President 2.0

Last month, Poland's president and several other government officials were killed in a plane crash. A special election is scheduled for June 20th to replace him, and it looks like voters will have a rare opportunity to repeat themselves, since the late president's twin brother is running for the office. Jaroslaw Kaczynski says he'll put aside his crippling grief to grab power via sympathy vote carry on his dead brother's legacy. And as much as I despise the very concept of twins, this doesn't seem like such a bad model for other countries to follow. It makes good political and fiscal sense to only elect identical twins to high office. If there's a spare, you don't have to worry about any dimwitted running mates (Biden, Quayle, Cher) having to step up to the plate with little to no preparation. Plus, you can afford to cut security in half, since it's only 50% as important to ensure the president's safety. And the electorate won't even be able to tell the difference. The new president and the old president will laugh alike, walk alike. At times, they'll even talk alike. The only danger, of course, is if genetic freakishness has imbued the twin with some sort of crippling weakness; say, for instance, a hot dog makes him lose control. You don't want a frankfurter to send your leader into a nuclear button-smashing rage. More details here.