Again, you are not willing to let go of the Shia perpective.
Do you base your beliefs on the Quran and Sunnat as understood in the light of Quran or do you base it on the 'popular' stories?
hadith
whose 12er or sunni as to you sunni hadith on leadership are useless and vice versa....according to sunni hadith Prophet predicted 30yr righteous caliphate then kingship and told muslims to follow his righteous caliphs
Quran
by itself Quran does not name anyone as successor of Prophet , there might be some indirect hints of method of leadership but without backing them with hadith no person can be judged as successor.so Quran alone cannot be used
"popular stories"
what do u mean by that are u discrediting all historians as story tellers ? or only those who dont conform with your views