So the tradition is that during the president’s State of the Union address to Congress, he selects one member of his cabinet to sit safely and securely in a bunker or Starbucks or something. It’s been done since 1981. Here are some of the past winners (losers?):
1984: Sec HUD Samuel Pierce
1990: Sec Vet Affairs Edward Derwinski
1996: Sec Health & Human Services Donna Shalala
2007: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
2012: Sec Agriculture Tom Vilsack
Now, here are the (likely) choices for tonight’s designated survivor, the fully confirmed cast of characters:
Sec State Rex Tillerson
Sec Treasury Steven Mnuchin
Sec Defense James “Bulldog” Mattis
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Sec Commerce Wilbur Ross
Sec Health & Human Services Tom Price
Sec Transportation Elaine Chao
Sec Education Betsy DeVos
Sec Veterans Affairs David Shulkin
Sec Homeland Security John F. Kelly
Which of these would YOU like to see as the leader of the free world should the unthinkable happen at our nation’s capitol tonight?
Which of these do YOU think would be the absolute WORST person to slip in as POTUS?
My thought is that, under normal circumstances (ones where a terrorist didn’t just level the US Capitol), I’d take Shulkin. But I agree with leftfield, when the bombs start flying, President Bulldog is my man.
And DeVos shouldn’t be allowed to run a PTA, let alone the federal government. She gets my vote for absolute worst choice.
Mattis or Shulkin (the latter hasn’t attracted much attention, but he seems to be an entirely normal and sensible person, and he has more government experience than Mattis).
Sessions. I was tempted to pick Betsy DeVos like everyone else, but Sessions would actually be competent at implementing his far-right agenda. (I know this is slightly inconsistent with the fact that I’d take Pence over Trump, but DeVos seems to be aware of her non-expertise in ways that Trump is not, and would probably appoint a more or less mainstream VP and Cabinet and take advice from them.)
So, Sean Spicer, then? I mean, he’s the Jack Bauer of the Trump Administration; he’s demanding, frequently angry about insignificant things, and most of what he says doesn’t really make a lot of sense. Spicer even looks a bit like a bloated Kiefer Sutherland. Sure, the White House Press Secretary and Communications Director is not in the line of succession, but that’s just a minor Constitutional flicker in the midst of a giant conflagration of violation of norms, laws, and conflicts of interest.
She’s ineligible because she is a naturalized citizen, rather than natural born. Where she was born is not directly relevant since many natural born US citizens were born outside the US.
Despite the nickname, Mattis deserves some credit for convincing Trump tat torture is unproductive as well as immoral (“I can get more information with a cigarette”).
I was wondering if I had missed something with the bulldog thing. Anyway, Mad Dog would be my pick since it sounds like he would be the guy who would know what to do if there was some kind of big terror attack or something.
