Spoilers Designated Survivor

[Morpheus 02]

In regards to appointing new legislators, in IL , our governor appointed someone to the job. but because it was Rod Blagovich, there was such a cloud of scandal that the well qualified Roland Burris was not elected into the next term.

Now, if I heard right, Kirkman was with the President at the beginning, but was NOT going to be there for the next. So, I think this is an election year...but months away from. The GENERAL election. Would it be enough time for several states to add a temporary election Connected to their primaries?

 

[Stephen Lee]

In a situation like this, can The President be making all the final decisions until the states can find a replacement for their missing staff?

 

[Trekker4747]

In a situation like this, can The President be making all the final decisions until the states can find a replacement for their missing staff?

Probably a *lot* of recess appointments and executive actions all things that would be reversed/sealed and/or vetted once there's a working legislature again. Including, probably, in desperate SCOTUS appointments he'd have to make. It's really crazy to think about how much this would utterly fuck things up in this country and how nothing in it would honestly work right, like it's supposed to, for probably the better part of two years. To speak nothing of having it going on while the new President has to make decisions about military retaliation for the attack.

President Jack Bauer probably isn't going to get much sleep for quite some time. Please, god, let the teenager and family crap not consume this show. That was one of the weaker aspects of "Commander and Chief." We don't need another version of Kim Bauer to muck up a Kiefer show.

If this takes place during the president's third year in his current term in office, yeah, that would mean potentially 10 seasons of the show with Kiefer as president. (10 years is the max a president can serve, the term limit accounts for cases where someone may be ascended to the presidency and have to finish out a term.)

 

[marillion]

Have heard a lot of great feedback about this show since it aired and I'm still looking forward to seeing how it all works out as far as the grand conspiracy angle or the terrorist plot. It will be interesting to see how the government is set back up and how Kirkman navigates his way through this mess. I think him taking it on the chin about lack of experience should die down quickly. I mean, yes, he was only HUD Secretary, but still. That is a political position, and so it's not like he's "Dave" from the movie who was planted in the president's spot because he looked like him.

My question is the longevity factor. Once we get past the issue of him being the "fish out of water" and setting up the replacement government and sussing out who carried out the plot, what's next? Does it become a day to day government procedural show, ala West Wing as the seasons go on?

 

[bigdaddy]

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.
.

But Massachusetts will still hold a special election, that's how we got sexy Scott Brown.

 

[Photoman15]

Wouldn't the maximum a president can serve be theoretically 12y-12s?
Assuming the just sworn in president dies/is assassinated. That would finish out the term of the dead president and assuming he/she is re-elected twice.

 

[Tim Thomason]

My question is the longevity factor. Once we get past the issue of him being the "fish out of water" and setting up the replacement government and sussing out who carried out the plot, what's next? Does it become a day to day government procedural show, ala West Wing as the seasons go on?

While that would be nice, I kind of hope the show is working with an endgame in mind (four or five seasons or so). Maybe the series can be about Kirkman building the country back up after this disaster. At the end of the last season, everything can be back to normal, the enemy held fully accountable, and Kirkman can resign to a happy life as a national hero.

 

[Snaploud]

In regards to appointing new legislators, in IL , our governor appointed someone to the job. but because it was Rod Blagovich, there was such a cloud of scandal that the well qualified Roland Burris was not elected into the next term.

That was a Senate seat. Tim Tomason is correct in stating that House members have to be elected.

Wouldn't the maximum a president can serve be theoretically 12y-12s?
Assuming the just sworn in president dies/is assassinated. That would finish out the term of the dead president and assuming he/she is re-elected twice.

It comes from the language of the 22nd amendment. Technically, the amendment limits an individual to being "elected to the presidency" more than twice or more than once if the individual has already acted as president for more than two years of another person's presidency. That loosely translates into a maximum of 10 years in office, but it leaves open a potential loop-hole allowing a 'term-limited president' to become president again via the line of succession.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-second_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution

 

[Morpheus 02]

Each season doesn't have to be a whole year...
I imagine season 1 will be the first month in office.

The US can't declare war without some kind of functional Congress, right? I imagine another season will be filled with people trying to get an endorsement to win a seat.

Maybe after that a season of ramping up for war, with the next season where we discover we got the wrong enemy

Also, real random thought...what if the explosion was set up by organization which set it up years before...way before security would have thought such a thing possible. (Like 60's, 70's, or maybe even early 80's)

 

[Guy Gardener]

Only congress can officially declare war, even though that shit has been put to the test recently with all the non-wars America is involved in. The President can declare war in spirit, but that declaration was to be confirmed and ratified by congress within a month, or it's just hot air, no matter what miltary #### is underway and half way through.

America can fight countries, under Presidential order without being a state of war, so war, not war, doesn't matter that much as long as land mines are being hidden near schools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_war_by_the_United_States#Formal

 

[Trekker4747]

Wouldn't the maximum a president can serve be theoretically 12y-12s?
Assuming the just sworn in president dies/is assassinated. That would finish out the term of the dead president and assuming he/she is re-elected twice.

Maximum, per The Constitution, is 10 years. If a president dies inside of 2 years in office the Vice President, or whomever obtains the presidency, would finish that term and then could run for a second term and no more, he's used his time up. 4 years of his own then more than 2 years of the presidency he acquired. Running for a third term would but him near 11 and you can't run for president if you can't finish the term. The 10 year rule assumes someone taking over more than half-way into a presidency. If it were 12 years then it'd be might as well say the max is three terms. 11 is and odd number so likely wasn't considered for that reason as selecting an even number is simpler.

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this article was proposed by the Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

 

[Scout101]

Yeah, 3 terms is the real limit. If Bill Clinton was put on the ticket as VP, and Hillary died of Pneumonia a week after being sworn in, he'd essentially get an entire 3rd term minus a couple days.

he can't RUN for it, but he could serve the term. You're right in that if you haven't already been President, ~2 years seems to be the cutoff on whether the term you filled in for counts as 'yours' or not.

 

[cultcross]

Yeah, 3 terms is the real limit. If Bill Clinton was put on the ticket as VP, and Hillary died of Pneumonia a week after being sworn in, he'd essentially get an entire 3rd term minus a couple days.

he can't RUN for it, but he could serve the term. You're right in that if you haven't already been President, ~2 years seems to be the cutoff on whether the term you filled in for counts as 'yours' or not.

Well if we're going to go down that road there is no limit at all - following his near third term there would be nothing to prevent Bill from being sworn in for a fourth if the line of succession fell to him again. A very unlikely set of circumstances, certainly, but then so is this show.

 

[Trekker4747]

So, here's a question. Why didn't Jack (that's what I'm going to call him until his name sticks in my head, okay?!) and his wife hear the bomb(s) go off at the Capitol building? When it happens at the beginning of the show they're watching the SOTU Address on TV, it goes to static (which, what TV does that anymore in the digital age? It'd most likely go to an error screen) and then he and the wife try and figure out what happened, assuming there's a TV problem.

They eventually look out the window and see the fire and results of the explosion at the Capitol and looks fairly close by, certainly within "ear shot." I doubt the building they were in was super-protected with sound proofing, so shouldn't they have heard the explosion a second or so after the TV cut out?

 

[Photoman15]

Because the tv station didn't go off the air, they just stopped getting a feed from the cameras there.

 

[Trekker4747]

Still they should have heard the explosion from the building they were in.

 

[cultcross]

Yes they should. Explosions are loud, and carry. I realise, from a dramatic point of view, why they did the shot where he looks out at the explosion, but it is greatly problematic, from a realism perspective. He would never have been that close, in an unprotected upper room, and also couldn't have missed the bang in the otherwise quiet room.

 

[bigdaddy]

It's TV people.
And let's be honest the last several years the US government hasn't really done anything, the assholes will probably shut it down for no reason again. I think things would be fine. The states would still run, there is still a president and it turns out a new Speaker of the House.

I don't care if it's realistic, just have fun. This won't be West Wing, it will be 24 or Homeland at best.

 

[Scout101]

Well if we're going to go down that road there is no limit at all - following his near third term there would be nothing to prevent Bill from being sworn in for a fourth if the line of succession fell to him again. A very unlikely set of circumstances, certainly, but then so is this show.

Sure, i guess, I was just trying to lay out a semi-realistic way of getting that 3rd term. It's pretty unlikely that after Bill finishing Hillary's term up, he'd then sign up to be VP for the next guy to run for President (or even go for Speaker of the House or whatnot) to line himself up for a potential 4th crack at it. Not impossible, sure, but the 3rd term thing is at least something that has some actual potential (again, with Clinton just an example, not suggesting anything).

I'd think at that point, it would be more likely that there would be a clamor to amend the Constitution to ALLOW him to run again if they wanted him that badly rather than more and more unlikely ways he gets promoted into the job. How many times can the president die in office, or resign, or the top 12 guys all are out at the same time, etc.

Also, if he keeps getting in, people are going to be gun shy over putting him INTO the line of succession, afraid he's bad luck. or worse, organizing things to MAKE it happen...

 

[Scout101]

And yes, with the way Congress has acted over the last decade or so, having no Congress might be an improvement over the output level we're getting. It would at least be cheaper to accomplish nothing if we're not paying like we expect results...