What if in a Presidential election (2)..........

[Mr. Morden]

If the Electoral College deadlocks and the House deadlocks as well, then doesn't whoever the Senate picked as VP become acting president unless and until the House resolves the deadlock?

[Mr. Morden]

If the House Speaker and/or President pro temp don't actually want to serve as acting president, can they refuse?  Or is the Speaker automatically acting president, as long as he's Speaker of the House and the pres. and VP slots are vacant?

In the modern era, isn't there a good chance that the House and Senate *wouldn't* resolve an electoral college deadlock, as the voters view the presidency as the most important office by far, and wouldn't look kindly on members of Congress of the party they support trading the presidency away for anything?

If, say, you had a situation in which Obama/Biden went up against Romney/Rubio in 2012, and there's an electoral college tie, and the House deadlocks, but the Senate picks either Biden or Rubio for VP (depending on which party has a majority), might we really just end up with Acting President Biden or Rubio for two years, at which point the 2014 midterms would determine whether the House can actually resolve the 2012 presidential election, and elect either Obama or Romney to the remainder of the term?

EDIT: Actually, that's not a bad what-if scenario, if anyone wants to write a timeline for it.

[Mr. Morden]

Isn't it true that the House can legally elect a non-member of Congress as Speaker?  So then, in an Obama/Romney deadlock, if the GOP still had a majority of members, but not a majority of state delegations, they could just elect Romney Speaker of the House, which then makes him acting prez. if both the House and Senate are deadlocked on who president and VP are to be.