As the thread title says: for whatever reason, Osama bin Laden goes for an earlier 9/11 which is planned to occur during the 2000 State of the Union address, specifically with the intent of targeting the Capitol and decapitating the United States government. Assuming this succeeds, what are the repercussions? Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and Dennis Hastert are all dead, along with much of Congress; notably, though, IIRC no members of the Supreme Court attended the 2000 SOTU, so the Supreme Court's left completely intact here.
The designated survivor for the 2000 SOTU was Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, so how does he handle the immediate aftermath of "1/27" and the beginning of the War on Terror? I'd assume he sleepwalks to being properly elected in November thanks to the rally-around-the-flag effect, unless he seriously drops the ball, but there's still the question of what 2001 and onward looks like.
The designated survivor for the 2000 SOTU was Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson, so how does he handle the immediate aftermath of "1/27" and the beginning of the War on Terror? I'd assume he sleepwalks to being properly elected in November thanks to the rally-around-the-flag effect, unless he seriously drops the ball, but there's still the question of what 2001 and onward looks like.