The Coronavirus

[Eric the Green]

(10-02-2020, 08:46 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(10-02-2020, 05:47 AM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(10-02-2020, 03:15 AM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote:

(10-02-2020, 02:39 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: President on a ventilator? Not a good situation, and one that I cannot deny as a possibility. It would be nearly impossible to govern from a ventilator. We could have a succession even before the election. Trump has age and obesity as pre-existing conditions. I am surprised that he isn't diabetic.

Not that bad yet.  He would still be in the early phase where is is symptomatic but still capable of working.  A ventilator would lag by a few weeks.  The next question will be if it is going around the White House, whether Pence catches it too.

I guess this being the second of October, it counts as an October Surprise?

There could be other "October surprises". Any debilitation of the President would be a serious disruption of the election. On the morbid stuff -- Herman Cain most likely contracted COVID-19 in Tulsa on June 20 and died 41 days later on July 30. Should such be the horrible schedule, then President Trump will live long enough to face Election Day  -- but he could be dying or going into severe and irreversible debility.

Let's be totally morbid, and ask some odd questions:

1. Is Trump actually sick, or is this a ploy to play-down the virus?  A "dramatic recovery" from a Nothingburger Disease just before election day might trigger his people to flock to the polls.
   
2. If he's sick, but has a mild case, does the previous scenario play then as well?
   
3. If he's sick and debilitated through the election, wins the election then dies, does Pence become President? 
   
4. What if he wins but dies before the election is certified, what then?
   
5. What if he dies on or before election day?  Is the election still an election?
   

No answers here, but worth considering.

#1/2 is a good point. Today's poll averages (not posted yet) show a recovery for Trump, likely due to sympathy and support for him (although unjustified, since it showed his down-play of the virus coming back on him). I would surmise that Isoka's suggestion, while good, does not mean that The Left is insulting him any more than it usually does anyway, so it may not matter. A recovery could be used to boost his contention that the virus is not so dangerous. I suspect he will recover, but we don't know. If he is debilitated, that could harm his numbers in the longer-run up until the election.

#3-5 yes I think Pence succeeds him in these cases. If Pence too is infected and debilitated, then Pelosi succeeds. If Biden wins the election, then he becomes president on Jan 20, and I think Harris becomes vice-president on that day as well. It appears that the vice president is sworn in at the Jan.20 inauguration. I can't find any wikipedia article that gives any info on whether she will take office when the new Senate convenes. If Pence becomes president by then, it appears the Senate President Pro-Tempore will fulfill the role as president of the Senate.