Presidential Succession: A Novel, A Movie, a Conspiracy Theory?
In these days, about everyone knows the first levels of presidential succession: President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, and Secretary of State, in that order. Several years ago, there was a short-lived TV series called, “Designated Survivor” whose central premise is that the entire federal government is wiped out at a State of The Union address . . .except for this one minor cabinet secretary. And now HE is president.
That, and the recent SOTU event got me thinking about it all over again. In the current real-world political scene, I think many Democrats regret President Biden’s nomination, though they welcome his win. I genuinely believe that there was a plan for him to step down soon after the election “for reasons of health”. I think that plan was derailed by the realization that Vice President Harris iseven less desirable as President. It is my guess that either is Speaker of the House Pelosi too is not considered to be a good candidate for next President. Of course, this is all speculation.
And so, what to do? If I were writing a novel in the style of John Grissom or a movie, I might plot it out this way. The Vice President meets is removed from the political scene through some totally non-suspicious event. It could be illness, such as Covid19 or a skiing accident . . .whatever. There is no immediate question of intrigue or foul play. The position of Vice President is filled by appointing someone agreeable to both parties as was done when Jerald Ford replaced the disgraced Spiro Agnew during the Nixon administration. And THEN the President has a stroke or something catastrophic. Recall the Movie, “Dave”. This leaves the hand-picked, non-elected VP in the top slot. Lots of room there for intrigue and drama. Plenty of ethical dilemmas and so on.
Think anything like this has crossed the minds of anyone in the Clinton camp?
I'm just guessing about all this stuff.