1988 election

There are many threads on Bush winning reelection in 1992, but I've seen few where there are discussions on how the Bush presidency could be different. The purpose of this thread is to list and discuss PODs for how a HW Bush presidency could be different from OTL, PODs that either benefit or...

Would he still win? If so, would he win reelection in 1992? What would the election of 1992 be like?

An Convenient Truth Presidency of Albert Gore Jr. 1988 Democratic Primaries: On April 11, 1987, Senator Gore of Tennessee announced his candidacy. Gore's campaign was 39 years old making his the youngest serious candidate for the White House since JFK. In contrast to JFK, Gore was a southern...

Al Gore Senator of Tennessee elected in 1984, and previously served in the Congress and a Vietnam War veteran. In 1988 he was a Southern Conservative Democrat who opposed federal funding abortion and seemed to set himself up as a counter to the wide arrange of liberal Democrats like Michael...

Let’s say for one reason or another Lee Atwater never becomes involved in the 1988 presidential campaign. Maybe he dies early or Bush rejects him. Without Atwater, does Bush win?

"I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university like Kinnock? Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college? Is it because our fathers and mothers were...

TEACH YOUR PARENTS - A WALTER MONDALE 1984 TIMELINE BASIC PODS: Reagan fires Volcker appoints Greenspan to chair the Federal Reserve in 1980. The economy doesn’t recover like it does OTL, because the Early 1980s recession, having levels of unemployment nationally of 15%, roughly 5% higher...

In the run up to the 1988 US Presidential Election, New Jersey Senator and former New York Knicks player Bill Bradley was widely considered a serious contender for POTUS. However, he ultimately declined to run stating that he "would know when he was ready." Bradley then served in the US Senate...

I've been considering doing a timeline about a successful assassination of Reagan in 1981 lately, and while I do have a variety of questions regarding an ATL 80's, one of my biggest is who would run and win in the 1988 election. Bush's VP (whoever it is, most likely either Jack Kemp, Howard...

Just the other day, I was watching this Netflix documentary (which I wholeheartedly recommend) on the life of the late Sen. Beau Biden and his run in 2016. While watching it however, I couldn't help but think about the similarities between he and his father's run in 1988, how both of them were...

OK, so Rev. Jesse Fucking Jackson. The best thing to come out of South Carolina since Mt. Rushmore. One of the U.S.'s best fucking Presidents, and not just because he became America's first AA leader just 24 years after the Civil Rights Act was passed. He and VP Ted Kennedy (RIP) did some...

Suppose that a Democrat is elected President in 1988. (It doesn't have to be Dukakis. It could be Gore, Gephardt, and anyone else who failed in the primaries or didn't run IOTL). Does Ross Perot still run for President in 1992 (or 1996 for that matter)? If so, does he run as an independent or as...

The 1988 election is infamous in American politics. Despite an early 17% lead Michael Dukakis lost in a landslide to George H.W. Bush. Dukakis' defeat badly demoralized Democrats and discredited liberalism for decades. In your opinion, which Democrat besides Dukakis would've made the strongest...

Apparently Clinton came very close to changing his mind about running in 1988. Suppose he doesn't run for President that year after all. Who wins the Democratic nomination, and how do they do in the general?

Suppose that Michael Dukakis, as originally expected, had defeated George H.W. Bush in 1988. This likely butterflies away a Bill Clinton administration. What would America be like without Bill Clinton's presidency?

The 1988 election was the closest Presidential contest since 1960. New York Governor Mario Cuomo defeated Vice-President George Bush by a margin of 280 to 258 in the electoral college, and only 49.6% to 49.4% in the popular vote. What could Bush have done differently to beat Cuomo in 1988?

Today, Gary Hart is mostly remembered for the infamous Donna Rice affair that torpedoed his 1988 Presidential candidacy. But he previously ran in 1984, and came close to defeating Walter Mondale for the Democratic nomination. What if Hart had been nominated instead? Would the result have been...

In 1988, Vice-President George Bush defeated Colorado Senator Gary Hart to become America's 41st President. Hart initially had a massive polling lead after taking the Democratic nomination, but his support evaporated during the general election campaign. The Republicans relentlessly attacked...

What would've happened to the Bush political dynasty had George H.W. Bush, our nation's 41st President, lost the 1988 Presidential election? It's likely that George W. and Jeb still enter politics, but how do their careers pan out under this change in circumstance?

In 1988, Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis narrowly defeated Vice President George Bush. Powered by campaign manager John Sasso, Dukakis' aggressive candidacy assailed Bush's flip-flopping on social issues, Iran-Contra, and the high federal deficits under President Reagan. In contrast...