Presidential (Canidate) Assasination

FH writes that al-Qaeda's smartest move will be to assasinate John Kerry and John Edwards. This is actually a very intriguing idea as the consequences of it will be huge both politically and to the already searing polarization in this country.  Let's hypothesize shall we:

1. How do we proceed with the elections, if this took place? I'm assuming someone in DC has thought about this. If it wasn't too close to the election itself, the Democratic Party could conceivably pick 2 other ranking members to fill Kerry and Edawards' places. But that would almost assuredly mean a Bush landslide (as most of the population would have no idea who the new guys were) even factoring in the "sympathy vote."

2. I disagree however with his assertion that Bush will be blamed for it. I'm not quite sure why Bush would get blamed in the first place. Maybe you can clear that up for me, FH? Sure there would be people who sprout crazy conspiritorial crap like Bush let it happen and whatnot, but I doubt that on the whole the Left will blame Bush.

3. I do agree with him that it will be seen as a step toward dictatorship, as we couldn't realistically go through with the elections in that case. And as such, the Democratic Party would be forced to concede the election. (Even if there was a Constitutional Convention to amend the constitution in order to postpone the election, it would take months for the new canidate to raise money and get the national exposure in order to compete with Bush.) If the elections are cancelled, I'm quite likely that there will be rioting and international outrage.

The nation could be thrown into turmoil. That could cause even a more harmful effect than another 9/11 itself.  I'll probably have more thoughts on it tomorrow.