Wacko Scenario # 417: Bush* steps down.

[trof]

I posted this reply on another thread, but thought I'd run it up the flagpole for a larger audience, so to speak.

It's been commented that his ego is too large, his narcissism too great, to allow him to quit. I disagree.
I think he takes orders from his "betters".
He is their creation, and they control him.
Anyway...

The people who are really running things, and have been primarily responsible for the selling of this president (Cheney, Rove, Card, Libby, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Karen Hughes, to name a few of the top dogs), have a VERY secret meeting and decide Georgie has to go or the GOP/Neocons will lose their grip on the country.

They inform his dad, who delivers the news to George.
"Sorry, son. There is just too much at stake. You have to take one for the party. Dick, Karen and Karl will see that it's done in a way that will let you walk away with your head up and your dignity intact. In six months we'll make a place for you on the Carlisle board of directors."

In an emotional, tear-filled address to the nation, George declares that because of the events which he has had to cope with during his presidency, events that no one could have foreseen, events, the scope of which, NO OTHER PRESIDENT IN OUR HISTORY HAS FACED, he is a mental and emotional wreck, and is stepping down for the good of the nation. He has suffered so much that it has affected his ability to continue to govern in an effective manner. He has prayed long and hard on this, on what is the right thing to do, and this is the answer to his prayers.
Laura and the twins stand bravely by his side, all in white, wiping their eyes with white lace hankies.

He is seen by not only his base, but by many other Americans, as a self-sacrificing, Christ-like hero.
"He did it for the good of us all."
Bush will assume the mantle of sacrificing senior statesman for the rest of his life. Surprisingly, it will suit him better than his active service. He gets the microphone, but no responsibilities.

Cheney "very reluctantly" accepts his "resignation" with "the deepest of personal regret and the hope that the American people realize what a great leader and fine man they are losing". He too sheds tears. Lynn is by his side, wiping her eyes with a white lace hanky.
No longer a only bridesmaid, she is The First Lady at last.

Cheney names Mitch Romney as vice-president.
Romney is given several high-profile assignments during his tenure.
Assignments that are sure to burnish his political image, especially as spun by the right-wing echo chamber.
Romney runs as a semi-incumbent in 2008.
He names Jeb Bush as his running mate.

It would be similar to what Nixon did with Gerald Ford, a very likable guy.
Ford just didn't have the strength to override the Nixon backlash.
If he hadn't pardoned Nixon, he just might have.

Just an old man's musings.
What if?

[Rowdyboy]

1. Republicans are really excellent at this particular trick....

Wait until the second term of a discredited pol then replace them with a fresh fact who gets an immediate honeymoon with the press and the people. Governor Rell of Connecticut is just the last-several recent Rethug governors of Massachusetts have come into power this way.

I'm shocked Pataki hasn't been given a cabinet post yet to open up the New York seat.

Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised.

[peacetalksforall]

2. I'm sorry, Cheney is already the President. Bush is the front man. What

good does it do to place Bush to the side and bring Cheney up? He's already up.

But, your scenario is very well written for the scenes.

[trof]

3. Yeah, but it may come to somebody higher up than Brownie

who has to take the hit.

BTW, I think you're right about who's in charge.
I notice Cheney was the one who went down and told Chertoff to kick Brown back upstairs.

[punpirate]

4. I'll disagree on the facts you presented...

... because of his monstrous ego and his sociopathic tendencies, he does think he runs "thangs" and isn't about to step down just because a few pore people drowned.

And Ford did lose--so how does that somehow justify a move like making an asshole like Mitt Romney a candidate for 2008? You know who lost the election for Ford? Cheney, trying to out-Reagan Reagan in the primaries. I don't think most people really understand just how politically inept Cheney actually is--he'd be an even worse President than Bush, and most of the Republican Party knows this. Keep in mind who picked Cheney as Bush's running mate... Cheney.

Nope, they're going to have to drag Junior out of the White House and then clean up the gouges his fingernails leave in the floor. We've got him for three and a half more years, folks. His own party won't impeach him, and the Dems aren't going to be gaining the seats in the House necessary in 2006 to start impeachment proceedings (although they will gain some). My hope right now is that Junior continues to screw up so badly that by 2008, there will be a wholesale change in the country's mood and the public won't want to have anything to do with Republicans for a long, long time. We're on the way there, but we won't get there by 2006... unless Junior thinks he can nuke his way to higher approval polls....

Cheers.

[trof]

5. We may see a Nixon-type backlash.

I'm hoping for sooner rather than later.
<sigh>
The eternal optimist.
:-(

[Rosco T.]

6. I'll give you one scarier than that...

Cheney resigns 'due to health'
Chimp appoints bro Jeb as VP
2 months later Chimp resigns 'due to health'
Jeb taps someone like Rudi for VP

they get 2 year head start on campaign '08

[trof]

7. And I didn't think it could get worse.

I guess it always can.
:-(