But since then he has insured that no obvious successor emerges.

He has no obvious successor, and the American economy is likely to worsen before the election.

This, however, left the convention wide open: there was no obvious successor to Cleveland.

Truman dropped out of the presidential race early in 1952, leaving no obvious successor.

The officials said, however, that there was no obvious successor.

There was no obvious successor to the popular premier.

I'm getting old, you see, and an obvious successor has yet to appear.

It was not till now that he had found his obvious successor.

Inevitably, there'd be talk of a challenge, but there's no obvious successor.

Each of them thought that they would have been (or were) Wingate's obvious successor.