If Dole decided to stay in the Senate or retire altogether in 1996, who would the Republicans nominate for President? What would the results be?
I imagine that if Buchanan was nominated, Clinton's campaign would be similar to his wife's 2016 campaign.Interesting, I wonder if there's any chance of Buchanan winning the nomination.
1996 was a really different environment than 2016 though, I doubt Pat can win.I imagine that if Buchanan was nominated, Clinton's campaign would be similar to his wife's 2016 campaign.
I imagine that if Buchanan was nominated, Clinton's campaign would be similar to his wife's 2016 campaign.
1996 was a really different environment than 2016 though, I doubt Pat can win.
I know. I was referring to what Clinton would talk about in his campaign. While he presented Dole as an uncaring agent of special interests, he would present Buchanan as a bigot.The situations were quite different. For one thing, there was much less time-for-a-change sentiment in 1996 than 2016--one reason being that the Democrats had only been in power for four years (making it more like 2012). Second, Buchanan just was not that strong a candidate in 1996--he only got 20.8% of the GOP primary vote in OTL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_presidential_primaries,_1996 Yes, he won one primary--NH--but even that was with only 27% of the vote. Third, Trump in OTL was possible partly because three Republican "establishment" presidents or candidates in a row were seen to be failures--GW Bush (because of Iraq and the financial meltdown), McCain and Romney. There was much less anti-Establishment sentiment in the GOP in 1996. There is also the fact that whatever his faults, Bill Clinton had better political instincts than his wife. Finally, it was Perot, not Buchanan who appealed to the people who thought "we need a successful businessman to fix the economy." Perot's third party candidacy would hurt whatever slight chance Buchanan would have of winning a general election. (And yes, Perot would still run if Buchanan won the GOP nomination. "In March of 1996, while Perot was building the Reform Party, he distanced himself from Buchanan, who was then running a strong campaign for president as a Republican. Referring to Buchanan's attacks on free trade and legal immigration from Mexico, Perot said, 'His message is not mine. The last thing we should do is bang around on [America's trading partners]. We don't want to build a wall around America." https://books.google.com/books?id=NRYwOp36fGEC&pg=PA331)