It’s that happy, happy time again - voting season! Since many of us hit the polls last week to do the whole democracy thing, we figured it’s a perfect time to re-air one of our earliest political episodes when the American political system encountered a crisis of epic proportions. Good to know things have changed, right? Enjoy!

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You are a new country. You have a constitution. If anything goes wrong, don't worry, the constitution will tell us what to do.......or will it?

Learn about the death of President William Henry Harrison, the first time a President died in office, and the forgotten constitutional crisis that followed, as well as a deep dive into the 25th Amendment that tried to correct those errors.

Rob gives Ray a lesson in the history of the all too brief Presidency of William Henry Harrison, the controversial elections that got him into office, The Curse of Tippecanoe, the gentleman's agreement between Eisenhower and Nixon, why it is difficult to invoke the 25th Amendment, the wisdom of Al Haig, and tons of The West Wing examples.

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TEAM

Ray Hebel

Robert W. Schneider

Mark Schroeder

Billy Recce

Daniel Schwartzberg

Gabe Crawford

Natalie DeSavia

ARTICLES

His Accidency

How The Shortest Presidency Spurred A Brief Constitutional Crisis

Public Announcement of Harrison’s Death

Did William Henry Harrison Really Die of Pneumonia

Did Tecumseh’s Curse Kill Seven Presidents

What Really Killed The First President To Die In Office

Remembering William Henry Harrison

25th Amendment: Three Questions

What Is The 25th Amendment

Who’s In Charge?

Reagan Aides Once Raised The Possibility Of Invoking The 25th Amendment 

EPISODE CLIPS & AUDIO

Al Haig

ADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS

“Happy Bee,” “Junkyard Tribe,” and “Fife and Drum” • Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)

• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Door Closing Sound Effects

Additional Sound Effects from Final Cut Pro, iLife, and Logic Pro