Was Dick Cheney President for a couple of hours?

When Dick Cheney was the acting President during President Bush’s colonoscopy did he become an official President of the US? Will he be recorded as the 44th President?

Nope. When the President undergoes such procedures (if they require being knocked out) he may sign something conferring presidential power on the VP just in case something boils over while he’s incapacitated but that doesn’t make the VP president.

I see to recall the same thing in 1985 when Reagan had those polyps removed.

And here’s a page on the 25th Amendment that covers it.

Right- he has to be sworn in and such. Just like we had one day without a President as the incoming President-elect didn’t want the ceremony on a Sunday- the then Senate-president pro-tem could have been the president for a day, but wasn’t.

…and also when he had the bullets removed.
:eek:

Al Haig was in charge then, thank god. :rolleyes:

Well, he didn’t SIGN anything in that instance. That would be one of those 'everyone gets together and yells ‘holy crap!’ and does little until they see what’s what.

I may be the world’s expert on the David Rice Atchison case, having researched it thoroughly for a never-published article. (Atchison was the former speaker pro tem of the Senate who was the alleged “president for a day”)

There are several reasons why David Rice Atchison was not president for a day, but the fact that he did not take the oath of office is not one of them. The Constitution requires taking the presidential oath in order to “execute” the office; e.g., signing a bill, making an executive order, acting as commander in chief. It does not require taking the oath to become president.

The First Congress recognized this when passed the law that established March 4 as the date when a presidential term begins. Let’s bring up a few more dates first. The new U.S. Constitution was scheduled to go into effect on March 4, 1789. The members of the Electoral College had met in their respective states on the first Wednesday in February 1789, and George Washington was elected president of the United States. However a quorum did not exist in the U.S. Senate to count the electoral votes until April 6, 1789. Washington was not informed of his election until April 14, 1789, and did not take the oath of office until April 30, 1789.

Yet the Constitution guarantees a president a four-year term of office, not a three years and ten months term of office. Congress does not have the ability to change the length of the the presidential term without amending the Consitution. Instead, the Congress was implicitly acknowledging that Washington’s term as president actually began on March 4, 1789, a month after the Electoral College voted, but almost two months before he took the presidential oath of office.

While I suppose you could argue the point (I won’t, mind you, but one could), either way, Mr. Atchinson was not President. Either the Oath is necessary to become President, or it’s not. If it is necessary, then Mr. Atchinson was not president, by virtue of not taking the oath. If it is not necessary, then Zachary Taylor was President for that day, just like everyone thought he was, despite having not yet taken the oath.

Exactly.