January 21st 1985
President Ronald Reagan, Speaker of the House of Representatives Tip O'Neil, and others featured as the president makes his way to the capitol rotunda for his "second" inauguration. Due to below freezing temperatures outside, the ceremony was moved in doors for that day.
The rotunda was absolutely packed with guests, with still many forced to watch the ceremony from television. For many guests, it would take some time for them to realize how truly fortunate they were...
At 12:01, there was a monstrous explosion in the rotunda, killing hundreds instantly and severely injuring more. The blast was so powerful that exhibits in the Smithsonian were found to fallen or toppled over, including the Spirit of St. Louis and the Wright Brothers Plane.
The Secret Service immediately located and locked down Margaret Heckler, the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Designated Survivor. Almost three hours later, the fire was extinguished by nearly frostbitten firefighters whom were quickly replaced by military and federal government crime scene investigators. With little hope of finding the president alive, a nearby minister was brought to an undisclosed, secure location, and promptly swore in Margaret Heckler as the 41st President of the United States.
Members of Congress who were unable to attend the Inauguration and those survivors deemed fit for travel were immediately transported to the Greenbrier resort in West Virginia while President Heckler is put on the NEACP and the military is put on a Def-Con 3 standing.
Within a matter of days, the horrible truth emerges. The explosion was caused by a combination of a forced gas leak and a delayed timed explosive placed a nearby restroom. Forensic investigators rule out action by the Russians, but trace some of the materials to former members of the Weather Underground. A two year manhunt results in the capture of most of the plotters, including
Theodore Kaczynski, David Lane, and Don Black. To this day, there are several die hard conspiracy theorists that assert their beliefs that the Capitol assassinations were false flag operations or an Illuminati plot to stop the militia movement.
President Heckler would soon sign the Penny-Cheney act aka the “Patriot” act to root out and destroy domestic terrorism, although subsequent administrations would amend it.
Four years later, President O’Shaughnessy (the president had legally changed her name following the finalization of her divorce) narrowly defeat former Secretary Al Haig and Sen. John Anderson for the Republican nomination. To placate other wings of the party, O’Shaughnessy selected Missouri Governor John Ashcroft as her running mate and promised to reappoint Donald Rumsfeld and Al Haig to Secretary of Defense and National Security Adviser respectively. In the other corner, the Democrats nominated Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca and San Francisco Mayor Dianne Feinstein for president and vice president.
While less heated than recent campaigns, the 1988 race still had its hot moments, with the Democrats hammering the president for not doing enough to fight the AIDS epidemic and her indecisive attitude towards détente while Republicans mauled the other side for the token and appealing to the “gays” choice of Feinstein and the nomination of a politically inexperienced businessman.
The final results were much closer than those of four years ago, but many armchair campaign managers continue debate on how it could be different.
President O’Shaughnessy was overjoyed with her success, although she could hardly foresee the drama that would erupt in her “lame duck” term…
OOC: So this was an idea I have been brewing over ever since I started season 2 of Designated Survivor. My idea was to attempt to craft a more “believable” (although I freely admit I am stretching that term) or at least less ridiculous version of the show. The public second inauguration of Ronald Reagan did happen in the Capitol rotunda due to terrible weather and Margaret Heckler nee O’Shaughnessy was indeed the Designated Survivor for that event. I would like to hear your comments, criticisms, and advice. Thank you for reading.