What would happen if after John McCain accepts the nomination, he dies?

An excellent question!

The GOP would be allowed to select another candidate to replace him, and the actual election would be delayed.

The above scenario would depend, of course, on WHEN he died. But, as long as it happened before the actual election, I’m assuming that what I said, would occur.

A very scary REAL scenario happened to William Henry Harrison, the 9th President, who was in office from March 4, 1841 – April 4, 1841, before dying.

That could happen to John McCain, in that he might die in office shortly after his swearing-in, and we would be saddled with his running mate, until January 20, 2013.

September 2, 2008, 11:19 AM EDT

I don’t think that the election would be delayed at all.

seems to me that Robert Kennedy was killed right after he accepted the nomination at the democratic convention…. What was the coarse of action when that happened?

He would decompose.

But to be serious, I believe that the RNC would probably not want Palin to be on the top of the ticket; ultimately, it would be their call on what to do. I suspect they’d try to call an impromptu convention to work out a new candidate.

Both major parties stipulate that in case of the death of either of their paerty’s nominees, the task of selecting a replacement falls to the Party’s central committee. There are no rules governing whom they should choose. If this can be done in time, the committee’s replacement will appear on the ballot

Many states have deadlines beyond which a candidate’s name cannot be replaced on that state’s ballot, so it is possible for a dead candidate’s name to appear on a ballot. Should this occur, the electors pledged to that candidate would vote for a candidate of their choice, whether or not that candidate was officially nominated by their party. This actually happened in the 1872 elections when Horace Greeley, the Democratic candidate died between the election and the meeting of the Electoral College. But, because he had already lost to Grant, it had no impact on the outcome. A few electors decided to vote for the dead guy anyway.

Bobby Kennedy died in 1968, before the official DNC candidate was selected.

September 2, 2008, 1:26 PM EDT

There is no way they would run Palin as their candidate, and they are not obligated to do so.

I just want to note that I am glad that, so far, no one has posted the following answer to this Q:

“The country would be better off.”

And now that I have mentioned it, perhaps no one else will, hopefully.

September 2, 2008, 1:39 PM EDT

@JackAdams: Forget the answer I was about to post. . . .

LOL!

September 2, 2008, 2:11 PM EDT

If Mc Cain died in office I believe his chose as Vice-
President would be better for the USA than Obama.
I am a person that basicly would vote democrat. In this
race I am voting republician. Nothing against race.

@BAKERHINTZ Why? Have you enjoyed the last eight years? If you vote in a Democratic administration, you will get one that agrees with your values” on the economy, on the environment, on health care and other social issues. If you vote for McCain, you are voting for a continuation of world aggression by the U.S., more depression, more help for the righ at the expense of the middle class and the working poor.

“Nothing against race,” says BAKERHINTZ. The lady doth protest too much, methinks?

@BAKERHINTZ: May God forgive you.

God is smarter than all of us.

He isn’t voting in this election.

September 3, 2008, 9:09 PM EDT

@JackAdams: I don’t think I’ll be voting in this election either! All the candidates stink! China will soon become the new “superpower” anyway, as we’ve lost all credibility in the world with our “do as we say, not as we do” meddling.

I was a Democrat when I replied to BAKERHINTZ—now I’m not.

I recently became an ex-Democrat too, MarshallO. What drove you out of the party?

@PeterM: Actually, I’ve not been driven out of the Democratic Party into the arms of the Republicans; I now don’t want to have anything to do with either of the major parties.

Watching the conventions, etc., proved to me that—regardless of which party wins—it’s all still just going to be “business as usual”. We all know that it’s actually “big business” that runs the world, and all the “feel good” rhetoric from either of the candidates is nothing but “posturing” in hopes of winning.

Sadly, no independent candidates will ever have a chance of winning the Presidency—and they would be the only “real” (if slim) hope the U.S. would ever have of effecting change from within.

The U.S. is done for! The rest of the world no longer respects us, as we are all “do as we say, not as we do”, and China is just sitting-back, with a big Buddha-like smile on its face—raking in all of our “outsourced” money—and getting set to be the next true “superpower”. I give it twenty years or less.

The U.S. will soon be just a larger version of Great Britain—a once-powerful nation that continues to delude itself into thinking that it is actually still of some importance in the world.