American Nightmare - Finished w/ epilogue

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Disclaimer: This is all fictional. I never want any of this to happen.

Tell this to the Secret Service.

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The vice president passed away. What happened to Obama?

Learn to read.

I am sorry to report that the President has passed away due to a gunshot wound to the head…we do know that the Vice President is still alive…

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In a time between Obama's death and his own, Biden was technically 45th President. Succession is automatic and taking an oath is merely a ceremony.

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I remember your previous TL with President Spitzer. Spitzer at least understood the problem and stepped down in favor of a Republican replacement, after he handled an emergency.

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From a purely human point of view, I do understand Boehner. His family life is destroyed, he's no longer a lord of the House, so for a professional politician like him resigning from the last thing left, the Presidency, is something just too hard to go through.

From a purely political point of view, he's making the worst mistakes imaginable by staying for an entire term and then offering the Vice Presidency to every possible random guy and ending up with "Brother Bentley", a freshman Alabama Governor and a nut.

I feel for a human being called Boehner TTL, but as of politician Boehner, he's just getting what deserved.

Sirnick, you're great writer. It's not just suspense, it also have a psychological depth

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I hope I assume correctly O'Malley won't be a sole candidate, right?

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I guess if Bentley weren't from Alabama, Shelby would join Republicans like McCain in opposing him. Shelby is actually pretty independent minded for a Southern Republicans.

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God, not Gillibrand. She's almost as overrated as John Sexgod Warner.

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God, not Gillibrand. She's almost as overrated as John Sexgod Warner.

That former sounds like a sex god.

It's probably a matter of taste. Personally I never consider her attractive. But it's not important politically. However, I consider her a badly overrated, that's all.

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Al Gore comeback would be my wet dream.

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“We’re in this to win it. We’re going to go on and win South Carolina” – Newt Gingrich after a dismal showing in the Iowa Caucus

AND WE'RE GOING TO SOUTH CAROLINA, AND NEVADA, AND FLORIDA, AND TEXAS, AND SOUTH DAKOTA. AND THEN WE'RE GOING TO WASHINGTON, D.C. TO TAKE BACK THE WHITE HOUSE... YYEEEAAAAHHHHH

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Brilliant!

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46th47th President of the United States?

Remember poor Joe

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6th President to ascend to the presidency (Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford)

You forgot John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Calvin Coolidge and Harry Truman. 

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6th President to ascend to the presidency (Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford)

You forgot John Tyler, Zachary Taylor, Calvin Coolidge and Harry Truman. 

You meant Millard Fillmore. 

Actually, I meant the dude from Philip Roth's novel. I thought his name was Zachary Taylor.

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Masterpiece

I'm not saying that often, but this is really a masterpiece.

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Can we really consider Biden a president? He was never sworn in. I think future lists will omit him. I don't feel like the presidency is this "The President is dead. Long live the President!"-ish

Again... Accession to the office is automatic, swearing-in is merely a ceremonial formality from the legal point of view.

For example, Biden took an oath as Vice President before 12.00 AM, but didn't become Vice President until that moment. Obama took an oath later, but formally became President few minutes before.

Constitution is pretty clear about this. ITTL, Biden was technically President for few hours/minutes, even if he didn't take an oath nor even knew about his "promotion".

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Next Update: Barack Obama isn't really dead, Professor X moved his soul to another body. Constitutional Crisis or Mutant Takeover?

BREAKING: Magneto elected Speaker of the House over Eric Cantor and Colin Powell in an upset. Boehner refuses to step down and is crushed by the Speaker's magnetic power. All humans will be deported to Genosha, President Magneto announced.

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Powell can't be president. You have to be a member of the house (which Powell is not) to be elected as Speaker.  Cantor is the rightful president according to the 25th Amendment.

Don't be a buzzkill, this is sirnick's tl so he can do what he wants to do

I like the tl but screwing CantorMagneto and the Tea PartyBrotherhood of Mutants IMO was not the right call. Powell is a rare liberal RepublicanMutant. I see potential Third Party ramifications due to this.

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Powell/Nunn administration would be interesting example of a team of two highly experienced caretakers.

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This is absolutely amazing. Best running timeline on the forum now.

Political timelines don't get better than this, though I wished you could focus on the world at large (don't tell me NATO's still doing air raids over Libya?). I'm hoping that election 2012 ends up like 1824.

On the Biden issue: maybe you could rewrite it so that the Vice President dies before Obama. Although that would be unprecedented, the presidency should skip right to the Speaker.

Why to make such a big deal? Day of three Presidents in row is quite interesting development to just rewrite this.

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Lugar is one of the extremely few Republicans I'd never want to see leaving the Senate

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Does Ford count in the "wholly unelected President" group?

Ford at least was elected to the Congress. Powell never was elected to anything in his life and became President, well, due to some invention in using House rules.

EDIT: I see what you mean. I guess we can separate elective politicians who later became unelected Presidents (Ford, Boehner) from Powell.

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Does anyone else think it's a Stockdale pick?