However frequently I feel like doing this, I'll chose some arbitrary major-party presidential candidate from primary elections of my lifetime. Given the brief description (in this case leaning heavily on Wikipedia), you know what to do.
Born in Philadelphia, he graduated from West Point in 1947 and Naval War College in 1960. After a year as Deputy Secretary of Defense under Robert McNamara, he took command of a Battalion in Vietnam. During the Watergate scandal he was Richard Nixon's chief of staff, though he's better known for his brief stint as Secretary of State and for the quote below, presented with greater context than is usually given:
Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the president, the vice president and the secretary of state, in that order, and should the president decide he wants to transfer the helm to the vice president, he will do so. As for now, I'm in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the vice president and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.
He got 0.3% of the raw vote in the 1988 Iowa caucus, finishing behind not only five other candidates but also "No Preference." In the Simpsons episode "Who Shot Mr. Burns (Part 2)," file footage showed Homer Simpson wearing a t-shirt in support of his campaign.
(The missus was unaware he'd ever run for president.)
Posted by Matt Bruce at January 5, 2006 02:49 PMGood to see you're starting with the relatively low-hanging fruit of Al Haig. The missus was better off not knowing he'd ever ran.
Posted by: Mark at January 5, 2006 03:20 PMSomething about presidential succession that I was reminded of by a rerun of the "American Experience" on Reagan was that his staff thought that he was so disengaged from the process of governing in his second term that they told incoming Chief of Staff Howard Baker that they seriously thought that the 25th amendment needed to be invoked and George H.W. Bush delegated presidential authority. Of course, in his first meeting with Baker and his staff Reagan perked up and paid attention and the potential succession crisis was averted.
Of course, that doesn't mean that George Schultz was next in line after Bush.
Posted by: Brian Rostron at January 5, 2006 04:27 PMSuggestion: Parcel out the clues one at a time. This would increase the challenge.
Posted by: Joshua at January 5, 2006 11:39 PM