Nearly one in six American presidents has died in office. The vice presidents who succeeded them were often chosen because they provided some electoral advantage (John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, Chester Arthur, Harry Truman). What happens when such a man takes office – frequently facing widespread conviction that he is unworthy of the powers he inherits?
Walter Cronkite
George Washington
Morley Safer
John Adams
Andrew Young
Thomas Jefferson
George Will
John Quincy Adams
James Carville
Andrew Jackson
Mario Cuomo
Martin Van Buren
Charlie Rose
John Tyler
David Gergen
James Buchanan
Norman Schwarzkopf
Ulysses S. Grant
Billy Graham
James Garfield
Lowell Weicker
Grover Cleveland
William F. Buckley Jr.
Theodore Roosevelt
Colin Powell
William H. Taft
Bob Dole
Herbert Hoover
Jimmy Carter
Self
George H. W. Bush
Self
Bill Clinton
Self