alternatehistory.com

April 1st, 1988


A quick look at how each party is dealing with the lead up to the Colorado caucuses on April 4th...


"Jesse, I don't know how much longer we can keep this campaign afloat. We are hemorrhaging money!" Gerald Austin was running his hands through his hair. He had just gotten off the phone with another influential donor who was pulling support from the Jackson camp. Once the big fish started leaving the pond, the pond itself usually dried up, and it was a sad sight to see that the first had just swam off in the direction of Hart.


"Presumptive nominee? That's what we are calling him now. We might as well say it out loud, because that's what we are all thinking. Hart has become the elephant in the room, and it is time to acknowledge his presence." Austin was taken aback by Jackson's straightforwardness. Jackson was a natural realist, but he was also stubborn; Austin knew how hard it was for Jackson to admit when things weren't going his way.


"That is the reality, but not all is lost. We can still use our delegates to get some leverage--" Jackson raised a hand to silence Austin. Austin had worked next to Jackson long enough to know that when the hand came up, it was time to listen.


"Give me until Wisconsin. Can you keep me alive that long?" Austin looked down at his shrinking list of major donors; it was thanks to the Rainbow Coalition that they were able to keep up the advertisements that they had, but that alone couldn't sustain them for long.


"The operation will have to move to a skeleton crew, but yes, we can keep up until then. What do you have in mind?" Jackson shared a knowing smile, a grin that divulged that he had concocted a plan.


"Colorado is Hart's home state, so it's time to abandon it. We are moving all of our efforts to Wisconsin. It's a state that I can win - we can play the exact same cards that we did in Michigan." Austin still wasn't sure.


"Jesse, that's a Pyrrhic victory. What's it matter if we've got a couple more delegates? We're flat broke."


"It's not about the delegates." Jackson said with the same confident grin. "It's about the leverage."


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April 2nd, 1988


The television screen flashed as the commercial began.


"When you consider who you want to represent the Republican Party in this year's presidential election, who do you want? A lifelong loser? Or a proven winner?"


"You could choose Senator Bob Dole, who, as the Vice Presidential nominee in 1976 under Gerald Ford, almost single handedly caused the defeat of the Republican ticket for President in that election."


"You could choose Vice President Bush, who was easily defeated in the 1980 primaries and rode the coattails of President Reagan into the White House."


"Or, you could choose a winner, Senator Dan Quayle. In his political career, Quayle has won every election that he has run for, both in the House of Representatives and in the Senate. He is a proven conservative with an impressive track record of succeeding at every level."


"Don't pick a loser. Vote for the natural born winner. Vote for Quayle."


Jerry Falwell chuckled.


"Very good." he said with a sneer. "I want this on every television in Colorado and Wisconsin, as soon as possible, God willing."


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