Supreme Court overturns Bush v. Gore.
(Yeah, it’s a joke.)
By 4:30 p.m., his 15 cabinet appointees had been vetted, contacted, and brought to Washington, where they were all simultaneously approved by a majority vote in the Senate.
Gore then delivered the first of seven consecutive State of the Union addresses.
This is an example of how I overthink and overanalyse things. When this appeared in the print edition, I thought it was cute but the joke didn’t work for me because the premise wouldn’t actually work. Even if Bush v. Gore were overturned, that would only mean Gore would be retroactively considered the de jure President from 2001 to 2005 (He actually was, but that’s beside the point). Bush’s nomination by the Republican Party and his (re)election in 2004 were not necessarily conditional on his incumbency in the preceding term — although a party has never yet withdrawn its endorsement from a Presidential candidate up for re-election. By custom and precedent the incumbent seems to be automatically selected as his party’s nominee for a second term. The only way Bush could be removed from office before the 20th is if he were impeached. Which, however just and satisfying, ain’t gonna happen now :(