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David Stephens Palmer (June 12, 1952-October 23, 2007), better known as David Palmer served as the nation's 44th President of the United States from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2005. He was the first African American elected to the nation's highest office in the 2000 presidential election defeating Republican nominee, incumbent President Harold Barnes in one of the largest margins of victories: 60 percent to 35 percent, carrying 40 out of 50 states. He didn't seek reelection in 2004 following the death of his ex-wife, Sherry Palmer including the murder cover-up of Palmer's campaign contributor, Allen Milliken as well as the blackmail from his Republican opponent, United States Senator John Keeler of Minnesota.

Palmer retired from political office upon leaving the presidency and began working on construction of his presidential library in Annapolis, Maryland including his memoirs on his entire political career, when he was assassinated in Los Angeles, California on October 23, 2007. His death shocked not only the nation, but the entire world, majority of whom revered him as one of the most popular Presidents in American history. His body laid in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda for two days from October 27-29, 2007 until funeral services at the Washington Cathedral on October 29, 2007 and after funeral services, Palmer was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia with full military honors and a 21-gun salute, making him the third U.S. President following William Howard Taft and John F. Kennedy to be buried there.

Early Years
David Stephens Palmer was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to the parents of Douglas Wayne and Annette Gunderson-Palmer, who were hard-working parents. His father, Douglas was a World War II veteran having served in the United States Marine Corps for six years as a commissioned officer with the rank of Captain. His mother, Annette, was a school teacher in the Philadelphia School District-both were graduates of Grambling State University. Following David's birth, the family moved to Baltimore, Maryland in 1955. The Palmer family also included his younger brother, Wayne and sister, Sandra.

He graduated from Frederick Douglas High School in Northwestern Baltimore in 1970 and later enlisted into the United States Marine Corps following high school graduation during the Vietnam War conflict, serving active duty until his honorable discharge in 1975. He later re-enlisted in the Marines, serving in the Reserve Unit until 1981 with the rank of Captain. Palmer continued his education at Georgetown University, where he excelled in the Georgetown Men's Basketball team-playing on the undergraduate team with his future political rival, Larry Bell. Palmer was responsible for a decisive victory against De Paul University, and helped lead the team to the NCAA Elite Eight.

After graduation from Georgetown, Palmer also graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1982. He also married his childhood sweetheart, Sherry Hawkins, whom he married in 1975 and the couple would be blessed with two children: son, Keith Palmer and daughter, Nicole Palmer. They were married for 25 years until their divorce following the 2000 presidential election campaign.

Before venturing on a political career, Palmer worked at the Baltimore law firm, Fidley, Barrow & Bain-Attorneys At Law for several years.

Maryland House of Delegates
In 1984, Palmer ran for a seat on the Maryland House of Delegates for the 10th District and was elected. He served three two-year terms from 1985 until 1991 and was re-elected in 1986 and 1988. He was a member of the Appropriations Committee and it's public safety & administration subcommittee. He provided leadership through the Legislative Policy, Spending Affordability, Rules and Nominations and Legislative Ethics Committees and was also a member of the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland. From 1989 to 1991, Palmer served as Speaker Pro Tem of the House of Delegates, gaining statewide acclaim with bipartisan support of law-and-order measures such as tougher enforcement of the state's borders regarding illegal immigration, defending capital punishment along other works of bipartisanship.

U.S. House of Representatives
In 1990, Palmer decided to take his political talents to a higher level by running for the U.S. House of Representatives for Maryland's 1st District, despite not living in the district and critics accusing Palmer of "carpet-bagging", he won the election with 72 percent of the vote and was re-elected in 1992 with 84 percent. While in Congress, Palmer supported President George H.W. Bush's decision to go to war against [Iraq]] in Gulf Desert Storm and sponsored legislation such as Ethics Reform, improvement of America's education system from private to public schools. He was the chairman of the House Ethics Committee from 1991 to 1994, and was also a member of the House Ways and Means Committee and House National Security Subcommittee. By this time, Palmer was quickly becoming a rising star on the national scene and fellow Democrats in Maryland and across the country began to take notice of Palmer's achievements in the House and his previous service in the Maryland House of Delegates. Palmer began traveling across the country, campaigning aggressively for then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 including doing a keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in New York City, New York State.

Palmer then decided to return home to Maryland and announced on July 10, 1993, that he would run for the United States Senate in the 1994 elections.

United States Senator
In 1994, Palmer was elected under the Democratic Party banner (during the Republican landslide of 1994 due to backlash of Clinton's push for Health Care Reform and other liberal initiatives), defeating the Republican nominee, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Bill Brock in a double-digit landslide margin: Palmer received 809,125 votes and (59.1%) while Brock garnered 559,908 votes and (41.9%) and took office on January 3, 1995.

While in the Senate, Palmer served on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senate Commerce Committee, and Senate Special Defense Appropriations Committee, where he served as chairman of this committee. He also published an Op-Ed of the New York Times called, "Serb Intransience and European Destabilization" on foreign affairs. Senator Palmer authorized a secret mission, codenamed Operation Nightfall, to eliminate Balkan war criminal Victor Drazen. The mission was organized by NSA operative Robert Ellis and carried out by a small team led by Jack Bauer.

During his 10 years on Capitol Hill in both the House and Senate, Palmer also met with Charles and Martha Logan. Charles had been elected to the United States Senate from California in 1998 defeating incumbent Barbara Boxer after serving four years as Lieutenant Governor of California. Even though Palmer and Logan strongly disagreed politically, he and Martha became very close friends. He also campaigned for Gray Davis's successful campaign for the California Governor's Mansion in the 1998 elections (and his successful reelection in 2002 when Palmer was President) including holding fundraisers and campaign events for fellow Democrats Jim Hodges of South Carolina, Roy Barnes of Georgia, and Don Siegelman of Alabama, all three won their respective state governorships. His popularity at home in Maryland was over 71% (according to state polling firms), who rated him as Maryland's most popular United States Senator, it was also the same time at the end of the 1998 midterm elections that Palmer's name began to be talked about as a possible White House contender for the 2000 elections. Despite Palmer's earlier denials of running for the presidency after only one six-year term in the Senate, Palmer then traveled to the primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Florida, California, Michigan, Ohio and Virginia.

On August 13, 1999, while speaking on the grounds of the Maryland State House in Annapolis, Maryland, Palmer announced his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States for the 2000 elections.

2000 presidential campaign
While campaigning for the presidency, Palmer began facing death threats, including threats to his political career as well. His son, Keith was shown to be a suspect in the murder of a man, who had raped Palmer's daughter, Nicole and Keith's sister. Palmer investigated, but found that telling the truth was preferable to covering it up with lies and took a stand in favor of his son. However, he found out that his wife, Sherry, was trying to manipulate him, both in that potential scandal and another that Sherry tried to create. David was furious with Sherry and he lunged at her, is if to strike her, but was held back by Mike Novick, Palmer's political adviser and campaign manager. By the end of Super Tuesday, Palmer had won all eleven states including California, Ohio and New York. This was part of the California Presidential Primary.

Few months later, Palmer won the Democratic nomination for President and went on to defeat Republican incumbent, President Harry Barnes by a landslide margin: 60% to 35%. Palmer also carried key states of the nation that had been held by the opposition for a long time: Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, Indiana, Oklahoma and Texas. He also named fellow U.S. Senator James Prescott of New Mexico as his Vice President. In mid-November 2000, President-Elect Palmer announced that after 25 years of marriage, he would be divorcing his wife, Sherry due to strained differences. Upon leaving his Senate seat, Palmer was succeeded by Paul Sarbanes, who won a fourth term to his old Senate seat that he had held from 1977-1995.

President of the United States
On January 20, 2001, Palmer was inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, making him the nation's first African American president. He thanked his predecessor, former President Barnes for a smooth transition and wished him well in retirement and also thanked his family for standing by him during a long and difficult campaign. During his inaugural speech, Palmer emphasized his promise to bring commitment and honor to the office. At the inaugural ball, Martha Logan was one of the first people that David asked out to dance.

He also named Mike Novick as White House Chief of Staff, Lynne Kresge served as a Chief Aide to the President, Roger Stanton as NSA Director, Eric Rayburn as NSA Deputy Director, Jenny Dodge served as White House Press Secretary, Joseph McLaughlin was named to serve as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security and Alex Rubinstein as U.S. Secretary of State, who was later replaced by William Nolan. Among the accomplishments of the Palmer administration, major piece of legislation included the following: Defense Appropriations Bill, Social Security Bill, "Clean Energy" proposal, Health Care Reform (that was being filibustered) and Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act.

However, Palmer's presidency wasn't without controversies: eight months into his first year in office, Palmer began facing mutiny at all fronts including NSA Director Stanton, Chief of Staff Novick and Vice President Prescott, all conspiring to use the 25th Amendment to remove Palmer from office because of his belief that the Cyprus recording may have been forged, and his refusal to authorize military action because of it. After being removed from office by several of his cabinet members, Palmer was escorted to a holding room by Secret Service agent Aaron Pierce and Prescott was later sworn-in as the acting president.

Palmer was reinstated as President after Prescott and other cabinet members, who voted against him offered to tender their resignations, but Palmer refused and dismissed the Cabinet by telling them they had work to do. During a press conference in Los Angeles, Palmer told the American people that the crisis was over and everything was back to normal, because freedom of America was the only thing that can defeat their enemies in the long term. As he finished his speech, the crowd erupted into cheers. He passed through them, shaking their hands. He came upon Mandy, who weaved her way to the front of the crowds, adamant to shake the President's hand. She feigned support him, and had a lingering shake of his hand. He passed onwards, and she slunk out of the masses.

Palmer then reached to the Presidential Limousine at the side of the street, and waved the crowds before getting in. As he lowered his hand, Palmer began to sigh heavily, clearly affected by something. Jenny Dodge stared on as he looked towards his hand, the same one that had just been shaken by Mandy, and saw it had deep boils covering it. He looked out to the crowds one last time before his knees gave in and he fell to the floor. Screams erupted in the crowds and Palmer lost consciousness. Secret Service agents searched all directions for a possible threat to the President, unaware that he had been poisoned by a member of the crowd. Jenny Dodge crouched over him, trying to get the President to respond to her questions about his well being. Soon after the assassination attempt, Prescott was then sworn-in again as acting president during Palmer's incapacitation until an assassination attempt took place against Prescott, which resulted in Palmer being reinstated as President.

No second term
Palmer was facing reelection against the Republican nominee, U.S. Senator John Keeler and participated in the first of three debates with Keeler, which the first presidential debate was held on the campus of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. During their first televised debate, a nationwide crisis developed centering around a bio-terrorist mastermind, Stephen Saunders, who eventually held the country hostage with the highly lethal Cordilla Virus. President Palmer was force to endanger his bid for a second term in office, and found himself beholden to the demands of the terrorist in order to buy CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) desperately needed time to stop Saunders. At the same time, his presidency was challenged by Allan Milliken, a former political supporter. When Palmer called in his ex-wife, Sherry to help with the situation, Sherry took it one step further by causing Milliken's death of a heart attack by not allowing his wife, Julia from giving him his pills.

When Sherry went to Keeler's campaign headquarters and gave him critical information that Palmer had covered up Sherry's involvement in Milliken's death, Keeler then confronted the President with this information and tells him he knows Palmer lied to the Chief of Police about Sherry;s whereabouts, making him complicit in Milliken's murder. He produces an image of the bottle of medicine, belonging to Milliken, with Sherry's fingerprints on it. Keeler then asked for Palmer's resignation, but the President tells him to leave. Keeler then said, "I'm offering you the chance to leave office with honor, to control how your legacy is written. It's a good deal, David. You should take it."

Upon Sherry's death (following being shot to death by Milliken's wife, Julia, who then killed herself), Palmer decided he will not seek reelection. Following Palmer's shocking withdrawal, the Democratic Party went into turmoil and handpicked Vice President James Prescott as the party's standard bearer. Prescott went on to lose the general election by a landslide margin to Keeler on November 2, 2004.

Post-Presidency
Upon leaving the presidency on January 20, 2005 following Keeler's inauguration, Palmer started holding fundraisers with private donors on building a presidential library for him, where Americans would remember his extraordinary legacy: The David Palmer Presidential Museum in Annapolis, Maryland on the campus of the United States Naval Academy.

He also kept close friendships with most of his political allies within both political parties and was looking forward to enjoying retirement until tragedy struck. On April 5, 2006, President Keeler was critically injured upon an assassination attempt, which incapacitated him in the aftermath of Air Force One being shot down over the Mojave Desert outside of Los Angeles, California--later crashing and killing most of its passengers including Keeler's son, Kevin: this resulted in Charles Logan becoming the nation's 46th President.

Upon hearing the news of Keeler's incapacitation, longtime friend Mike Novick recommended that Palmer should be brought into the White House in assisting Logan, who had shown poor judgment abilities; demanding the arrest of Jack Bauer, who at the time was staging a critical operation to apprehend the architect of that day's terrorist activities. The operation failed as a result of Logan's poor decision making, and Palmer was brought in shortly thereafter and effectively led the country in the last part of the day. Logan, however, was less gracious in accepting the help (both Palmer and Logan served together in the U.S. Senate), as he blamed Palmer when things went wrong, but took full credit when things went his way.

Assassination
Focusing on how he wanted to be remembered, Palmer started writing his memoirs with the help of his brother and former White House Chief of Staff, Wayne Palmer. On October 22, 2007, he arrived in Los Angeles to meet with him and continue working on them. That same night, he contacted Martha Logan (Logan's wife, the First Lady). He told her he wanted to speak to her about a matter of national security that might concern her husband, President Logan. They agreed to meet some time.

On the morning of October 23, 2007, at 7:03 A.M. (Pacific Standard Time), while writing his memoirs at his brother's penthouse apartment in 34012 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, Palmer was assassinated by a sniper named Conrad Haas from an adjacent building with a .308 round to the throat. He died instantly at the age of 55.

It was later revealed that Palmer had attempted to contact Martha, a good friend of Palmer's, with the intent of talking to her about a "matter of national security." This knowledge was what led to his assassination. Initially, Logan's Chief of Staff, Walt Cummings and James Nathanson were revealed as being complicit in the murder, but later it was discovered that Christopher Henderson arranged for the death, to prevent the First Lady from finding out that her husband, President Charles Logan was arranging to sell Sentox nerve gas to Dawn Brigade separatists led by Vladimir Bierko. (Over the next few years it was discovered that several other power brokers were behind the killing, including Graem Bauer and Alan Wilson.) The next morning, October 24th, Logan gave a filmed, faux eulogy remembering Palmer at the sendoff ceremony on a military base outside of Los Angeles. Logan was immediately arrested afterwards by the Secret Service due to evidence incriminating him in the assassination, which was obtained thanks to the efforts of Jack Bauer, Martha Logan, Mike Novick, Chole O'Brian, Morris O'Brian and Aaron Pierce. Logan was led to his limousine as Palmer was given a 21-gun salute before being placed on a plane headed for Washington, D.C.

State Funeral & Other Ceremonies
Once Palmer's casket arrived at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland later that evening, the body was removed from the plane and driven in a 60-mile-per-hour motorcade, by hearse, to the Maryland State House in Annapolis.

Palmer's casket, a Marsellus Masterpiece model, was carried by a military honor guard representing all branches of the United States Armed Forces into the rotunda of the statehouse to lie in repose. There, a private brief family service was conducted by Bishop Joel Harley Lyles, Jr., of the Greater Maryland First Jurisdiction and senior pastor of Emmanuel Ministries COGIC of Baltimore, where Palmer worshipped. When the prayer service concluded, the Palmer family approached the flag-draped casket, where Nicole Palmer (Palmer's daughter) laid her head on it. After the family left, the doors of the statehouse opened, and the public began filing in at a rate of 2,000 an hour throughout the night. In all, about 109,000 people visited the statehouse rotunda to see the casket.

Departure to Washington
On October 26, Palmer's casket was removed from the statehouse and driven in a 30-mile motorcade to Washington, D.C., driven by hearse in a procession through the Maryland and Virginia suburbs and the nation's capital, across the Memorial Bridge, and onto Constitutional Avenue.

Near the Elipse, and within sight of the White House, the hearse halted and Palmer's body was transferred to a horse-drawn caisson for the procession down Constitutional Avenue to Capitol Hill. Nicole and Keith Palmer stepped out of the family limousine to witness the body's transfer; they were met with warm greetings, including applause. The cortege began the 45 minute journey just after 6:00 P.M. (EST), with the Palmer family following in limousines. Military units escorted the caisson as it made its way to the sounds of muffled drums. Behind the caisson was a riderless horse named Sergeant York, carrying Palmer's riding boots reversed in the stirrups. The caisson paused at 4th street and Constitutional Avenue, where 21 Air Force F-15's from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina flew over in missing man formation.