Few people know the absurdities of American politics better than Jeff Greenfield, ABC News' award-winning political and media analyst, and he's poured them all into one of the funniest, scariest, most plausible what-if novels ever written.

When the President-elect dies just two days after his close victory, the universal assumption is that his running mate moves up. After all, isn't that the way the Constitution works? Well, actually - no.

Because as we're reminded every four years, but always ignore, until the electoral college meets in December, nobody has been elected, and with the candidate dead, the electors can indeed vote for the vice-presidential candidate - or they can vote for the other guy, their mothers-in-law, or Geraldo Rivera, for that matter. The rules are out the window.