The 2000 election was a constitutional crisis. It sucked. The outcome was sub-par. But we survived. I think I'm less shell-shocked than most of my friends because my understanding of governance is one of custom, not of rules. Yeah, rules are nice and rules are the ultimate arbiter but if you're politicking and run afoul of "rules" you done fucked up a lonnnnnnng time ago. Government is a collection of people who argue about shit in order to determine the best path forward. It's currently headed by a man who doesn't even really want to enter into discussion. If you are a firm believer in rules, this is bad for the government. If you believe more in custom, this is bad for the head. Young'uns forget that when Reagan was shot, Al Haig sort of inadvertently declared himself de-facto President. It was interesting for about a week. Thing is, it takes a lot of decisions to make a government and most of them never make it to the President.