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While on a diplomatic mission in Paris, Vice President Mackenzie Allen is informed that President Teddy Bridges has suffered a possibly fatal stroke. Since it is very unlikely, that Teddy Bridges will be able to remain in office, Jim Gardner asks Mac to resign. That way Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton would assume the presidency.

Mac visits President Bridges in the hospital and he asks her to resign, too. Upon the President's death, Allen is again asked by Templeton to step aside. Even though she holds her resignation speech in her hands, she chooses to take the oath of office.

As her first action in office, Allen finishes a mission she championed as vice president. She negotiates to free a Nigerian woman who is sentenced to death by stoning for having sex outside of marriage. While the first female president speaks to Congress, the Nigerians quietly hand their prisoner over to the U.S. military and she is flown out of the country.

Allen faces the first political crisis of her presidency as her selection of a new Vice President is manipulated by Speaker Templeton. Someone leaked a wrong name to the press. Meanwhile, the White House is still in disorder after the resignation of several other members of the Bridges administration, including the Press Secretary. Allen appoints her personal speechwriter, Kelly Ludlow, to be the new Press Secretary.

Allen's daughter Rebecca is concerned when her personal diary disappeared from her possessions during the family's move to the White House. The Secret Service is summoned to by the President to help find the diary. It turned out the diary was not lost but had been mistakenly placed among the possessions of Allen's youngest daughter (Amy).

President Allen faces her first international crisis when nine undercover DEA agents are killed in the fictitious South American country of San Pasquale. In the meantime, the First Gentleman begins coaching vice presidential nominee Warren Keaton for his upcoming confirmation hearings and Horace and Becca begin their new terms in a public school.

President Allen faces her first summit and state dinner with the President of Russia Dmitri Kharkov. The subject of civil liberties and dissident journalists is a source of deep division between the two world leaders.

To coincide with the summit, Nathan Templeton has organized the resignation of several members of Allen's Cabinet by offering them positions in a future administration with himself as President. Among the resignations were those of the National Security Advisor and the Secretary of the Interior. Chief of Staff Jim Gardner visits Templeton to demand explanations for his actions, but instead, Templeton offers Gardner the opportunity to be his Vice President if he resigns his position as Chief of Staff. Gardner refuses the offer as Templeton vows that he will run and defeat Allen in the next election.

During the state dinner, whilst dancing together which was viewed badly by the White House staff, President Kharkov and President Allen seem to mend their differences and offer support for each other's countries. The family life of the First Family has some controversies when Rebecca, the President's daughter, decides not to attend the dinner in order to have a date with a school friend.

Just after announcing Anthony Prado as the new National Security Advisor, President Allen is called out of the press conference. She is told that a terrorist has been caught attempting to cross the Canada–US border into the United States with a car full of explosives. His intended target was an elementary school in Springfield, Missouri. Because the terrorist's organization always plans simultaneous, thematically-linked attacks, they must figure out what other locations were targeted and stop the attacks. A problem arises, however, when Allen and Attorney General Melanie Blackston have different views on how to deal with the situation; Allen wants to invade a known training camp for more information while Blackston believes that the information can be coerced from the captured terrorist. Allen finally decides to go ahead with the raid of the camp, but also permits Blackston to interrogate the prisoner, so long as Allen doesn't "hear" that he was tortured. Furthermore, when news of the situation is leaked to the press, Speaker of the House Nathan Templeton goes on TV and publicly second-guesses Allen's decisions on how to handle the threat.

At the same time it's Halloween, and Allen's daughter Amy desperately wants to go trick-or-treating like a normal kid. She is disappointed when, due to security concerns, Allen tells her daughter that she might have to settle for a party this year. More family matters arise when Rod, the First Gentleman, learns that he is being humiliated by late-night comics. This seriously affects his son, Horace, who tries desperately at school to stand up for his father, nearly getting into a physical fight. After the fight, Allen catches Rebecca making out with her boyfriend. Horrified by thinking that her daughter might be interested in sex, Mac kicks her boyfriend out of the White House, and orders Prado to have the Secret Service guard Rebecca's room, therefore preventing her from having her boyfriend in her room.

After a hurricane affects the state of Florida, an oil tanker off of the coast of the state is damaged. Large amounts of oil are spilled into the sea and though the ship stops leaking oil, it is only a matter of time before some hairline fractures break and more oil spills. President Allen is presented with two options: sink the ship in the hope that such a move would not rupture the hull or take it to a Florida port where it can be repaired. She orders it to return to Florida, so that should there be a further oil spill it will damage only a localized part of Florida as, alternatively, the oil could be carried with the Gulf Stream, which would carry the spill to a great part of the eastern coast. Nathan Templeton persuades the Governor of Florida to go to court so that the ship won't be allowed to go to port and it's instead forced to be sunk. However, the President then declares the ship part of the Coast Guard so that she can legally bring it into a naval port, which is federally controlled.

At the same time, there are controversies within the First Family, when the First Gentleman is considering to accept the office of Commissioner of Baseball, an action which disturbs the President, since her husband did not tell her about this offer and his serious consideration of it before telling their children and White House officials. The President's daughter Rebecca convinces her security officer to allow her to have ten minutes alone with her boyfriend outside of the view of the Secret Service which is making her self-conscious. However, as a result of this, the first child is swarmed by autograph-seekers and the First Gentleman removes the security officer from the presidential detail as a result.

A new book is released which reveals that President Bridges had asked Allen to resign the presidency on his deathbed. This results in a major crisis in the White House and protests in the streets outside. In the meantime, General Keaton's confirmation hearings are set to begin in the House of Representatives and Speaker Templeton appears set to reveal some damaging personal information on Keaton that a Republican congressman learned when the two were friends and serving together in the Army.

Rebecca convinces her father to allow her to go to a party hosted by her boyfriend and the two go alone to his room where he expresses his interest in having sexual intercourse with her. Rebecca, realizing that she likes him but this is something she is not yet ready for, declines and leaves and it is revealed to the viewers that her boyfriend was recording them with a hidden video camera.

Rod convinces President Allen to confront her chief of staff, Jim Gardner, on the book as Rod believed Gardner is the source. Gardner denies this and, citing the President's lack of trust in him, tenders his resignation. Eventually, he and the President discuss this and Gardner suggests that President Bridges himself may have been the source as he was very close to the author and often used him as a sounding board for his ideas. This, however, does not explain how the author obtained Allen's handwritten resignation speech which she penned after Bridges' death. As Press Secretary Kelly Ludlow said, on the night the speech was written it was "a full house". Among others Attorney General Melanie Blackston, now a rival, and Speaker Templeton could have swiped the letter.

Finally, as the House hearings on Keaton's nomination to the Vice-Presidency enter the late evening, questioning begins on the damaging personal information, which seems to relate to Keaton's deceased daughter, who we learn was a medical doctor and a single mother. Templeton halts the hearings, then informs Keaton that he knew what was coming forward and would not permit such dirty politics. Keaton expresses his gratitude and Templeton indicates he will expect the favor to be returned.

At the White House, President Allen names her husband Rod as strategic planning advisor to assist her in transitioning her administration from reactionary to visionary. Gardner protests saying that strategic planning should be the purview of the chief of staff but the President explains to him that as the chief aide to an Independent President, he has a far greater workload in coalition building from issue to issue to fully focus on the big picture.

Using the information provided by lobbyists in the pharmaceutical industry, Speaker Templeton learns that Vince Taylor is HIV-positive and plans to exploit this information to embarrass the president. The speaker's aide, Jane, warns Jim of this as she believes it is taking matters too far. In the meantime, friends of Kelly's from Florida provide her with a 1965 speech of Templeton's making strong statements in favor of segregation. The President at first refuses to use the tape against Templeton. When Jim tells Allen about Vince's condition and private life, she confronts him. Vince accidentally offers her his resignation, and as a result, she fires him for not trusting her to tell her about this in the first place. Jim tells her that firing Vince was a bad idea and warns her about what else Templeton will do to her in the future, but the President at first refuses to have Vince hired again, as she cannot work with someone she can't trust. However, when she learns of Templeton's plan to embarrass Vince and the President herself, she shows him the tape and warns him against embarrassing her or her staff. The Speaker fires Jane for having revealed his plan to Jim while the President hires Vince to work again.

Meanwhile, Rebecca's boyfriend turns out to have only been interested in sex and tells her that she can give him a call if she is interested in doing the same but in the meantime things are off.

Finally, Horace gets into a confrontation with Rebecca's former boyfriend as he is spreading rumors that he did, in fact, have sex with Becca. When Rod confronts Horace about getting an F and plagiarizing an essay, Horace responds, "What's worse a cheater or a slut?", letting his father know of what has happened to her daughter. Rebecca assures her parents that the rumors are false. Allen hears about the rumors and politely confronts her daughter in a suspicious, but not in a mild physical way, and reveals she was not a virgin herself when she got married. Rebecca is keeping her secret that she nearly did have sex with him. Her mother suggests talking to his parents. Becca refuses immediately. The President offers her to have him arrested under the Patriot Act and ship him off to prison in Syria. Becca knows her mother is joking, so she agrees.

The episode ends as the President reveals that she will be holding weekly news conferences and, with Vince at her side, reveals that he is HIV-positive and tells the American people that victims of the disease can be very productive members of society.

The first of a two-part-episode story arc, Allen is discussing the possibility of running for reelection with her family, when she is summoned to deal with a huge crisis: a submarine has just collided with a seamount and drifted into North Korean waters. Furious, she questions the Secretary of Defense, the Director of Central Intelligence, and a member of the Joint Chiefs as to why a submarine was there, to which they reply that it was sent on a spy mission ordered by President Bridges. Annoyed that she was kept out of the loop, Allen tells the trio that nothing will be kept from her.

Several plans are tossed around: Vice President Keaton even suggests abandoning the sub in fears that North Korea will find out about the entire operation. However, Allen brings in the subject of possible assistance from the Chinese, and Templeton is brought in, since he is on friendly terms with the Chinese Ambassador and knows the situation well over there. The United States can't send a rescue boat in time to save the crewmen inside the sub, so Allen and Templeton brainstorm and come up with the idea to ask the Chinese to pilot their rescue boat. This information, of course, is kept from most people in the White House to ensure that the secret of the submarine will not be compromised.

Allen and Templeton meet with the Chinese Ambassador, and expecting that the Chinese will want something in return, come up with the deal that they will let China sell arms to Myanmar and Algeria. The Chinese Ambassador takes the deal back to his government, and they accept the terms.

Plans are underway for the rescue mission, and Mac retires to her private residence. However, she is alarmed to find that the North Koreans have found out about the submarine, and that they consider the submarine in their waters to be an "act of war". Mac rushes to the Situation Room, and the episode ends here.

Mac has an appendix attack and is hospitalized en route to a west coast trip. Prior to the operation, she invoked the 25th amendment. She assumes that Templeton (Speaker of the House) would decline a short term presidency as it would require him to resign as congressman. Then the President pro tempore of the Senate would assume the temporary position. She assumed incorrectly. Her appendix is removed in Omaha, Nebraska, while Templeton takes the oath of the presidency.

Of course Templeton takes the opportunity to grandstand and forces a mandatory end to the crippling airline strike, undoing Mac's careful negotiations. An actual resolution was looming but is now dashed by Templeton's cheap trick.

Upon her healthy return to the White House, she calls Templeton into her office and gives him an angry piece of her mind. He's not the least repentant and she throws him out with a "Get the hell out of my office."

• Deterrence (1999)
• The Contender (2000)
• The Last Castle (2001)
• Resurrecting the Champ (2007)
• Nothing but the Truth (2008)
• Straw Dogs (2011)
• Killing Reagan (2016)
• The Outpost (2019)
• The Senior (2023)

• Line of Fire (2003–2004)
• Commander in Chief (2005–2006)

• Richie Brockelman, Private Eye (1978)
• Paris (1979)
• Hill Street Blues (1981–1987)
• Bay City Blues (1983)
• L.A. Law (1986–1994)
• Hooperman (1987–1989)
• Doogie Howser, M.D. (1989–1993)
• Cop Rock (1990)
• Civil Wars (1991–1993)
• Capitol Critters (1992)
• NYPD Blue (1993–2005)
• The Byrds of Paradise (1994)
• Murder One (1995–1997)
• Public Morals (1996)
• Brooklyn South (1997–1998)
• Total Security (1997)
• City of Angels (2000)
• Philly (2001–2002)
• Blind Justice (2005)
• Over There (2005)
• Commander in Chief (2005–2006)
• Raising the Bar (2008–2009)
• Murder in the First (2014–2016)