Maybe the government doesn't want to trust too much of its day to day business on electronic communications which can surely be intercepted/hacked/leaked.
Spoilers Designated Survivor
- Thread starter The Nth Doctor
- Start date
Maybe the government doesn't want to trust too much of its day to day business on electronic communications which can surely be intercepted/hacked/leaked.
There are effective ways of making that communication secure, plus, very little of what they're doing is supposed to be any kind of secret. They're supposed to be doing The People's Business (not giving The People the business, like they often do now
), and almost all of it should be in the public record, anyway.Snaploud wrote: "
Side note: it's completely ridiculous for the president to choose a guy who he is asking to resign to be the one to act as designated survivor. That's just a weird plot point to add to the show."
Actually, he might have been picked for that role precisely because he was on his way out. Kind of the political equivalent of being made to stand in the corner. I mean, it's not like anybody expected things to go sideways.
And the guy who gave him the suit. If that were me, I'd want to keep the tracksuit as a memento.
Side note: it's completely ridiculous for the president to choose a guy who he is asking to resign to be the one to act as designated survivor. That's just a weird plot point to add to the show."
Actually, he might have been picked for that role precisely because he was on his way out. Kind of the political equivalent of being made to stand in the corner. I mean, it's not like anybody expected things to go sideways.
And the guy who gave him the suit. If that were me, I'd want to keep the tracksuit as a memento.
I have to admit, before the show started I was kind half jokingly wondering if when everything was figured out, it was going to turn out the whole thing was actually set up by Kirkman as a way for him to take power. I doubt very, very much it'll happen, but it would be a great twist if it did.
I think they almost have to go that route. If the writers portray the attack as the work of a real foreign nation, it would be in very bad taste. And if they choose one of the world's real militant terrorist groups, they'll be giving that group way too much exposure and credit (even fictional credit), so I hope they don't go that route. They could always make up a country (or extra-territorial militant group), a la Qumar or Kundu in The West Wing, but that has the potential to come off silly, especially if you're going to credit them with something of this magnitude. It's a lot easier to believably create a fictional conspiracy or rogue domestic group than to make up a new global power out of whole cloth.
I bet someone in the pilot episode is behind it (but not the General).
Just appeared on UK Netflix and I watched the pilot. It's a bit... melodramatic, and people act in really, really dumb ways (the possibility of a second device or further attacks doesn't apparently occur to anyone until the episode's 'cliffhanger' and despite a major secured government building being successfully bombed the new first family just hang out in the White House and chat on the balconies?) but it was oddly enjoyable all the same. It has 24s sense of unwavering self importance and their habit of doing trailer-worthy one liners ("sir, you are now the president of the united states") combined with a little of the political intrigue of House of Cards. I'll certainly be giving it a chance, but I hope it allows the characters to become a little more intelligent.
The Constitution pretty well bars state governments or the federal government from appointing Congressmen. They pretty much have to be elected. Senators can (and will) be appointed very quickly, and I think it's theoretically possible for the House to exist with a very low quorum (even a quorum of 1) in extenuating circumstances. So, even if they didn't bother with a legislative designated survivor, they probably have a few straggling Congressmen (probably from the opposite party) who were in there home district the day of the State of the Union.
The one thing that didn't make any sense to me (other than decapitating the government) was the Secret Service taking Kirkman to the White House immediately after. No way, no how will he be taken there, even for a photo op inauguration. LBJ's was on a plane, and I imagine Kirkman's should've been as well. He'd be headed towards an undisclosed location for a couple weeks of Live Via Satellite addresses to the nation. The Capitol has just been esploded. No sense giving whomever another target.
I really hope the family drama is toned down. I kind of wished it was like early West Wing, and Kirkman's kids could just be out-of-the-picture (grown up) or not really a major focus, especially out-of-the-gate.
The one thing that didn't make any sense to me (other than decapitating the government) was the Secret Service taking Kirkman to the White House immediately after. No way, no how will he be taken there, even for a photo op inauguration. LBJ's was on a plane, and I imagine Kirkman's should've been as well. He'd be headed towards an undisclosed location for a couple weeks of Live Via Satellite addresses to the nation. The Capitol has just been esploded. No sense giving whomever another target.
I really hope the family drama is toned down. I kind of wished it was like early West Wing, and Kirkman's kids could just be out-of-the-picture (grown up) or not really a major focus, especially out-of-the-gate.
^I had more of an issue with the designated survivor being close enough to the Capital building to see the explosion. The fact that they headed to the White House isn't completely unreasonable, though they would certainly be going for the bunker rather than hanging out near the windows.
Side note: 4 states do not allow Governors to appoint even short-term replacements to the U.S. Senate: Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. An additional 10 states require special elections to take place relatively soon after the vacancy occurs, though the Governor can appoint somebody in the meantime. I'm not clear on what we would do if it were impossible to perform that special election in the required period. Would the gubernatorial appointments lose their powers? I suppose we would deal with the same type of situation if we were not able to perform a regularly-scheduled election due to a national emergency.
In theory, the Senate would be more important to get functional than the House (in order to refill executive positions that require senatorial confirmation).
http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vacancies-in-the-united-states-senate.aspx
Side note: 4 states do not allow Governors to appoint even short-term replacements to the U.S. Senate: Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. An additional 10 states require special elections to take place relatively soon after the vacancy occurs, though the Governor can appoint somebody in the meantime. I'm not clear on what we would do if it were impossible to perform that special election in the required period. Would the gubernatorial appointments lose their powers? I suppose we would deal with the same type of situation if we were not able to perform a regularly-scheduled election due to a national emergency.
In theory, the Senate would be more important to get functional than the House (in order to refill executive positions that require senatorial confirmation).
http://www.ncsl.org/research/elections-and-campaigns/vacancies-in-the-united-states-senate.aspx
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Those four states would rob us of only eight Senators, still high enough to have a full quorum and majority rules (Republicans almost certainly will rule the Senate, since they traditionally hold more Governorships, at least throughout the last decade or two).
But I imagine a Massachusetts situation would arise. In 2009, the Governor of Massachusetts (Deval Patrick) didn't have an appointment power when Ted Kennedy died (August 25th), but they had been in the process of changing the law to bring back that power, and the Massachusetts Congress did so on September 23rd, with a new Senator (Paul Kirk) appointed on September 24th.
So, extenuating circumstances would probably force those four states to quickly amend their laws, assuming that's legislatively possible and it isn't something requiring a state constitutional amendment (which would make things trickier, bordering on impossible).
I really want the show to spend an hour discussing these theoretical legal exercises, instead of pointless high school drama or FBI intrigue. I would be a terrible showrunner.
But I imagine a Massachusetts situation would arise. In 2009, the Governor of Massachusetts (Deval Patrick) didn't have an appointment power when Ted Kennedy died (August 25th), but they had been in the process of changing the law to bring back that power, and the Massachusetts Congress did so on September 23rd, with a new Senator (Paul Kirk) appointed on September 24th.
So, extenuating circumstances would probably force those four states to quickly amend their laws, assuming that's legislatively possible and it isn't something requiring a state constitutional amendment (which would make things trickier, bordering on impossible).
I really want the show to spend an hour discussing these theoretical legal exercises, instead of pointless high school drama or FBI intrigue. I would be a terrible showrunner.
I watched the first episode out of the show having an interesting premise and my interest in Kiefer Sutherland.
Really liked the episode though it seemed to want a lot to happen very quickly, finding a second bomb and already making conclusions on what had happened just a few hours after the tragedy seems like a pretty short timescale, I'd think it'd take a hell of a lot more time to work out what had happened. I half-expected it to be something mundane between the build up of it all and the general wanting to begin retaliation right away; was just waiting for some to say "yeah, it was a broken gas main and then someone microwaved a slice of cold pizza wrapped in tin-foil." I honestly wish it had been something like that because I think the weak-willed president vs. the not willing to listen cabinet is a plot thread that's going to get old fast, though not nearly as old as any BS they do with the teenage son.
It was interesting to note that the glasses Kiefer wore had prescription to them. As glasses wearer, it's details like that I like. It bugs me when a character on TV wears glasses and the lens are clearly plain pieces of plastic or glass and not providing any corrective benefits.
I would have thought the conversation between Kiefer and the Iranian (?) ambassador would have shown some that Kiefer could nut-up to the task. And, yeah, the behavior of our government has eroded my confidence in them quite a bit the last few years but I'd think they be a bit more responsible and respective of the line of succession and wouldn't be so quickly dismissive of the new president or making decisions over him, etc.
Watching it though, it really just strains my mind to think of the giant mess this would cause were it to really happen and if it would even be possible to recover. A Supreme Court Justice died earlier this year and Republicans in the House still haven't spoken with Obama's replacement nomination out of some goofy notion of Obama being a "lame duck" president and shouldn't get to pick another SCOTUS justice. Can you imagine if a president got to pick ALL of them?
I really wonder how our government on all levels would recover from a disaster like this as pretty much everything would be broken and we may have a new president right away but it seems like pretty much everywhere else we're at least a year away from being back to normal.
I also assume the show takes place in 2017 during the new president's inaugural address (which seems like a very early time to be swapping out cabinet members but, whatever) otherwise this is all moot. Kiefer's only in office for a few months.
Really liked the episode though it seemed to want a lot to happen very quickly, finding a second bomb and already making conclusions on what had happened just a few hours after the tragedy seems like a pretty short timescale, I'd think it'd take a hell of a lot more time to work out what had happened. I half-expected it to be something mundane between the build up of it all and the general wanting to begin retaliation right away; was just waiting for some to say "yeah, it was a broken gas main and then someone microwaved a slice of cold pizza wrapped in tin-foil." I honestly wish it had been something like that because I think the weak-willed president vs. the not willing to listen cabinet is a plot thread that's going to get old fast, though not nearly as old as any BS they do with the teenage son.
It was interesting to note that the glasses Kiefer wore had prescription to them. As glasses wearer, it's details like that I like. It bugs me when a character on TV wears glasses and the lens are clearly plain pieces of plastic or glass and not providing any corrective benefits.
I would have thought the conversation between Kiefer and the Iranian (?) ambassador would have shown some that Kiefer could nut-up to the task. And, yeah, the behavior of our government has eroded my confidence in them quite a bit the last few years but I'd think they be a bit more responsible and respective of the line of succession and wouldn't be so quickly dismissive of the new president or making decisions over him, etc.
Watching it though, it really just strains my mind to think of the giant mess this would cause were it to really happen and if it would even be possible to recover. A Supreme Court Justice died earlier this year and Republicans in the House still haven't spoken with Obama's replacement nomination out of some goofy notion of Obama being a "lame duck" president and shouldn't get to pick another SCOTUS justice. Can you imagine if a president got to pick ALL of them?
I really wonder how our government on all levels would recover from a disaster like this as pretty much everything would be broken and we may have a new president right away but it seems like pretty much everywhere else we're at least a year away from being back to normal.
I also assume the show takes place in 2017 during the new president's inaugural address (which seems like a very early time to be swapping out cabinet members but, whatever) otherwise this is all moot. Kiefer's only in office for a few months.
The talk about it no longer being "about what he's done for the President" but about the "second term" suggests to me that it's more likely to be 1 to 2 years into the President's term and Kirkman has been in the job for at least a year. Placing it either c. 2014-2015 or c2018-2019 (references to ISIS may indicate the former as the State Department variously prefered ISIL or Deash since mid-to-late 2014)
You don't think they'll have an entire season at some point, 24 episodes, that lasts 24 hours in-universe?