Oren wrote:

Um, no. U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 1, addresses
qualifications to be eligible. Nothing about deserving.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article...Vice_President

Pass all those requirements with the votes, and you deserve the title.
Its quite simple.

______________________________________

Section 1: President and Vice President
[edit] Clause 1: Executive power
€œ The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United
States of America. He shall hold his Office during the Term of four
Years, and, together with the Vice President, chosen for the same Term,
be elected, as follows[1] €�

Clause one is a "vesting clause," similar to other clauses in Articles
One and Three, but it vests the power to execute the instructions of
Congress, which has the exclusive power to make laws; "To make all laws
which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the
foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in
the government of the United States, or in any department or officer
thereof." The important distinction between the vesting clause in
Article I and this Vesting Clause is that this one is Plenary (i.e., it
implies the power the executive to fall in line with what other
"executives" around the world at the time could do) whereas the power
vested in Article I is subject to limits to be outlined in later
sections.

The head of the Executive Branch is the President of the United States.
The President and the Vice President are elected every four years.
[edit] Clause 2: Method of choosing electors
€œ Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature
thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of
Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the
Congress: but no Senator or Representative, or Person holding an Office
of Trust or Profit under the United States, shall be appointed an
Elector. €�

Under the U.S. Constitution the President and Vice President are chosen
by Electors, under a constitutional grant of authority delegated to the
legislatures of the several states and the District of Columbia (see
Bush v. Gore). The constitution reserves the choice of the precise
manner for creating Electors to the will of the state legislatures. It
does not define or delimit what process a state legislature may use to
create its state college of Electors. In practice, the state
legislatures have generally chosen to create Electors through an
indirect popular vote, since the 1820s.

In an indirect popular vote, it is the names of the electors who are on
the ballot to be elected. Typically, their names are aligned under the
name of the candidate for President and Vice President, that they, the
Elector, have pledged they will support. It is fully understood by the
voters and the Electors themselves that they are the representative
"stand-ins" for the individuals to whom they have pledged to cast their
electoral college ballots to be President and Vice President. In some
states, in past years, this pledge was informal, and an Elector could
still legally cast their electoral ballot for whomever they chose. More
recently, state legislatures (exercising their constitutional authority
to do so) have mandated in law that Electors shall cast their electoral
college ballot for the Presidential Candidate to whom they are pledged.

Each state chooses as many Electors as it has Representatives and
Senators representing it in Congress. Under the Twenty-third Amendment,
the District of Columbia may choose no more electors than the state with
the lowest amount of electoral votes. No Senators, Representatives or
federal officers may become Electors.
[edit] Clause 3: Electors
€œ The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by
Ballot for two Persons, of whom one at least shall not be an Inhabitant
of the same State with themselves. And they shall make a List of all the
Persons voted for, and of the Number of Votes for each; which List they
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the Seat of the
Government of the United States, directed to the President of the
Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate
and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes
shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes
shall be the President, if such Number be a Majority of the whole Number
of Electors appointed; and if there be more than one who have such
Majority, and have an equal Number of Votes, then the House of
Representatives shall immediately chuse [sic] by Ballot one of them for
President; and if no Person have a Majority, then from the five highest
on the List the said House shall in like Manner chuse [sic] the
President. But in chusing [sic] the President, the Votes shall be taken
by States, the Representation from each State having one Vote; A quorum
for this Purpose shall consist of a Member or Members from two thirds of
the States, and a Majority of all the States shall be necessary to a
Choice. In every Case, after the Choice of the President, the Person
having the greatest Number of Votes of the Electors shall be the Vice
President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal Votes,
the Senate shall chuse [sic] from them by Ballot the Vice President. €�

(Note: This procedure was changed by the Twelfth Amendment in 1804.)

In modern practice, each state chooses its electors in popular
elections. Once chosen, the electors meet in their respective states to
cast ballots for the President and Vice President. Originally, each
elector cast two votes for President; at least one of the individuals
voted for had to be from a state different from the elector's. The
individual with the majority of votes became President, and the
runner-up became Vice President. In case of a tie, the House of
Representatives could choose one of the tied candidates; if no person
received a majority, then the House could again choose one of the five
with the greatest number of votes. When the House voted, each state
delegation cast one vote, and the vote of a majority of states was
necessary to choose a President. If second-place candidates were tied,
then the Senate broke the tie. A quorum of two-thirds applied in both
Houses: at least one member from each of two-thirds of the states in the
House of Representatives, and at least two-thirds of the Senators in the
Senate. This procedure was followed in 1801 after the electoral vote
produced a tie, and nearly resulted in a deadlock in the House.

The Twelfth Amendment introduced a number of important changes to the
procedure. Now, Electors do not cast two votes for President; rather,
they cast one vote for President and another for Vice President. In case
no Presidential candidate receives a majority, the House chooses from
the top three (not five, as with Vice Presidential candidates). The
Amendment also requires the Senate to choose the Vice President from
those with the two highest figures if no Vice Presidential candidate
receives a majority of electoral votes (rather than only if there's a
tie for second for President). It also stipulates that to be the Vice
President, a person must be qualified to be the President.
[edit] Clause 4: Election day
€œ The Congress may determine the Time of chusing [sic] the
Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day
shall be the same throughout the United States. €�

Congress sets a national Election Day. Currently, Electors are chosen on
the Tuesday following the first Monday in November, in the year before
the President's term is to expire. The Electors cast their votes on the
Monday following the second Wednesday in December of that year.
Thereafter, the votes are opened and counted by the Vice President, as
President of the Senate, in a joint session of Congress.
[edit] Clause 5: Qualifications for office
€œ No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the
United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall
be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be
eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty
five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.
€�
See also: natural-born citizen and President of the United States

By the time of their inauguration, the President and Vice President must
be:

natural born citizens
The provision of "Citizen of the United States, at the time of
the Adoption of this Constitution" is no longer significant, as it
applied to people living in the United States at the time that the
country was formed.
at least thirty-five years old
inhabitants of the United States for at least fourteen years.

Eligibility for holding the office of President and Vice-President were
modified by subsequent amendments:

The Twelfth Amendment (1804) requires the Vice-President must meet
all of the qualifications of being a President.
The Twenty-second Amendment (1951) prevents a President from being
elected more than twice.