Category: Politics

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Amendment XX, Section III

So an interesting question was raised the other day when it was asked what happens if someone is elected President on election day but dies before the inauguration takes place. It seems like the answer lies in the 20th Amendment, Section 3.

Section 3. If, at the time fixed for the beginning of the term of the President, the President elect shall have died, the Vice President elect shall become President. If a President shall not have been chosen before the time fixed for the beginning of his term, or if the President elect shall have failed to qualify, then the Vice President elect shall act as President until a President shall have qualified; and the Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified, declaring who shall then act as President, or the manner in which one who is to act shall be selected, and such person shall act accordingly until a President or Vice President shall have qualified.

So the Vice President would become President but I’m curious about the next part where it says “Congress may by law provide for the case wherein neither a President elect nor a Vice President elect shall have qualified “. What is the definition of qualified? Does that just mean be eligible to become President or is it a subjective matter that the Congress at the time shall determine whether the Vice President is qualified enough?

Also, take a look at Section 4:

Section 4. The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the House of Representatives may choose a President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them, and for the case of the death of any of the persons from whom the Senate may choose a Vice President whenever the right of choice shall have devolved upon them.

Just something to ponder.

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The End Of An Empire

So if anyone out there still thought that the American markets still was the at the forefront of all the markets around the world and this was still the most “fundamentally strong” market out there… you must have had a rude awakening yesterday with the announcement of Lehman filing for Chapter 11, Merrill Lynch getting gobbled up by Bank of America and the ever-safe AIG also saying it is in severe financial trouble.

Bank of America is currently holding pretty steady even though their stocks took a hit yesterday like everyone else’s regardless of their acquisition of Merril Lynch which responded favorably.

This is probably only the beginning.

Things should probably get a whole lot more worse before they start to take a turn for better. It won’t matter who takes office next January because there is no magic potion that you can just use to solve all the problems overnight. There was a good Op-Ed piece in yesterday’s New York Times titled “Wall Street’s Next Big Problem” which talks about why the government can’t let A.I.G go under and saying if you thought Lehman was bad for the market, wait until AIG fails.

One positive sign in all this has to be the dramatic fall of oil prices which has gone from being nearly $150 a barrel in mid-July to being a shade over $90 yesterday. One has to wonder what is driving these prices down. Is it price manipulation once again which we are used to seeing in election years that the price falls to ease concerns of Americans as they head to the polls? I don’t remember any other time where the price of gas at the pumps fell so dramatically over the course of the summer… usually the peak of gas prices for the year.

I’ll finish on a cynical note regarding the UpDown.com virtual stock market game I play. I did short Lehman’s stock (LEH) about two weeks ago which did wonders for my portfolio that had taken a major hit. It seems like the only way to make money on the market these days is to continue to short these for the short term future.

You guys have any thoughts?

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Welcome To Hardball.

I was watching this on MSNBC yesterday and was certainly hoping someone would put up the video. Here it is from MyDD:

Damn, when Chris Matthews is pissed, it can be good television, and today he was actually visibly angry that the McCain campaign was trying to portray Barack Obama’s “lipstick on a pig” comments as an attack on Sarah Palin. Repeatedly he asked Republicans “Do you think that Barack Obama was calling Sarah Palin a pig?”, which really is the pertinent question, and none of them could answer “yes.” In fact Matthews’ questions were met with much stammering. Here’s the first part of the interview:

[Source: MyDD – Chris Matthews Pwns Republican Strategist]