A "What If" Question

For John, BLUF:  Given how this Presidential Election has gone so far, this is not that far fetched a scenario.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

---

EXERCISE EXERCISE EXERCISE

City Life Host George Anthes let me be a guest speaker at his classes on Wednesday.  As part of my time there I posed the question of how Parties deal with a Presidential Candidate who has to withdraw between the convention and the vote.♠  I used the Democratic Party, since it is a clean process, without options.  The Democratic National Committee votes on a replacement and it is who wins a majority of the votes.♥  As a caveat, this is not to suggest that Mrs Clinton has more than a mild case of pneumonia.  It is just the easier case.

The class (and I) came up with four replacement candidates, the current VEEP Choice, Governor Tim Kaine; Senator Bernie Sanders; Vice President Joe Biden; and early Presidential Candidate, Governor Martin O'Malley, of Maryland.

Here is the breakout of class voting:

	Section 1	Section 2
Tim Kaine	0	0
Bernie Sanders	17	22
Joe Biden	2	2
Martin O'Malley	0	0

Which reflected fairly closely yesterday's Rasmussen Poll, "Which Democrat Should Replace Hillary?"

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 48% of Likely Democratic Voters believe Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Clinton’s primary rival, should be their party’s nominee if health issues forced her out of the race.  Twenty-two percent (22%) say Vice President Joe Biden should be the nominee, while only 14% opt for Virginia Senator Tim Kaine, the current Democratic vice presidential candidate.  Nine percent (9%) of Democrats think it should be someone else.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  Fortunately, we have only one recent example, the withdrawal of Senator Thomas Eagleton as Vice President in the 1972 Race, 44 years ago.
♥  The Republican National Committee can go that route or it can reconvene the Nominating Convention.