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The question isn't whether a President McCain would have-in theory-have wanted to remove Saddam Hussein from power. The question is how high a priority that policy would have been for him. Many in the Bush administration were lobbying for an invasion of Iraq in the immediate aftermath of the...

The question here is who staffs the Bush administration. Cheney ran Bush's transistion. On a sub-cabinet level most of the appointments were selected by Cheney. Cheney also had a unique political philosophy that had tremendous influence on how the administration acted in the first term. In...

I'm not sure he would be able to head off Buchanan. Bush did the right thing in 1990-but a backlash from conservatives who always distrusted him was inevitable. Atwater can't have much influence on how Bush governs or what his policy priorities are. That's not how Bush saw Atwater. Atwater...

You could make an argument that Atwater would have made a difference in 1992 regardless of what he did in 1988. Bush did not think he could lose. He never took his opponents seriously. Atwater was reportedly aware in his dying days that Bush could be defeated and that Governor Clinton was...

If Bush had somehow won in 1992 would Byron White and Harry Blackman have remained on the Court?

Russia's corruption problem is on another level.

The problem with Russia in the EU isn't just traditional animosity between Russia and the rest of Europe. Nor is the problem the understandable reluctance of Eastern European member states to allow Russia in. The nature of the Russian state is a hindrance. Russia is far too corrupt and...

In terms of the original script didn't the Geek Chorus border on outright insulting the likely audience? The story structure in the original script didn't make a whole lot of sense. Arachne is an interesting idea for a villain-but the interlocking story thing is a bit too complicated to work...

The whole point of the Putin appointment was to ensure a successor who wouldn't send "The Family" to jail. By the end Yeltsin-or rather the Family since Yeltsin himself was non compos mentis much of the time-didn't care about anything else.

From the onset I'm presuming that Kennedy can't unseat Humphrey for the nomination-not even Daley's delegation would hand him the nomination. But Kennedy will be there. He's in a unique position as far as the chaos is concerned. His family had a long relationship with Mayor Daley dating back...

Let's imagine that the election in 1956 goes differently and Republicans regain the majority. LBJ is still around-but is relegated to the Minority Leader post. And yes I realize there was another thread with this idea in mind-but there the discussion skipped over the filibuster fight. In any...

Texas may have a right to break apart into a number of states without the input of Congress or other states if I remember correctly. Nightmare scenario for American liberalism-the remnants of Texas would likely be part of a dominant conservative block in the Senate. What is now Texas could have...

That seems way too fast considering Reagan could not pass his tax cuts that quickly-and he had a lot more influence than Ford did. Consider: A. Ford didn't win the popular vote B. His Party doesn't control either House C. The election was on all fronts other than the Presidential a...

The other issue is that early on Bush is going to be compelled to pass Reagan's tax plan. Reaganite tax cuts will be associated with Reagan in a way not even the great liberal accomplishments of the 1960's were associated with Kennedy. Reagan may therefore be remembered for inspiring the 1981...

What do you think the Dewey administration looks like in practice?

If Ford demanded a co-Presidency with Reagan in 1980 why wouldn't he make the same or a similar demand of President Bush less than a year later? Even if we presume that Ford would be dropped in 1984, a Co-Presidency is not the sort of thing I can see any President consenting to however brief...

Why would Ford accept the Vice Presidency in 1981 when he wouldn't in 1980? Ford had wanted a co-Presidency with Reagan. Ford planned to run foreign policy. But foreign policy is even more of interest to Bush than to Reagan. Bush doesn't have a domestic policy interest to fall back on if the...

Admittedly this is hard-given that FDR won in a landslide. But there is the possibility of a public health crisis that could have turned the tide in Dewey's direction. Let's say there's an obvious health crisis with FDR-while he recovers in time for there not to be much of an effect where...

Reagan's tax cuts are untouchable in Bush's first term once they pass. Bush does not have the trust of Conservatives which allowed Reagan to revisit the policy throughout his first term. Bush cares about deficits in a way neither Reagan nor his son did. Inevitably, this will mean marginally...

He loses because that's a midterm election in the Obama era.