Not sure if you are objecting to ALL non-elected officials, or just the idea of those not in the cabinet.
Realise that the VP can be replaced by appointment/confirmation, after which they can become president without being elected. President Gerald Ford took that route. So if he’s a moron, he’s joined by those who put the current law in place.
I wouldn’t mind a new way of doing this, but I think if the person put in as president was not the VP, there should be a special election scheduled within 90 days to vote for a successor to fill the remaining term. That would be a fun election.
Frankly, I wouldn’t mind a rule that passed succession under such circumstances to the latest remaining former President, to serve without replacing any personell other than personal aides. The Presidency is too complicated to throw just anybody into it, and a former president would know his way around. And without replacing people, he would be a caretaker, but would (by virtue of previous election) have some legitimacy if we needed to go to war.
Ford was specifically appointed for the Position as Vice President.. By the House Speaker who was the direct successor to the President and confirmed by the House for the Job..
That is a far cry from allowing the President to appoint a Member of his Cabinet. That is just too incestuous, the kind of thing Coups are made from..
But I am open to learn so thank you for making me think things out and look further even if in this case they support my current position.
W
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford
On October 10, 1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned. According to The New York Times, “Nixon sought advice from senior Congressional leaders about a replacement. The advice was unanimous. ‘We gave Nixon no choice but Ford,’ House Speaker Carl Albert recalled later”.[31]
The Fords and the Nixons in the White House Blue Room, following President Nixon’s nomination of then-Representative Ford to be Vice President, October 1973
The Fords and the Nixons in the White House Blue Room, following President Nixon’s nomination of then-Representative Ford to be Vice President, October 1973
Ford was nominated to take Agnew’s position on October 12, the first time the vice-presidential vacancy provision of the 25th Amendment had been implemented. The United States Senate voted 92 to 3 to confirm Ford on November 27, and on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35.