

Nancy Pelosi has plenty of speakering left in her, and I'd say it's only right she be allowed to do it.

[markpkessinger]

46. To be an effective speaker you need to know how, and be willing, to twist arms . . .

. . . and that really isn't President Obama's style.

[RockRaven]

54. C'mon now, if you want to troll Trump with your Speaker selection, clearly it should be

a woman who is a vegan, a lesbian, black, Jewish, a self-made(legally) billionaire, an endurance athlete, with PhDs in literature and economics, who has genuine personal friendships based on mutual affection and admiration with the most famously beautiful and creative celebrities.

[VOX]

56. Uhh...it doesn't quite work that way.

Of course, the speaker doesn’t have to be a member of the House. However, all speakers have been members. When a Congress convenes for the first time, each major party conference or caucus nominates a candidate for speaker, etc.

Don’t think Obama wants to be the first non-member to be speaker.

[Mr. Quackers]

68. Exactly

we need to preserve the integrity of our institutions that are being destroyed by a madman.

[NYC Liberal]

57. I'd rather not drive a lunatic with his finger on the nuclear button even crazier than he already is

[cwydro]

61. Oh please.

[JI7]

62. how fucking stupid

[cwydro]

63. This.

+1000.

[Buckeyeblue]

64. As fun as it sounds it would be a distraction

We have a lot of work to do in the next two years. This opportunity cannot be wasted. Plus I think it might make Obama less effective in two years when we will need him out campaigning.

[Mr. Quackers]

65. Nothing can make Trump insane.

He IS insane.

President Obama made his sacrifice for this country, did his duty, and was one of the best presidents this country has ever seen.

I think if you told him what you're telling us, you'd at least get an eyeroll out of him.

[JHan]

66. Hahaha hahahahahahahaha

Hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahah hahahahaah

[Nonhlanhla]

67. Pelosi is better at the speaker job than Obama would be

I love Obama, but he's not really one for playing hardball, organizing a caucus, etc. Pelosi is very, very good at that. These calls to oust Pelosi is just typical sexism, which always writes off older women. Leave her where she is - she knows her job, and she will plenty get on Trump's nerves.

Obama should focus on being the party elder who works on behalf of future presidential candidates, etc.

[Vinca]

72. I think Obama can be more effective outside the House.

Someone upthread made a good point about succession, too. If Trump and Pence are impeached (and who the hell knows what will happen), Obama couldn't become POTUS because of term limits.

[Demsrule86]

80. Um no. I can't think of a worse move.

[DFW]

81. In theory, Obama could do it and even succeed as President for a limited time

Just as a VP succeeding a President is allowed to run for two full terms if the time served as the remainder of the departed president is less than half of one full term, if Trump and Pence both et swallowed by a sinkhole on the Mar-a-Lago golf course, and Obama was Speaker of the House, though he could not again be ELECTED to the office of president, he could serve out the remainder of a presidential term, if the time was less than half of the full term of the POTUS+VP that he succeeded.

Of course, this would be challenged all the way to the Supreme Court as long it was a Democratic former president. If it were a Republican former president, they would arrange a coronation simultaneously broadcast on Fox and the BBC.

That said, Pelosi knows all the rules and all the people, and has no incentive whatsoever to play nice this time, though she would be well-advised to be as sneaky as hell, so that the Republicans couldn't easily point to how evil and hell-bent on revenge the Democrats were when she got the Speaker's gavel back. Whenever a Republican pats you on the back, you can usually see the knife held in it. Ours need to be invisible (but just as sharp).

[ecstatic]

83. How about Avenatti? Lol.

But in all seriousness, whoever is picked must be someone who is ready to be tough and has no interest in protecting his/her own seat and/or running for president. Nancy Pelosi is damn good at what she does behind the scenes and I support her continuing in that role as Speaker of the House.

Now, when it comes to who speaks on our behalf outside the halls of Congress, for example on CNN Town Hall specials, etc, I don't think Nancy is effective in those settings. I don't think Bernie is effective in those settings. I would like to see someone younger and more eloquent/articulate.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

84. Why not The Rock ?

SMH

[bdamomma]

86. Ms. Pelosi

will receive the gavel. She knows what she is doing.