Why was cabinet member Dirk Kempthorne not present at the 2008 State of the Union Address?

Answer 1

The presidential line of succession goes like this: 1) vice-president 2) Speaker of the Hosue 3) President Pro Tempore of the Senate 4) Members of the Cabinet in the order in which the departments were created. This means that if the president dies, resigns or is removed from office, the vice-president becomes president. If the president and vice-president die, resign or are removed from office, then the Speaker of the House becomes president, etc. etc. Since all 18 people in the presidential line of succession could potentially be at the president's state of the union address, one Cabinet member does not attend in case there would be some sort of disastrous bombing at the State of the Union Address that killed the president, vice-president, speaker of the house, president pro tempore of the senate and the Cabinet members. The surviving Cabinet member who is not at the state of the union address becomes president so that if nothing else, the American people know who their leader is. In 2008, the Cabinet member that did not attend was Dirk Kempthorne.