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If Obama picks Hillary as SecState, will people start referring to that position as "Four heartbeats away from the presidency"?
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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But there is the timing issue. She would have to knock them all off before there was time to act to fill in the vacancies. Its not like if Obama dies, the VP moves to President, the speaker of the house moves to VP, the President pro tempore of the senate becomes speaker of the house and the Secretary of State becomes senate President pro tempore. The VP spot would remain empty until the President nominated a replacement and that replacement was confirmed by a majority vote of both houses. The speaker of the house position and the senate president position, could be filled very quickly by a simple majority vote in the relevant legislative body. So in the event of Obama's untimely demise, Biden, Pelosi and Byrd would all have to die in very rapid succession in order for the Secretary of State to assume the Presidency.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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In that case I think you have to kill them in the right order.
The spot that would be filled the quickest is the Speaker, because it's a fairly powerful position. The VP spot would require vetting and hearings on the Hill, so you can kill him off and rest assured that it'll take awhile to fill his seat. Likewise, killing Byrd won't really garner much interest as far as presidential succession goes, because most people don't even know he's in line after the Speaker, and his position isn't one of great influence or power.
I imagine how she kills them would also have a big role in how quickly the spaces are filled. If they are all snipings, obviously someone will catch wind and they'd never let Obama out of the White House. It'd have to be clever, like lacing Byrd's Viagara with something to make it look like a heart attack, which will look perfectly expected given his age and health problems. Then you orchestrate Pelosi's plane crashing when she's headed home to meet with constituents. It'll look incidental. Do that fast enough, and then within a day or two pick off the VP and P, maybe with a well placed bomb that takes them both out at the same time during a joint appearance.
.....did I put too much thought into that?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Her best bet would be to have Obama and Biden killed before December 15th then lobby the electors to vote fore her.
Posts: 212 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Here is a truly morbid question. If the President Elect died between the meeting of the electoral college and the inauguration, would the VP elect be inaugurated? Would there have to be another meeting of the electoral college or perhaps a Senate vote to make the decision? Is this something that is clearly defined in law or something that's unclear because the situation has never arisen (and hopefully never will).
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
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quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: Here is a truly morbid question. If the President Elect died between the meeting of the electoral college and the inauguration, would the VP elect be inaugurated? Would there have to be another meeting of the electoral college or perhaps a Senate vote to make the decision? Is this something that is clearly defined in law or something that's unclear because the situation has never arisen (and hopefully never will).
In First Citizen, both POTUS and VPOTUS were killed, and the Speaker took over without taking the office of POTUS. I know that's not helpful, but this discussion made me think of that book.
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