Commander-in-Chief Timeline

Would there be any interest in this? I'm having some writer's block with my "2000 and Beyond" one and I have some ideas I'd like to lay out for this...
 
You mean the TV show with Geena Davis?

It's a little difficult because the show itself is ambiguous. We know it begins in the third year of a presidential term... but in the first episode, Allen talks about both Gore and Cheney as former Vice-Presidents while in a later episode characters refer to the fall of the USSR as being fifteen years ago. So is it set in the year 2011 or 2007? And if it's the latter, where did Bush and Cheney disappear to such that the Republicans would run the Bridges/Allen ticket in 2004?

I'd be interested to see what you have though.
 
Yes. Well I'll be working off the assumption that Bush decided to replace Cheney in 2004 with CA Governor Teddy Bridges and in 2008 Bridges sought and won the Party Nomination. We'll be beginning with Episode 1, work through the series (With some major changes) and be on our way to the 2012 race!
 
From the Diary of Grace Bridges
July 19, 2010

I'm sitting here, in the hospital room, washing the tears that continually fall on to my page. I cannot believe that I allowed Teddy to get to this point. He's been stressing over the midterm elections...and now this? What if he were to...I can't even think of the possibility! Still, he's making a recovery and Mackenzie is on her way. She wasn't supposed to be any where near the Presidency. It's too important, Nathan Templeton will have to become President so that Teddy can resign. He won't resign until she does, I know he won't...he can't!

From the Memoirs of James Gardner
I still remember July 19th. It was, perhaps, one of the most unforgettable nights of my life. It is now well-known that Mackenzie Allen was supposed to resign as Vice President, but before she did the President died. Anyways, I was in Paris to inform her that the President hoped to have her resign. I was with the attorney general when the Vice President informed me she wasn't ready to resign right away...hours later she was putting the navy on high alert, playing battlefield with the U.S. War Ships. It was unpredictable and trust me I got my first taste of an Allen Administration that evening.

From the Diary of Mackenzie Allen
July 20, 2010

Somehow everything had managed to be kept from the media for about 16 hours. As I write this I'm in my motorcade returning from the meeting with Teddy Bridges. The President was upset I was so content with getting Oriole Medula out of Nigeria, but quickly he told me he expected my resignation. "I will not resign until you do." The words shocked me! How could he be so...so ignorant of the American people. He wanted Nathan "Bloody Hell" Templeton in charge! Incredible! He was going to live, there was no doubt of that, but suddenly it became clear he was waiting to resign until I did. The doctors expected a long, but present recovery. I was faced with a monumental decision. I risked holding up the federal government if I didn't resign! I immediately decided I had to resign and I had Kelly Ludlow work on the speech.
 
Nitpick: I'm reasonably sure the first episode takes place in February, not July (i.e. a bit over halfway into Bridges' term, so that Allen could potentially be re-elected twice). So it should be February 2011.
 
I have a million TL ideas floating around and I can't seem to get into any of them. I'm going to attempt to do this for real this time but no guarantees I'll find myself 110% committed to it.
 
Chapter One

Commander-in-Chief

The Memoirs of President Mackenzie Allen


Chapter One: The Beginning

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It all happened so fast. I still can’t get over the course of events that occurred on February 13, 2011 that led me to the Presidency of our United States. I was in France when I heard the news that the President Theodore Roosevelt Bridges had had a stroke. His Chief of Staff, James Gardner, joined Attorney General Melanie Blackston in asking me to resign the Presidency. I was confused, distraught even. Were these the words of President Bridges himself? Of course Rod was angry, furious even, at the notion of me being forced to step aside. However I knew I was to respect the President’s agenda – his wishes were meant to be taken seriously by me. When we reached Air Force Two I met with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and ordered him to rearrange our carriers, if I had the opportunity to extract Oriole Medula I planned to do it. As a Vice President I was committed to principles and as a President I would do the same.

When we arrived I met with President Bridges and he told me, face-to-face, he wanted my resignation. I returned to the Naval Observatory and instructed my speech writer, Kelly Ludlow, to begin the process of writing my resignation speech. When the sun came up I talked to my kids over breakfast before they headed-off to school. Rebecca was always cautious about my ascension into the Presidency and I can understand why: the press would make her life an open book for public scrutiny. After the kids left Rod again told me he didn’t want me to resign. I met with various cabinet officials and returned to the President’s hospital; somehow the press had been kept out of the loop on the whole situation. At 7:59 PM the President’s heart stopped and he passed away. By then my resignation speech was done and I was prepared to deliver it but as we sat in the President’s private study in the East Wing and I talked with Nathan Templeton I wasn’t entirely convinced he should be our President. Finally, when we sat alone, it was Nathan’s short temper and backwards opinions that convinced me I had to take the reins, if for no other reason than to prevent Nathan Templeton from assuming the Presidency.

I took the Oath of Office and then asked the Speaker for an invitation to address a joint session of Congress in roughly 24 hours. My first day as President was filled with procedure. I convened the cabinet, dealt with the Speaker’s Office, and put together a Senior Staff. I decided that I needed Jim Gardner to continue as White House Chief of Staff and fired my husband. Rod and I had always had trouble when it came to our marriage versus our public lives. We got into a major argument over the position but I am a woman of principles and I was not letting Rod rob me of a constructive Presidency. Furthermore, I met with the National Security Team in the Situation Room to discuss the extraction of Oriole Medula. I informed the Nigerian Ambassador of my intentions and then headed to the Capitol Building for my address to the nation and to congress.

My address to the congress began with promise but after the introductory portion the line to the teleprompter was cut. As I turned to see the Speaker it was clear he knew it was going to happen. It was the beginning of a cold relationship with the Speaker of the House. I couldn’t stay silent forever and so I recited the speech from memory – forgetting that I had a paper copy in my jacket. I was concerned about the moment of pause but I gained momentum as the address went along. As I finished the address the hall burst into applause and I turned to face the Speaker and Templeton whispered into my ear, “I’ll always be right behind you.” It was then that I knew it would be a long tenure as President.
 
Chapter Two

Commander-in-Chief

The Memoirs of President Mackenzie Allen


Chapter Two: Settling Down

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The country needed to heal. Teddy Roosevelt Bridges was a perfectly healthy President who was taken from us in a heartbeat and with Nathan Templeton next in line my number one priority was finding a Vice President. My first choice was General Warren Fitzgerald Keaton. His military expertise was needed and I felt it completely necessary to have a military man by my side. Though we were political enemies I knew I needed him on my team. After the funeral of President Bridges, however, Templeton had given James Gardner a short list of Veep Candidates he wanted us to consider – at the top was Former Oklahoma Governor Tucker Baynes whom both Templeton and Jim wanted me to nominate. I didn’t get it! Why would Templeton push so hard for Baynes?

Eventually the Press Secretary resigned and I appointed Kelly to the job, which turned out to be a mistake in the immediate short term. She had no handle on the press (and understandably so) for the first day of her tenure which allowed the press to take advantage of a story Jayne Murray leaked for Speaker Templeton: Tucker Baynes was going to be the Vice President. I was opposed completely, but whatever Kelly said from behind the podium was completely ignored by the press. Rod was still pushing for me to drop the Keaton idea, but I never gave up: I wanted Warren Keaton because he was the only one I trusted with the job. However the Republicans were probably going to throw a fit, Gardner informed me. I couldn’t deal with it: the politics, the stress – was it worth it?

With Tucker Baynes now the Vice Presidential Candidate I never chose, Speaker Templeton decided to release his second story: the rumors behind Tucker and a former staffer swept the country by storm and I finally called General Keaton and told him to get over to the White House immediately – his Commander-in-Chief expected him. When Keaton arrived he danced around the subject and told me he had no interest, but I knew it was a front: Warren Keaton wanted the job. I told him that my next two years in office would be spent getting real work done and ignoring the partisan maneuvering that has haunted Washington for decades that was what did it. Warren and I marched to the White House Press Room and announced his appointment.

Only days later I was confronted with my first national security incident: nine undercover DEA Agents were executed in San Pasquale. The country was truly in a unique situation. Their democratically-elected President had been run off the island while General Sanchez had installed himself as the leader. While in the Situation Room my national security team voiced serious concerns about me talking to General Sanchez, but I insisted: we needed to make it clear that he would pay. I decided to have the Air Force destroy cocoa fields in the nation, but it turned out that decision wouldn’t have to be made. As I addressed the United States from the Oval Office I went completely off script and called for the people of San Pasquale to demand their democratically-elected President take office. Some said I was supporting an overthrow of the government there, but I believe in Democracy and I believe the peoples’ voice must be respected. When the military overthrew General Sanchez and Juan Duran boarded a plane to the island I agreed to have the planes turn around, but I did order for the continued strike on all known Cocaine Labs. I reminded the people of our country that, “Our fight is not with the people of San Pasquale.”

While all of this was happening the media continued to hound Rebecca and Horace at their school – it was disgusting. For all too long the media has been satisfied with chasing around the kids of the President instead of focusing on what their parent is doing. I reacted. One of the lasting images of my time as President is my forcefulness as President and that was the same for my children. The media is a vile group of people and the press corps should not have access to the First Children. I continued to fight for decreased media involvement with the First Family for the entire duration of my Presidency. Relations also continued to chill with Rod who was very concerned with his role in the White House so I put him in charge of preparing Warren Keaton for his tough confirmation.
 

JSmith

Banned
I liked this show and thought it had potential if it had contined. I'm not sure I would have voted for Allen though-Republican turned Independent is still probably too conservative for me.
 
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