Before I explore this, I feel obligated to say that even for a show conceived mainly from Rhimes’ imagination, none of the politicians on the show would get my vote of confidence if they ran for office in the real world. With the exception of David Rosen (Joshua Malina) and his bleeding heart of gold, all of the people in power on Scandal are corrupt, with many of them resorting to murder in order to get the job done. Mellie is not immune to this. She helped rig the election in her then-husband’s favor. She got pregnant and then induced her labor early in an attempt to control her husband’s infidelity, all the while marketing the unborn child as “America’s Baby.” She’s ordered or supported the execution of a few people and often lets her own stubbornness cloud her judgement. So technically, no, she isn’t the person that we would want ruling the “free world.”