[A Broken Glass Republican]

Sorry if it offended. Bad call on my part. Just trying to point-out that the Lt Gov wasn't running next year.

[GraniteStateConservative]

I don't think it's necessarily impolite to bring up the subject. Succession can have serious consequences. Had Clinton resigned, Gore would probably be president now-- and how bad would that be? If we believe that there is significance to holding office and implementing policy, there's significance to the turns of events that bring about being elected to office.

9/11 clearly had positive political implications for Bush. He was about to dip below 50% job approval days before 9/11-- and after that, he's been riding high. We wouldn't have done so well in November without that boost to his job approval.