The Strange Events Of July 11, 2005

[Lincoln Republican]

On Monday, July 11, 2005, the following events mysteriously occur

9:17 A.M.
President George W Bush is at Camp David, reading alone in a room some briefing papers to prepare for an upcoming meeting on energy policy proposals with Congressional leaders.  Unbeknown to security and maintenance, the ceiling of the room in which the President is reading had become infested with termites some six months previous.  While the President is in the midst of reading the briefing papers, the ceiling collapses, killing the President.  Word is sent immediately to Vice President Dick Cheney.

9:24 A.M.
Vice President Dick Cheney, on vacation, is on a row boat fishing on a lake in the Grand Teton mountains in Wyoming when he receives news of the President's tragic death.  Security with the Vice President begin immediately rowing for shore.  While approximately two hundred feet from shore, a violent thunderstorm erupts, capsizing the Vice President's boat.  Cheney is swept under the waves, security is unsuccessful in saving him, and the Vice President is drowned.  His body is brought to shore by the security guards.  Word is sent immediately to House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

9:33 A.M.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert is reached while hiking in Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois.  Security begins the trek through the thick forested area with Hastert to take him to a waiting SUV.  Hastert and security reach the SUV some fifteen minutes later, and begin the drive toward Elizabethtown where a helicopter is waiting to whisk the Speaker to the airport at Metropolis for immediate take off for Washington, DC.  While enroute on the rugged rural road, a large tree suddenly falls across the path of the vehicle, is struck by the SUV, causing the vehicle to overturn.  Security escapes serious injury, but Hastert dies at the scene from injuries sustained in the crash.  Word is sent immediately to President Por Tempore of the Senate Ted Stevens.

10:38 A.M.
President Por Tempore of the Senate, Ted Stevens, is in Juneau, while participating in one of his favorite passtimes, tennis.  Stevens is leading 6 to 4.  A security guard rushes onto the court, informing the Senator of the tragic events of the day.  Stevens is shocked to hear of all that has happened, and immediately begins making his way off of the tennis court.  While making his way off the court, an automatic tennis ball server, about 12 feet away from the Senator, suddenly malfunctions and shoots out a tennis ball, striking Stevens in the head.  The force of the impact kills the 82 year old Senator instantly.  Word is sent immediately to Secretary of State Condi Rice.

10:49 A.M. (EST)
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is reached at the American embassy in Moscow, Russia, and informed of all that has happened in the U.S. that day.  She has been meeting with the Russian foreign minister laying the groundwork for a summit for Presidents Bush and Putin.  The American embassy is immediately put under a total lock down.  No one goes in, no one goes out.  Additional U.S. marines in Moscow are called in.  Rice's suite is put under heavy, round the clock security.  Rice is put in immediate phone communication with White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who fills the Secretary in on all the developments, and advises Rice of all the matters that will be requiring immediate Presidential attention.  A shaken and emotional Card tells Rice, "Madame President, Air Force One is airborne for Moscow as we speak."

Rice is sworn into office immediately after her conversation with Card as the 44th President of the United States of America, at the U.S. embassy in Moscow, by an embassy official who is a U.S. notary public.  Rice becomes the first female President, the first black President, and the first President sworn into office in a foreign country.

Air Force One arrives the following day into Moscow, and the new President and her staff, under tight, military security, leave immediately for the secured area of the Moscow airport, for boarding Air Force One, and for the flight to Washington DC.

On the afternoon of Tuesday, July 12, 2006, President Condoleezza Rice is winging her way aboard Air Force One, accompanied by six U.S. fighter jets, enroute to Washington DC, to her date with destiny, and to her rendezvous with history.

         

[J. J.]

Interesting, but hardly realistic.  Deaths over a few weeks or perhaps two people in the same event (a building collapse, as in The Man) might be better.

He are a couple of possibilities.  Cheney has a fatal heart attack.  Stevens dies in a small plane crash (he was in one in 1978 that killed his wife).   Hastert and Bush are killed when Marine One crashes (they are both riding in it).  It would not have to be in order of succession.  Cheney might become President and have an heart attack.  If the House and Senate are not in session, they can't elect leaders.

[Lincoln Republican]

The story was never meant to be realistic.

It was simply a story of a very unusual, and quite impossible, series of events, that resulted in the Condi Rice Presidency.