Goering is probably one of the most underestimated Nazi leaders.
If Hitler dies some time between 1936 and 1942, Goering would have been his successor and he would have held the same powers as Hitler.
Shortly after the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler signed a secret decree stating that in the event of his death, Goering would become his successor (Hess was never ever intended to succeed Hitler. After all, he hardly had any sort of personality). Goering was supported by the military (he was no
party hack), had some of the Gauleiters in his pocket (Terboven, the Gauleiter of Essen and Governor (Oberpräsident) of the Rhine Province, Erich Koch, Gauleiter of East Prussia and Oberpräsident of that same
province)) and was the most popular Nazi satrap among the German people.
As for Bormann, in 1937 he was a nonentity. He might have been the deputy to Hess, but that did not mean that much then. Bormann mainly
gained power during the war, when he was able to worm his way into
Hitler's confidence and shield him from outside influences.
As for Goering's morphine addiction, there is some indication to assume that
it was just a myth. The following excerpt from "The Devil's Disciples" by
Anthony Read seems to indicate that.
"The rumours were never substantiated: the popular image of Göring as a
drug-crazed junkie is pure myth. Göring did in fact develop a mild addiction
around this time -- to paracodeine pills, after they had been prescribed by
his dentist as a painkiller. He was soon taking about ten a day, and continued to pop them until he was a prisoner in Morndorf after the war,
by which time he was swallowing up to 100 a day with no ill effects.
Paracodeine, which had just been developed by a German pharmaceutical
firm, was a derivative of morphine, but contained so little of the drug that
it was virtually non-addictive.
The American psychiatrist at Morndorf, Dr Douglas M. Kelly, stated that
Göring's normal dose of about twenty each morning and night was the
equivalent between three and four grains of morphine. 'This is not an
unusually large dose,' he wrote. 'It was not enough to have affected
his mental processes at any time.' Kelly decided that Göring took the
pills as a habit much like smoking, partly to be doing something with
his hands and mouth, and that he gained no particular stimulation
from them. As proof of his this, he weaned him off them quite
painlessly in the course of a few days, something that would
have been quite impossible with a genuine addiction, as
Göring's own earlier experiences demonstrated." (pg. 438-439)
One should also add that during the Nuremberg tribunal, Göring was in top
form and was able to play the role of Nazi Number One. If he had just gotten off from being a junkie, he surely would not have been so energetic.
As for Göring being lazy, one should recall that Hitler also had quite a lazy day, yet no one here suggests that Hitler was a puppet. During the Nazi
seizure of power, Göring was one of the most energetic Nazis, taking
over the police in Prussia and crushing civil liberties there, and later
arranging the liquidation of the SA with Himmler and becoming the
dictator of the German economy.
In the early months of the war, when Hitler had left Berlin with his staff
to witness the conquest of Poland, Göring was also quite energetic when
he headed the Council of Ministers for the Defence of the Reich (Ministerrat
für die Reichsverteidigung), chairing various sessions to organise the German war economy and thus acting as a sort of pseudo Prime Minister.
However, admittedly the Defence Council soon fell into disarray, partly due
to Göring's autocratic style, partly because many of its members (Funk, Frick, Lammers) were simply becoming nonentities (Lammers kowtowed to
Bormann, who hated Göring, Frick was of no importance since Himmler headed the police), which is why later on Goebbels tried to reactivate the
council through a conspiracy with Göring and Speer in 1943.
His aim was to be appointed as Göring's deputy in the Defence Council, with
Speer, Ley and Himmler becoming members as well, in order to give the Defence Council the authority to manage the home front and the war
economy and thus reduce the influence of the Committee of Three, which
was formed by Bormann, Lammers and Keitel. Naturally the conspiracy failed
but that's a different story.
So Göring could have succeeded Hitler in 1937 and I am convinced that he
would have wielded power. His style was autocratic and he thought big,
though he left the micromanagament to others, which was both an asset
and a flaw.
One man who could rise high in a Reich ruled by Göring was Erhard Milch, the State Secretary in the Aviation Ministry and Göring's ally and rival.
Ribbentrop was a joke. In 1937 he was not even Foreign Minister. Everyone in the party leadership hated him. One of the few things Göring, Goebbels,
Bormann and Himmler could all agree on was that Ribbentrop was an idiot,
so he would not have risen high. One should not forget that until the
seizure of power Ribbentrop had no contact with the party and was, so to
speak, as a Johnny-come late type character.
Goebbels might have been a formidable propagandist and would be quite
important from 1943 to 1945, but at this time he no power base. As for
Himmler, he might have gained control over the police, but the Waffen-SS
and the economic empire of his Order was still quite small and I doubt the
others in the party would have accepted him.
People such as Himmler, Goebbels or Bormann would have also required far
more party hacks dying, especially Himmler or Bormann, who were connected to a specific bloc (Himmler to the SS, Bormann to the party
bureaucracy). Goering on the other hand represented the ideal candidate
on whom all could agree on.