Recent content by BlackMage

Thanks, Thunderbolt and Syphon! And yes, Thunderbolt, I must admit I was inspired to start writing this again based on Katter's Australian Party - it's rather eerie to see a similar conservative-cum-populist movement rise in the Deep North. The KAP have probably been butterflied away after...

Two and a half years after the last post, I'm bumping this because: a) I think it's a good story, and want some of the newcomers to the board to have a chance to see it, and b) I'm working on a sequel! 12 Cases, building out of an obscure aside in one of the middle chapters, explores the...

Awesome TL; I'm really looking forward to how this develops. But while everyone speculates on a '96 run, keep in mind that Perot promised, in OTL 1992, to serve only one term in office (Milwaukee Sentinel, October 16, 1992). Perhaps he might not make that exact promise given the POD, but it's...

The Office (US) stars Martin Short as Michael Scott. Cancelled after six episodes. EDIT: On grounds that The Daily Show with Craig Kilborn would never, ever have given Steve Carell the exposure he needed to launch his career.

Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, Jesse Jackson, George Wallace, Lester Maddox, and Ralph Nader from amongst those who actually ran. The key criteria in each case are inexperience and personality. None would have any idea how to get a domestic agenda through Congress, and none showed, at any point in...

I'm really enjoying this -- a POD I've always been interested in, well-told and very detailed. Please, keep up the good work.

I'll be watching this TL very, very eagerly -- even though I'm not around here as often as I used to be. I wrote a story about an Andalusian colony in the New World (on the Mississippi), where Cordoban cosmopolitanism expands to take in all the faiths of the world -- non-People of the Book...

I actually really like this idea. There's no need to reboot it back beyond Doctor Doom, or to eliminate concepts which weren't 'there' in 1962. Because, honestly: if you have a choice between the Mole Man and Doctor Doom as your villain, you've got to go with the Doc. Sadly, Hans Moleman has...

How about a biography of Rice, then? pp.40-41 of Condoleezza Rice: a biography by Jacqueline Edmondson, available on Google Books. Or an article in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-487153/Blindsided-or-blind-Highly-qualified.html. Or the New York Times...

Gary Hart says differently: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/04/02/hart/index.html I thought so. Now the backdrop here is that I'd known Condi Rice for about 20 years. She supported me in my presidential effort in 1984. She later said she changed parties in the early '80s, but I know she...

You need a personality-based POD, because beyond a bit of speculation in 2005, and again in 2008 during McCain's veep picks, Rice has never expressed even the slightest interest in running for any elected office. She's a brilliant academic and policy wonk, not a politician, and I've never seen...

The year was '02. Old Georgie Bush was in the White House, nickels have pictures of bumblebees on them, the cable networks were speculating as to the prospect of war with Iraq, I was in shorter pants than now... ...and John McCain was the Republican you could take home to your lesbian vegan...

No, he lacked the main advantage of Palin, which is that she's very charming, inspired the conservative base (to a far greater extent than Romney, the pick of the conservative establishment) and managed to temporarily throw the Obama campaign for a loop. His disadvantages include a record of...

Obama won 365 electoral votes, and 53% of the popular vote. So, any 'McCain wins' scenario has to involve a 100-EV swing against Obama, and probably a 5% popular vote swing. Now, explain to me how Mitt Romney -- a fantastically unlikeable man, with no appeal to independents or Democrats...

'More tea, Frankie?' 'Damnit, witch, let me be!' He wheels himself over to the window, looking out at bleak and barren 1953 beyond. Born to wealth and fortune, he has inherited -- this. A convalescent existence in a retirement home for those in penury, abandoned by his family and friends, his...