If you were a king...

Most by laws have the president taking up responsibilities of absent positions, if the absentee cannot find a replacement themselves. The president could also appoint a temporary substitute.

I have worked for many very poor leaders.

I thought the primary job of the leader was to take credit for everything everyone else did?

I thought the leader always took responsibility for everything in his/her sphere of influence. That included the actions of subordinates. Politicians are not leaders, they are something completely different and are no different than the “class leaders” and such that you had in high school. In fact, a lot of the current crop of politicians probably were high school “class leaders”. That is where they seemed to have learned their techniques. :)