By the not too distant future I assume you mean less than a year. At this point I would argue that three months might well be too distant. However, given what has come out recently (e.g., recordings from Michael Cohen, Omarosa, and (from what I am hearing) Don McGahn, as well as what will come out at Manafort's second trial, Cohen's trial, and Jeffrey Epstein's trial (all three happening next month), I have reason to hope that Trump will be gone soon.

Having said that leaves us with the fact that Mike Pense is the obvious replacement. But that isn't going to happen. He is as involved in the Russian mess as Trump, and Robert Mueller is too much of a patriot to see this country go through two disgraced Presidents leaving office back to back.

That brings us to Paul Ryan, the next on the list. That isn't going to happen either (see discussion on Pence).

So we either get Ryan's replacement as Speaker, or we get Orrin Hatch, the President Pro Tempore of the Senate and next in line after Ryan. Given that the House can, in theory, elect a new Speaker in less than an hour, it will most likely be Ryan's replacement.

This is where it gets real interesting. Are you aware that being a member of the House is not a requirement for becoming Speaker? All it takes is a nomination and 218 votes [fn 1].

Good luck getting 218 votes together for anyone, especially with chief cat herder Ryan gone. And no Democrat, even Bernie, will get 218 votes. However if the 194 Democrats can get 24 Republicans to vote with them for a moderate Republican, that would work. And yes, there are still a few moderate Republicans alive.

Now, we are finally getting to the answer to your question. I would like to see Nancy Pelosi nominate Olympia Snowe as Speaker [fn 2].

Let me explain why I believe she is the best person for the job:
• We need someone to help heal our country; her feminine energy will be a major asset.
• She has enough experience in government to have more than a clue about what needs to be done.
• She is someone who can work with both sides of the aisle. She has literally written the book on making Congress functional again.
• She is a Republican, and that is very important for one reason. The next President is going to need to order a federal investigation of the 2016 election. When (not if) the evidence proves that the ballot count was tampered with, the President will need to issue an Executive Order declaring the election a fraud. If a Democrat did that, we would likely have a civil war.

What would be the result of such an EO? Legally nothing based on fraud can stand. That means all of Trump's EOs and appointments are null and void. The rules and regulations promulgated by the appointees would also be null and void. All of his judicial appointments, including Gorsuch, would be null and void [fn 3]. Yeah, we may even have a civil war even if a Republican President does this, but it is the quickest, simplest way to undo the damage Trump has done.

As for who would be the Vice President, I would recommend someone with experience in the two areas where Snowe could use the most help, defense and foreign policy. Colin Powell could be approved by both houses of Congress within a day.

Can you imagine a woman President and a black Vice President, and they are both Republicans. I can hear the trumptard heads exploding already.

That leaves us with one little bit of housekeeping. Remember the EO declaring fraud, and the way it nullifies everything that followed from the election? It will require a special task force to implement that. I can think of no one more qualified to head that task force than Barack Obama. I love the thought of Trump sitting in prison watching Obama systematically undo everything the traitor did.

One of my friends pointed out that Obama has too much class to take that job. That's fine. I'll gladly settle for Joe Biden.

Footnotes:

1. To qualify to be elevated to the presidency, the Speaker would still need to meet the Constitutional requirements for that office. That would rule out Bill Clinton, G.W. Bush and Barack Obama. I never believed I would say, nor how happy it makes me to say it, but G.W. Bush is actually overqualified to be President.
2. This would give Pelosi the place in history of nominating the first female President, while letting the Republicans claim having the first female president.
3. If Gorsuch were to challenge this, he would have to recuse himself and, with Kennedy gone, the vote would most probably be 4-3 sustaining the EO.

I would like to see Bernie as Vice President.
His presence is required to return the moral compass.

How old is Bernie Sanders? I feel a president can't be older than 70 providing he is in good health.

I lived in Maryland when OMalley was governor. Not sure he is strong enough nationally.

I like Martin O'Malley myself. He is young, energetic, working tirelessly for progressive candidates throughout the country for the past year. He is well spoken, seems like a fun guy to hang out with and needs to get more air time. I fought for Bernie the last time, and I like him and Elizabeth Warren as senators, but not sure either is the right person to take on Trump at this critical time in our democracy. I would love to have more background on Martin or see someone new take the lead. What I don't want is Hillary making another run for president. She let Trump and the Republicans override her entire campaign and did not have the strength to go toe to toe with the Orange Baboon!

Nothing is going to change as long as the republicans are in charge. With or without combover