If the presidential nominee excepts the party nomination, and later he is unable to run, whos the nominee?

Question

If the presidential nominee excepts the party nomination, and later he is unable to run, whos the nominee?

Answer 1

I suppose they would pick a new nominee, but I think McCain will last until November, even though I'm voting for Obama.

Answer 2

Depends on when.

Tom Eagleton withdrew from the VP spot in 1972. The Democrats had an executive committee meeting, and McGovern picked Shriver. It would be a similar situation if something happened to a Presidential candidate.

Now if something happened later on, then it would get really confusing.

Answer 3

Good question.

I don't think there is a precedent to run on and I'm sure the Democrats and the Republicans would take different approaches to solving the issue.

My best guess is that the parties delegates who nominated the nominee would quickly reconvene under the direction of the party chair [Mike Duncan/Howard Dean] in some smoke filled room somewhere in Washington and pound out a deal.

They would probably choose the second runner in the primaries or the disabled nominees VP choice.

Worse case scenario, the whole party could be thrown into utter chaos and we might have 5 more nominees pop up.