With impending war against Russia and/or China, we may be faced in next year's Presidential election with a similar situation during the 1916 election between Woodrow Wilson and Charles Evans Hughes.
Wilson may have been a head-in-the-clouds liberal, but he was still a patriot to his country. During the 1916 Presidential Campaign, he agreed to an expedited transfer of power to his GOP successor if the election turned out that way. With WW1 threatening to pull the US into that conflict, Wilson wanted to eliminate the extended time period between the election and inauguration of a new President in order to avoid any confusion about US foreign policy. If Wilson lost, he would appoint Hughes as Secretary of State and then resign along with his Vice President. Under the rules of succession at the time, the new Secretary of State would immediately become President.
If Biden runs for reelection and loses, would he have the same patriotic impulse as Wilson? Would he cooperate with his GOP successor to plan a quick and seamless transfer of power to his successor, or would he sabotage this process for his own purposes? Based on his past performance, the odds for the former don't look too good.
Wilson may have been a head-in-the-clouds liberal, but he was still a patriot to his country. During the 1916 Presidential Campaign, he agreed to an expedited transfer of power to his GOP successor if the election turned out that way. With WW1 threatening to pull the US into that conflict, Wilson wanted to eliminate the extended time period between the election and inauguration of a new President in order to avoid any confusion about US foreign policy. If Wilson lost, he would appoint Hughes as Secretary of State and then resign along with his Vice President. Under the rules of succession at the time, the new Secretary of State would immediately become President.
If Biden runs for reelection and loses, would he have the same patriotic impulse as Wilson? Would he cooperate with his GOP successor to plan a quick and seamless transfer of power to his successor, or would he sabotage this process for his own purposes? Based on his past performance, the odds for the former don't look too good.
