Jim Thompson defines a President

I read a story one time about a fellow that was accidentally slipped into a big job; president of a company or something like that. He looked like the guy that actually was president, see, and when this guy ran off or fell in a mudhole or something and wasn´t ever seen again, why this one hooked his place. He didn´t know beans about the business, and all he planned on doing was to stick around long enough to snap a few rubber checks and maybe get the other guy´s gal alone in the parlor for a while. But once he got inside, the graft looked so good that he decided to stay for a real milking. He was scared out of his pants, naturally, because he didn´t know any more about the setup than a hog does about ice skates. But he ran a bluff, and damned if he didn´t make good on it.
His work was just cut out for him, see what I mean? The stenographers would bring him letters to sign, and he´d just sign´em. And when he got any letters, his vice-presidents or some of his secretaries would take charge of them. And when people showed up for conferences all he had to do was keep his eyes and ears open, and he could see what he had to do. He didn´t have to move. He got moved. As I remember the yarn, he wound up by getting made president of a lot of other companies and marrying the other guy´s gal, and no one ever knew the difference.

Jim Thompson in Nothing more than murder.

It somehow made me think of President Bush jr.