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I like it a lot. It's a cultural POD, not a 'great battles or votes' one, and I very much like the thought that's gone into how it pans out. Keenir's right, I think I would like to live there. Nice manipulation of language, too.

They weren't who I was aiming for; instead, Jordan, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman, who have superficially similar constitutions to Morocco. If Morocco can prove a reasonably stable democracy, it may serve as an example to liberals within the region -- even those who 'hate Morocco' in OTL. In the same...

Precisely. For this scenario to be realistic, Morocco has to liberalise to a great extent. As in, democracy, free speech, open markets... ...which is, in itself, a good POD, for what it would represent to the Muslim world. If Morocco develops into a Westminster-style parliamentary democracy (I...

Everything that's been written so far is, pretty much, spot on, and I can't quibble with it -- the detail, in particular, is great. But I don't think Henry Cabot Lodge would run in 1968, nor could he win -- especially against Kennedy. He'd be 68, which would make him, I think, the oldest...

OK, history as normal to 1967, but Robert Kennedy enters the race earlier, taking the 'Eugene McCarthy' role. He manages to defeat Johnson (as opposed to merely embarrass him, as in OTL) in the New Hampshire primary, forcing him out of the race, and manages to gain enough institutional support...

JFK was heavily favoured to win even before he died -- polling showed he was preferred to any Republican nominee, except Romney, in North Dakota, of all places. Landslide, not of the same proportions as Johnson, but only because it could hardly have gotten bigger.

Very interesting scenario -- I can't believe it never got noticed, before. (I was in New Zealand, so I'm exempt.) My main problem with the TL is the rate of turnover and 'second chances'. JFK probably wouldn't be given a second chance in 1964, if he lost; it would be considered just another...

I quote all of these because there's a general consensus in this thread that the only way Al-Andalus can survive is to destroy anyone who could possibly pose a threat -- that is to say, to keep on expanding. Is that really so inevitable, though? The convenienca within Al-Andalus allowed for...

Well, in an admittedly speculative mode, Hendrik Hertzberg speculates that if Ronald Reagan had, in fact, been selected by the Democratic leadership in Los Angeles for a congressional seat in 1952 (this actually happened; it's mentioned in An American Life, I think), he could have become...

Very interesting scenario, but would Umayyad Spain really colonise America to the same extent as the Spanish? Would it have the same expansionist drive as the Spanish Empire did, considering different cultures and different national histories? And would the Umayyads react in a similar way to...

Bump. Anyone have any more thoughts on this?

Scenario No. 1: In 1991, just after the Gulf War when H W Bush was at his height, there was speculation that he would drop Dan Quayle from the ticket and replace him with Dick Cheney, or another prominent figure, instead. See here. (Particularly ironic in light of future developments is the...

Well, yes. Libertarian-leaning, perhaps, in the tradition of Ed Clark if not Murray Rothbard. Are they really such a key factor, though? They lack a clearly defined base, in the sense that the religious right possess a voter base through evangelicals, and fiscal conservatives possess solid...

I mean 'libertarian' not in the sense of 'large-L' libertarian, but in the sense that he's socially liberal, which can't be debated, and that he's economically conservative, which his record on trade and tax cuts would seem to confirm.

OK, I've been thinking about this a bit more, and this is how it could go down: September 2003: Anti-war Republican congressman Ron Paul declares a challenge to George Bush. He is generally dismissed as a gadfly, and he struggles to build a network of support. November 2003: Ron Paul manages...

Please tell me you just made an unfortunate typo there.

Two points to raise here, that I only just remembered: An archive of polling can be found at http://pollingreport.com/iraq15.htm. In October 2003 (the latest such a campaign could begin), 64% of the population opposed the $87 billion Iraq supplemental, 53% of the population stated that they...

And, as it turns out, Lincoln Chafee is pro-gay marriage... And New Hampshire, the most libertarian state in the US, is the first primary...

Arthur. Taft. Truman. Johnson. (Ford.) (Carter.) There were even rumours that Bob Kerrey or Dick Gephardt would challenge Bill Clinton in 1996, and he wasn't, uh, Bush. See here. Also, Bob Casey, senior, would have challenged Clinton on a pro-life platform if his health hadn't...

Well, Hagel only turned on the Iraq War in 2005, according to Wiki. So he'd have to turn against Iraq much earlier in order to run. The only Republican senator who voted against the War was Lincoln Chafee, who is not your typical Republican. I think a run by a retired general is most likely --...