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I also think JFK underperformed given the structural factors. I think LBJ would have won more convincingly.

The economy had already been through one recession and had hit another. The first of these had provided the Democrats with their best ever Senate result, and a very bad year for the Republicans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1958_United_States_Senate_elections On the back of that, you would...

It's possible that Reagan could have been impeached, but it's extremely unlikely that he could have been convicted and removed from office. It's important to remember that the Democrats didn't want to impeach Reagan - he was still relatively popular after the scandal broke, had only two years...

No, this is totally wrong . Healthcare was tackled as a priority because the early nineties recession had caused a lot of people to fall into serious problems with their health insurance. The genesis for Clinton adopting it so strongly was Carville working on Harris Wofford's upset of Dick...

Scalia was on the exact same page on civil rights as Bork, though, which the above quote makes clear. What exactly do you think he's talking about when he talks of the 'bad seed'? I think in a much more rigorous confirmation hearing, people would go to town on him on that kind of language. The...

This isn't really true. Scalia had called affirmative action 'the most evil fruit of a fundamentally bad seed' even before he was on the DC Court of appeals. He also had quite a paper trail on the court, including on gender and racial discrimination cases where he was sometimes in the minority...

This categorically was not the view at the time going into that election. 1959 was seen as winnable for Labour if not an election that they should win. The result was regarded as a surprise. Wilson would have his critics but he should be fine as far as retaining the leadership goes.

I agree that Greece should stay neutral, no benefit in getting directly involved in this clusterfuck. Play off both sides and line the old pockets, nyuk nyuk.

I think it was implicit that Healey would have only lead the party into the next election had he become leader - he was in his late sixties and would be seventy by the time of the election after that. A defeat would also still be a defeat, and nobody would have a looking glass on to our world...

He did try to run in OTL and dropped out very early because he was going nowhere. So the answer to this thread is - OTL.

No.

In terms of political ability, Ferraro was fine and actually was quite skilful, and she would probably would have done better at the top of the ticket than Walter Mondale did - her main drag factor was the John Zaccaro tax issue, but that was resolved fairly quickly. Comparing her to Palin is...

This is a good shout, but I'm doubtful Bumpers would have ever run - he gave consideration to running for the 1988 nomination as well, and passed that up also. A lot of people - and families as well - just don't like putting their life on hold for a full year of campaigning, and I suspect...

I don't mean more 'hawkish', I just mean that Bush had some diplomatic finesse which another leader might have lacked. Bush went to significant lengths to publicly support Gorbachev and in some ways support the integrity of the USSR as a unit - I'm not sure I see another leader giving the Kiev...

I see even less possibility of divergence on Germany btw. Bush was genuinely personally supportive and did a good job of balancing the Soviet sensibilities on the issue, but at the end of the day, supporting reunification sat within a very well-established policy of the US of supporting western...

I don't think a huge amount would change on Tiananmen with a different president. It's true that Congressional Democrats pushed hard and early for a very hawkish line, but doubtless this was heavily influenced by the party compositions involved. With a Democratic President, Congress would take...

IMO this is similar to what used to be a theological mainstay with a lot of people on this site back in the day; that the Republicans only ever nominate the runner-up of the previous contest. Which held perfectly until four years ago, when Rick Santorum not only didn't become the nominee, he...

Dubya was happy to tout his gubernatorial record, so I think that answers any notion of the nature of the Texas gubnorship and nomination issues. Richards has a bigger issue in just surviving in that post, IMO. Clayton Williams and a decent Libertarian performance eased her into that job in a...

That's most certainly not a good way, given she wasn't on Clinton's shortlist, and in any case you then go into the follow-on of how she becomes president from being VP. As noted, her most likely opportunity, without a great deal of divergence heavy lifting, is an alternate 96, but that itself...

The only way I see Paul getting a senate nomination is absent a primary runoff system, and in a heavily divided field where he comes in with a plurality below thirty percent of the vote. But Texas had a very well-established system of runoffs, at least as far back as 'Landslide Lyndon'. Nowhere...