Originally Posted By: klydon1
Originally Posted By: Mignon
Say Obama gets killed if he gets elected, Biden takes over as President. Something happens to Biden who gets the job then? Please say it's not that witch Pelosi.


The order of succession goes to the VP, then Speaker of the House, President pro tempore of the Senate (Robert Byrd), Sec. of State, Sec. of Treasury, Sec. of Defense, Atty. General, and Sec. of the Interior. I don't know the order from there, but they involve heads of cabinet posts, like the Sec. of Labor. The last would be the Homeland Security director.

Of course, one would hope that a new vp would be sworn in contemporaneously, or as close to it as possible, with the new president, and that VP jumps to the head of the line.


Per the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 as amended, the line of succession runs down through the cabinet department's secretaries in the order that those department's were created. Thus, the last to succeed would be Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security.

I also want to point out that as TIS mentions, the Presidential candidate picks his Vice-Presidential running mate and then it is sanctioned by his party's convention. Thus, the quality of that pick is a prime indicator of the candidate's judgement.

Last edited by olivant; 10/01/08 02:26 PM.
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