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Scenario #2: That's tragic but easy. If the President-elect is President, then the Vice-President would become President immediately. If the Vice-President were among the deceased, the line of succession would kick. Speaker of the House, Senator Byrd, the Cabinet.

The new President then would select his (or her) Vice-President.

The electors would vote for President on December 18. By that time, the new President would declare whether he or she would be willing to serve permanently, and the campaign would unveil a replacement candidate, possibly at some sort of convention of delegates or electors. But they'd have time to work it out.

If they weren't able to decide on a replacement candidate, or if the elected candidates were deceased, the House would select the President, with each state delegation casting one vote. Perhaps there might be a vacancy in the Oval Office for a time, but Congress would work it out.

This is really the only time that Congress's existence might be critical. I'm sure that in the event of an extreme tragedy, we might be in trouble.

Interesting theory.

Let's say Kerry wins and then he dies.

The constitution says that the House votes on the President if no one receives a majority of electoral votes. But if the person who receives the majority of electoral votes is dead, then that person cannot receive those votes, correct?

Then the 12th amendment kicks in and the House selects a President from the top 3 vote getters. If Kerry wins, but he dies before being sworn in, then the House could then select Bush since he would obviously be in the top 3. The 12th amendment also states that the House has until March 4th to select a new President... otherwise it then goes to the Senate, which requires a 2/3 quorum to select a President.

Lots of interesting scenarios can play out there. but honestly, in a time like this I expect that even liberal Democrats would come together and select a replacement, even if it is George W. Bush.