October surprise: Bush* resigns; President Cheney?

[Newsjock]

While reading the GOP's latest defense of Cheney, and reminding myself how Cheney is the true power inside the White House, my neurons all fired at once on a nightmare election scenario.

What if, come the middle of October or so, our Glorious Leader suddenly announces that he -- not the vice president, as so many have expected -- is resigning due to the ever-popular unspecified "health reasons"?

Under the Constitution, this immediately makes Cheney the president.

Then, what happens with the November elections? Ballots are already printed -- many have been sent out, and many absentee ballots have probably been mailed back.

To make things worse, Cheney gets to appoint a VP. And, of course, it just Wouldn't Be Right to have an election so soon after such a Traumatic Event were to shake up the White House.

What could be done to short-circuit this scenario before it even starts?