What if the U.S. president and vice president-elect die before being sworn in?
Dear Cecil: What would happen if a president-elect and his running mate both left this vale of tears before they were sworn in? Since they wouldn’t have selected a cabinet yet, would captaincy of the ship of state go to the new speaker of the house? Would we get to vote again? Also, is the Ronald Reagan the oldest man ever elected to a first-term presidency? Is he the least educated man of this century to be elected president? — Al L., Baltimore Dear Al: Since I have a hard time dealing with abstractions, let’s use as an example the demise of Ronald Reagan and George Bush. (Note to Teeming Millions: this was written a while ago.) If the president-elect, the veep-elect, or both die before the electoral college meets, there’s no problem, because the college is theoretically an independent body that can vote for anybody it wants to. In fact, something like this situation has already come up. In 1872 the Democratic presidential nominee, Horace Greeley, died between the popular vote and the
