Whose 2nd then? Certainly not the VP — he has no real power at all unless the president dies.
In my view, the President is the most powerful, followed by the speaker of the house (because they can do spending, and they can pass things with a bare majority), and 3rd is the head of the senate.
As a whole, the supreme court has more power, but no one judge has very much power.
BTW, if you were thinking about the presidential succession, the senate majority leader isn’t in the list — it’s the PRESIDENT PRO TEMPORE of Senate, (I think that is Robert Byrd right now).
Whose 2nd then? Certainly not the VP — he has no real power at all unless the president dies.
A heartbeat away from the most powerful position in the world and can vote to break ties in the Senate.
But looking at it as power right now, I would place the control as follows:
-President (really the most powerful position on earth)
-Chief Justice of the SC - has a lot of control over how cases are handled at the Court
-Speaker of the House
-Sec of Defence (at times of war), Sec of State and
-Attorney General (at times of peace)