Back in high school, I was told that this is because the Senate is lead by the Vice President, who is already first in line should the big guy croak. Thus, it makes sense that the leader of the House should follow him.
The PPT is the “backup leader,” who only leads the Senate when the VP is in Chicago or Topeka or wherever giving a policy speech that nobody listens to.
Interesting. Apparently, he’s counting the eight presidents of the Continental Congress who were elected after the Articles of Confederation were ratified. However, this seems a bit arbitrary, as noted in the Wikipedia article on John Hanson, the “first president” under this reading:
First off, this Atchison obviously never took the oath either. Second, I have read enough about LBJs ascension to know that he was president the instant Kennedy died, no matter when he took the oath.
Little known fact. The Speaker of the House doesn’t have to be a member of Congress at all. Anyone could be chosen for the position.
"2. How is the Speaker of the House elected?
Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution states, "The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers.
Although the Constitution does not require the Speaker to be a Member of the House, all Speakers have been Members."
As far as I’m aware, there has never been a president who tried to execute any duties between noon on Inauguration Day and the moment he took his oath. Note also that the Constitution states that this post-noon/pre-oath person is still called “the new president”.
No, it seems wrong. The Presidents of Congress were not Presidents of the United States, never claimed authority as such, and were never referred to as such. They were presidents, yes, but so is the president of my curling club.
The fact that this museum is run by an Ambassador of Grand Emminence (sic) tells you all you need to know.
If Zachary Taylor wasn’t president because he did not take the oath, how could Atchison become president without taking the oath?
If the theory is that a president does not become president until after taking the oath, then people who did not take the oath are not president. Atchison never took the oath, and was therefore never president.
Or, if you can become president even though you haven’t taken the oath, then why wasn’t Zachary Taylor president even though he hadn’t taken the oath quite yet?
I don’t care which legal theory you operate under, but you have to be consistent. Consistent application of the rule, either way, means that Atchison was never president.
That was the original idea, but the VP ceased active involvement Senate affairs by the 1950s. Modern VPs only ever show up to cast a tiebreaking vote, or to preside over ceremonial stuff like the State of the Union or counting of electoral votes. Also the PPT itself is basically a ceremonial position given to the senior most Senator in the majority party. Which is way back in 2000 a frail nonagenarian & former Dixiecrat was 3rd line to the Presidency at a time when we faced a very real possibility of both POTUS & VPOTUS offices being vacant.
Quite impressively and uniquely, Henry Clay was elected Speaker on the very first day of his first term.
This is my understanding. In fact, in the original constitutional concepts, before VP was giving a quasi-executive role and was a running mate selection of the presidential candidate, VP was simply the guy who came second in the electoral college (or house selection… cue the electoral college thread). His job was to run the group of state appointees (the senators) so that no state’s appointee got an advantage in the senate operations, and it gave him something productive(?) to do in the capital.
So the list was simple - president, head of senate, head of house.