Are there Democratic Party provisions for a successor to the presidential nominee?
Would it be Biden the VP nominee or Clinton, the Primary runner up.
In general, what happens?
It’s never come up. But the party will decide who replaces him.
It has come up, at least for the Vice-Presidential candidate.
When Thomas Eagleton resigned from the Democratic ticket in 1972, the Democratic National Committee met to appoint a successor. They came up with Sargent Shriver.
There were 76 people who received at least one vote for the vice presidential nomination at the 1972 Democratic convention. Sargent Shriver was not one of them.
Just to be clear, as long as its before the election its strictly a matter of political party protocol, its not a Constitutional issue.
I seriously hope this doesn’t happen (God, I hope it never happens, but I’m afraid of it), but if it did, I would hope they would nominate Hillary since she was a close 2nd place finisher.
The GQ answer is that it’s for the party to decide, though, I believe. I don’t think it’s a legal issue at all.
After her speech tonight, I’m inclined to go with Clinton.
Just for your information. Reagan AKA as whitey was shot most recently. Please stop with the racist bs.
Who are you talking to?
Where is the racist bs?
gravitycrash, I would guess is making the suggestion that the question was asked because Sen Obama is black. It could be suggested that the question supposed that Sen McCain would not be at risk of assassination because of race. One less reason for the crack-pots to shoot at a nominee I guess.
SSG Schwartz
Maybe the question came up because, oh I don’t know, maybe there was news last night that suggested there may have been a plot to assassinate Obama?
I was thinking of asking this same question but in 2 scenarios:
A) If it happened today
b) If it happened in December.
You seem to be saying that anytime up until inauguration, it’s up the the party. Is that correct?
(If so, then ISTM that any further discussion belongs in GD)
“before the election” means before the election, not “anytime up until inauguration.”
After the election, but before the inauguration, it would not be up to the party.
Wait a minute, so the party can just change their mind? So what’s all this convention rigmarole is non-binding? 
We did the exact same question last election about John Kerry
Depends on what you mean by “after the election.” If it were between election day and when the Electoral College votes, it would still be up to the party. There is precedent for that: in 1872, Democratic candidate Horace Greeley died a few weeks after election day. He had lost, anyway, so it didn’t matter and his electors voted for whoever they wanted. If the election had been at stake, though, the party would have insisted all the electors chose a particular candidate.
Is it really possible for a political party to substitute a candidate all the way up to the election? I thought that the several states generally have rules about when the ballots have to be finalized; since these differ from state to state, things might get a little hairy if a candidate ends up on the ballot in one state but has to be replaced in another. Mel Carnahan, for example, stayed on the Missouri ballot in 2000 despite dying three weeks before the election (and still managed to defeat John Ashcroft); meanwhile, Paul Wellstone was killed in a plane crash 11 days before his election, and was replaced on the Minnesota ballot.
For the last couple weeks I’ve been wondering what would happen if McCain just died from old age a couple days before the election. As far as I figured out it’s tough shit, announce your candidate or don’t have one at all. Nothing states there has to be a candidate for any particular party.
Yes, because you’re never actually voting for a candidate for President. You are voting for his/her electors. Electors are usually staunch supporters of their party, so if their candidate were to croak they’d be very likely to support whomever their party chose as a replacement.
How is it racist to ask a protocol question? Would you have felt better if the question was about McCain? For that matter, it would seem that your use of the word “whitey” is inflammatory and racist.