A True October Surprise (A Wikibox TL)
- Thread starter lord caedus
- Start date
Yes but I sense a catch coming, I liked Huddleston too before his immigration stunt.
I predict a narrow re-election for Riley.
Keep it up, LC!
Thanks to both of you.
Yep. Without Yoni's death, Bibi's pre-2009 political career was not nearly as successful as his OTL one and only breaks into the cabinet after his brother's death.
It's his sweet Alabama drawl and his tax hikes on the rich that really make his fans weak at the knees.
The catch is that his vice president isn't nearly as entertaining as Delaware's OTL favorite son, Smiling Joe Biden.
Thank you. Always good to have others de-lurk to compliment your work.
Part 38: Papal conclave, 2011
...Benedict XVI's sudden death of a heart attack in early 2011 brought about a brief period of reflection on the legacy of the late controversial pope, who had for years been dogged by the Church's child abuse scandals across various nations. News media figures who days earlier had condemned the pope for the church's failures regarding their handling of abusive priests seriously began to review Benedict's theological legacy and the moves he had made in a more conservative direction.
The run-up to choose Benedict's successor only two things were known: the new pope would not be from Germany (Benedict's home country) or Italy. The College of Cardinals, despite many of them having been appointed by the conservative Benedict, were slowly realizing that the Church's power base had shifted away from Europe, and for the first time, began to seriously look at candidates from the Americas and Africa. The conservative bent of the Church insured that the new pope would also be a conservative, and several ballots went by before one candidate finally was elected.
Archbishop Odilo Scherer of São Paulo, who had only been a cardinal for five years, became the first pope from the New World upon his election. Taking the name Leo XIV, the new pope signaled that he wished to move the Church back into a central role in modern life and continue the evangelizing mission his predecessor Pius XIII had adopted. Only 61 when he was raised to the papacy, Leo XIV seems to have a long papacy ahead of him to place his stamp on the Church...
The run-up to choose Benedict's successor only two things were known: the new pope would not be from Germany (Benedict's home country) or Italy. The College of Cardinals, despite many of them having been appointed by the conservative Benedict, were slowly realizing that the Church's power base had shifted away from Europe, and for the first time, began to seriously look at candidates from the Americas and Africa. The conservative bent of the Church insured that the new pope would also be a conservative, and several ballots went by before one candidate finally was elected.
Archbishop Odilo Scherer of São Paulo, who had only been a cardinal for five years, became the first pope from the New World upon his election. Taking the name Leo XIV, the new pope signaled that he wished to move the Church back into a central role in modern life and continue the evangelizing mission his predecessor Pius XIII had adopted. Only 61 when he was raised to the papacy, Leo XIV seems to have a long papacy ahead of him to place his stamp on the Church...
Part 39: Mexican presidential election, 2012
...President Creel had begun with high hopes for continuing Vincente Fox's reforms, but was again and again halted by disagreements with PAN and PRD deputies in Congress, who had formed an informal coalition to prevent Creel from passing what they considered to be unwise reforms. Despite this, Creel was able to pass reforms that enacted pay caps on civil servant positions, and negotiated several favorable trade deals with neighboring nations as well as expanded Mexico's image by getting Mexico included with other similarly industrializing nations like India, China, Brazil and South Africa.
This, however, was in the backdrop of increasingly aggressive drug cartels taking effective control over towns and areas that were used on the route to smuggle drugs into the United States. Creel sent the Mexican Army in, and aid came from the United States (especially along the shared border between the two countries), but corruption within the underfunded Mexican military, the brutality of the cartels and the luxuriousness of the drug trade meant that by the time Creel left office, only the cartel heads had changed- old heads, either killed by Army forces, taken to jail or offed by their own replaced by younger, even more ruthless replacements.
Former Secretary of Finance Ernesto Cordero became the PAN nominee with little difficulty and had an uphill struggle against him, with Creel having public disagreements with his US counterpart Bob Riley over Riley's refusal to impose stricter gun control laws or ease American laws on marijuana that Creel felt would weaken the power of the cartels in Mexico. The PRI nominated former Sonora Governor and senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones, who campaigned on a strong "law and order" platform and harked back to the PRI days when Mexicans would not have to worry about drug gangs controlling swathes of their country. The PRD chose former Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard as their nominee.
Ebrard chose to make his stand on issues instead of posturing like Beltrones, but initially this seemed foolhardy as Beltrones opened up a large lead ahead of him and Cordero. Then, Ebrard slowly chipped away at Beltrones' lead as voters began to recall (with help from the PRD and PAN campaigns) the rampant corruption of the PRI years and troublesome questions began to emerge about Beltrones' connections with drug gangs as well during his stint as governor of the border state of Sonora.
Ebrard walked away with a six-point victory as a result, becoming the first PRD president of Mexico and marked a big shift away from the center-right policies of the Fox and Creel administration. President Ebrard has continued the fight against the cartels with his US allies, but his policy of drug liberalization, replacement of military attacks with police strikes against all but the biggest cartel hideouts, and frequent overtures to the United States to reform its drug policies have proven controversial in Washington. It is unknown if Ebrard's reforms, which have made some progress, will be enough to give his party a second term in 2018...
This, however, was in the backdrop of increasingly aggressive drug cartels taking effective control over towns and areas that were used on the route to smuggle drugs into the United States. Creel sent the Mexican Army in, and aid came from the United States (especially along the shared border between the two countries), but corruption within the underfunded Mexican military, the brutality of the cartels and the luxuriousness of the drug trade meant that by the time Creel left office, only the cartel heads had changed- old heads, either killed by Army forces, taken to jail or offed by their own replaced by younger, even more ruthless replacements.
Former Secretary of Finance Ernesto Cordero became the PAN nominee with little difficulty and had an uphill struggle against him, with Creel having public disagreements with his US counterpart Bob Riley over Riley's refusal to impose stricter gun control laws or ease American laws on marijuana that Creel felt would weaken the power of the cartels in Mexico. The PRI nominated former Sonora Governor and senator Manlio Fabio Beltrones, who campaigned on a strong "law and order" platform and harked back to the PRI days when Mexicans would not have to worry about drug gangs controlling swathes of their country. The PRD chose former Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard as their nominee.
Ebrard chose to make his stand on issues instead of posturing like Beltrones, but initially this seemed foolhardy as Beltrones opened up a large lead ahead of him and Cordero. Then, Ebrard slowly chipped away at Beltrones' lead as voters began to recall (with help from the PRD and PAN campaigns) the rampant corruption of the PRI years and troublesome questions began to emerge about Beltrones' connections with drug gangs as well during his stint as governor of the border state of Sonora.
Ebrard walked away with a six-point victory as a result, becoming the first PRD president of Mexico and marked a big shift away from the center-right policies of the Fox and Creel administration. President Ebrard has continued the fight against the cartels with his US allies, but his policy of drug liberalization, replacement of military attacks with police strikes against all but the biggest cartel hideouts, and frequent overtures to the United States to reform its drug policies have proven controversial in Washington. It is unknown if Ebrard's reforms, which have made some progress, will be enough to give his party a second term in 2018...
Part 40: United States presidential election, 2012
The Democratic Party's list of candidates for the 2012 race was surprisingly sparse. The New Covenant had for the most part, flummoxed Democratic strategists who had hoped that Riley would not follow through on his campaign promises and govern as a typical Republican, which would provide a neat rallying cry to the Democratic base. The lack of a clear tack to take against an incumbent president helped many potential candidates, such as Florida Congresswoman Gwen Graham, Kentucky Senator Daniel Mongiardo and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick from declaring, choosing instead to wait until 2016. As such, the momentum quickly went to Andrew Cuomo, the most well-known candidate to throw his hat into the ring, and despite failed attempts at drafting an electable anti-Cuomo ticket, the former HUD Secretary won easily. He selected former Virginia Governor Mark Warner as his running mate over the objections of advisers who recommended he pick a solid liberal to appease growing liberal resentment left over from Cuomo's 2008 run and his antagonistic, scorched-earth primary victories in the recent contest.
Cuomo's conservative stances on taxes and spending, antagonistic relationship with the party's liberals and swirling rumors of corruption surrounding his post-government speaking career were enough to cause the party's liberals and environmentalists to bolt. A contingent of liberals took control of the minor Green Party and succeeded in calling former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone out of retirement to serve as the Green nominee. Wellstone chose iconoclastic progressive Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson as his running mate, and Anderson, owing to Wellstone's ill health, would end up doing most of the heavy campaigning.
With the Democratic Party split, Riley had a huge advantage and seemed like a lock for re-election. However, questions over lobbyist influence on the Riley administration soon became a troubling issue for the campaign and Riley was forced on the defensive. This worked to Wellstone's advantage- the strident Minnesota liberal was the only candidate who was not targeted by corruption rumors and he was able to rise high enough in the polls by painting both candidates with the brush of corruption to be included in the presidential debates- the first minor-party candidate since Fob James in 1996.
As expected, Wellstone's poll numbers began gradually bleeding away as Election Day approached and the Cuomo campaign began to desperately bring back liberal voters their candidate had spent the primaries and rest of the general election campaign antagonizing.
President Riley won a crushing electoral college victory, sweeping the Midwest outside of the Democratic stronghold of Illinois and only losing one swing state, West Virginia, which returned to the Democratic fold as a result of Cuomo's openness to continuing coal usage. Riley did not, however, win a majority of the popular vote, owing to a plethora of right-wing third-party candidates who were able to siphon off the votes of right-wingers in deep red states who were displeased with the New Covenant and Riley's criticism of Israeli conduct in Operation Righteous.
Cuomo was greatly hurt by Wellstone's run and liberal dissatisfaction in blue states that caused states like Oregon and Minnesota (which had, along with Massachusetts, voted Democratic in every election since 1956) to be won by a Republican for the first time in decades. As for Wellstone, the former senator did not win a single state but later won an electoral vote from a faithless Washington D.C. elector, reportedly as a result of the Wellstone campaign's support for DC statehood, when the Electoral College met in December 2012.
Down ticket, the Republicans would add to their House majority but fall one seat short of taking the Senate, ending with 49 seats when the next Congress began in January 2013...
Cuomo's conservative stances on taxes and spending, antagonistic relationship with the party's liberals and swirling rumors of corruption surrounding his post-government speaking career were enough to cause the party's liberals and environmentalists to bolt. A contingent of liberals took control of the minor Green Party and succeeded in calling former Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone out of retirement to serve as the Green nominee. Wellstone chose iconoclastic progressive Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson as his running mate, and Anderson, owing to Wellstone's ill health, would end up doing most of the heavy campaigning.
With the Democratic Party split, Riley had a huge advantage and seemed like a lock for re-election. However, questions over lobbyist influence on the Riley administration soon became a troubling issue for the campaign and Riley was forced on the defensive. This worked to Wellstone's advantage- the strident Minnesota liberal was the only candidate who was not targeted by corruption rumors and he was able to rise high enough in the polls by painting both candidates with the brush of corruption to be included in the presidential debates- the first minor-party candidate since Fob James in 1996.
As expected, Wellstone's poll numbers began gradually bleeding away as Election Day approached and the Cuomo campaign began to desperately bring back liberal voters their candidate had spent the primaries and rest of the general election campaign antagonizing.
President Riley won a crushing electoral college victory, sweeping the Midwest outside of the Democratic stronghold of Illinois and only losing one swing state, West Virginia, which returned to the Democratic fold as a result of Cuomo's openness to continuing coal usage. Riley did not, however, win a majority of the popular vote, owing to a plethora of right-wing third-party candidates who were able to siphon off the votes of right-wingers in deep red states who were displeased with the New Covenant and Riley's criticism of Israeli conduct in Operation Righteous.
Cuomo was greatly hurt by Wellstone's run and liberal dissatisfaction in blue states that caused states like Oregon and Minnesota (which had, along with Massachusetts, voted Democratic in every election since 1956) to be won by a Republican for the first time in decades. As for Wellstone, the former senator did not win a single state but later won an electoral vote from a faithless Washington D.C. elector, reportedly as a result of the Wellstone campaign's support for DC statehood, when the Electoral College met in December 2012.
Down ticket, the Republicans would add to their House majority but fall one seat short of taking the Senate, ending with 49 seats when the next Congress began in January 2013...
Greens in the debate? Fuck yes. I like this America, it's somewhat more sympathetic to third parties than the OTL one.
Somehow, I think the recriminations against Wellstone will be worse than against Nader OTL. That said, Cuomo is much less likeable than Gore, and Riley won pretty decisively. So the Greens might have a bit of staying power... A splinter would pretty much be an inevitability with politics a bit more to the left and Cuomo's being Cuomo.
Is Wellstone still a Senator ITTL? I can't imagine his career in the Democratic caucus going much further after this.
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Ah, I didn't see that. I guess his MS forced his retirement. I do wonder what he would've done in 2004 and later if it weren't for his plane crash.
Hairstylists came out 2:1 for Riley against Andrew "Split Ends" Cuomo and Paul "Bald Spot of Doom" Wellstone.
It's only sympathetic compared to OTL, where the post-Perot roadblocks that the two major parties threw up in the wake of his 1992 campaign aren't there. That's also on the presidential level only. Third parties arguably fare even worse ITTL in congressional races, since there hasn't been a third-party or independent senator or congressman since Virgil Goode switched from an independent to the Republicans in 2002.
Well, the 2012 campaign was going to be an uphill one for any Democrat to win (unlike OTL 2000) and it was pretty clear that Cuomo was his own worst enemy well before liberal Democrats' hostile takeover of the Green Party and drafting of Wellstone. So I'm thinking there will be less of a backlash against Wellstone and more of a "Wellstone's run was the final nail in his coffin" type deal.
Actually, if you look at the 2008 election, he was already out of the Senate at that point- ITTL he lost his re-election bid in 2002.
Can I ask?, what ever became of Hillary Rodham (Clinton? Or...) and Bill Clinton? I also feel for some reason that Barack Obama is the Kenyan Ambassador to the United States Mitt Romney is a more liberal-leaning Republican Senator from Michigan!? And Harvey Milk is currently the Governor of California
Mitt Romney is a more liberal-leaning Republican Senator from Michigan!? And Harvey Milk is currently the Governor of CaliforniaCan I ask?, what ever became of Hillary Rodham (Clinton? Or...) and Bill Clinton? I also feel for some reason that Barack Obama is the Kenyan Ambassador to the United States
All I'm going to say is that all the people you've listed, with the exception of Milk, are pretty obscure ITTL.
Milk, meanwhile, is still notable for being one of the first openly gay officeholders in the United States. His political career, like quite a bit of other San Francisco politicians in the mid-1970s, was permanently damaged as a result of him being tied to the People's Temple and he eventually contracted HIV/AIDS and died in the late 1980s.
Riley actually looks similar to Reagan which is funny since he crushed in his reelection bid like OTL Reagan.
Part 41: Riley Presidency (2012-2016)
President Riley’s coattails convinced enough Democrats of, if not the validity of the New Covenant, its electoral popularity. Subsequent planks, such as those eliminating the marriage penalty and raising the threshold for the estate tax, were passed without a whole lot of debate. Military funding, especially with regards to R&D similarly sailed through. The president’s desired balanced budget amendment, however, proved to be too much for Senate Democrats to swallow and Riley was forced to finally admit that it would not pass in the face of a Democratic filibuster.
The post-election foreign policy scene provided massive headaches for the administration. The heavy-handed reaction by Israel to the Palestinian Intifada had resulted in an international coalition pushing for a UN force to negotiate a cease-fire and take over administration of the disputed territories. Riley, bucking the trend begun with President Bush, used the United States' Security Council veto and killed the prospect of a UN mission to the region, shoring up support of pro-Israeli Americans and reviving American popularity somewhat in Israel but alienating American allies and members of the Third World who believed that the veto was pure favoritism by Washington and which subsequently began to lobby other permanent Security Council members such as China for support.
The Intifada had effects on other Middle Eastern nations as well. The unwillingness of most Arab governments to antagonize Washington with outright support of the Palestinians proved to be wildly unpopular with the population in many countries, particularly those in Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, whose authoritarian leaders ruled highly corrupt, economically inefficient regimes with mass youth civilian unemployment. Peaceful protests in Cairo, Algiers and Tunis were ruthlessly crushed, only to be replaced by violent attacks by mobs of angry youths and protesters on the police. Tunisia's government was eventually toppled, but Algeria and Egypt, with military and political backing from Washington, eventually crushed the protests with a combination of mild reforms and mass arrests and "disappearances" of dissidents.
The situation in Mexico had laid bare disagreements between the president and his Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard. Ebrard's move away from his predecessor Santiago Creel's policy of using the military against the drug cartels and Ebrard's foray into asking for changes in American domestic law aggravated the administration. Riley's administration, in response, doubled down on both its opposition to federal gun control statutes and efforts to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.
The former made its way to the Supreme Court, as part of a challenge by right-wing gun rights activists who sought to challenge California's stringent gun control laws. Banking on the court's liberal wing rejecting the challenge, the administration planned to roll out a bill that could sneak through the cracks the court's moderates (notably Chief Justice Merritt and Justice Dellinger) would, they believed, leave in their ruling allowing for a bill that would rally the troops before the midterm elections and distract from the rumblings of Senate Democrats, who had begun poking even further into lobbyist groups that they felt had gained undue influence on the administration.
The Court's ruling left the administration flat-footed. A sweeping 7-2 rejection of the challenge (with only Riley appointees voting in favor) that firmly rejected the possibility that the party could push a firearms bill acceptable to the Court through caused the administration without a plan for the midterm campaigns and the investigations into lobbyist influence within the administration took center stage. The president's eldest son, Rob Riley Jr., was soon implicated in the scandal, and the president bowed to political pressure and agreed to the creation of a joint congressional and Department of Justice investigation into the administration's ties with corporate lobbyists.
The midterms were a near-disaster for the GOP as the party had to suddenly reverse course and run away from a president whose approval ratings had plummeted overnight. The Democrats gained six seats in the Senate, with the GOP only winning tight races in Montana and West Virginia (owing to the retirement of popular Democratic incumbents and poor candidate selection by the Democrats) and Tennessee, where former presidential candidate Al Gore’s seat had been retaken by Republicans in 2008 only for his replacement Bob Corker to die in a tragic car accident and be replaced by Democratic appointee Mike McWherter- who promptly became very unpopular within both his party and the state.
In the House, the GOP kept control by the barest possible margin- the party won 218 seats to the Democrats’ 217 and kept control, with Speaker Kasich being forced to allow the Democrats unprecedented power for a minority party in exchange for an informal agreement that would keep him speaker throughout the Congress- even if vacancies and special election victories gave the Democrats a plurality or majority...
With his congressional support now gone and his plans for further economic reform scuttled, Riley returned to the traditional presidential domain of foreign relations and pushed strongly for Middle Eastern peace. But between the splintering of the Palestinian leadership and the hard-right tilt of Israeli Prime Minister Ya'alon's government meant that compromise was almost impossible and the president was forced to content himself with limiting the damage of the fighting by pressuring Ya'alon and the leaders of the Palestinian factions to small changes that he hoped could be built on by his successors.
The president's lame duck term saw a small bit of his reputation restored as his son and all but a few members of his administration were exonerated by the joint investigation. Those who were implicated the president promptly fired, giving him enough good will to pass the final part of the New Covenant that would go into law- an increase in the child tax credit and further tax credits to businesses and labor unions that had or instituted policies designed to strengthen their local community...
The post-election foreign policy scene provided massive headaches for the administration. The heavy-handed reaction by Israel to the Palestinian Intifada had resulted in an international coalition pushing for a UN force to negotiate a cease-fire and take over administration of the disputed territories. Riley, bucking the trend begun with President Bush, used the United States' Security Council veto and killed the prospect of a UN mission to the region, shoring up support of pro-Israeli Americans and reviving American popularity somewhat in Israel but alienating American allies and members of the Third World who believed that the veto was pure favoritism by Washington and which subsequently began to lobby other permanent Security Council members such as China for support.
The Intifada had effects on other Middle Eastern nations as well. The unwillingness of most Arab governments to antagonize Washington with outright support of the Palestinians proved to be wildly unpopular with the population in many countries, particularly those in Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia, whose authoritarian leaders ruled highly corrupt, economically inefficient regimes with mass youth civilian unemployment. Peaceful protests in Cairo, Algiers and Tunis were ruthlessly crushed, only to be replaced by violent attacks by mobs of angry youths and protesters on the police. Tunisia's government was eventually toppled, but Algeria and Egypt, with military and political backing from Washington, eventually crushed the protests with a combination of mild reforms and mass arrests and "disappearances" of dissidents.
The situation in Mexico had laid bare disagreements between the president and his Mexican counterpart, Marcelo Ebrard. Ebrard's move away from his predecessor Santiago Creel's policy of using the military against the drug cartels and Ebrard's foray into asking for changes in American domestic law aggravated the administration. Riley's administration, in response, doubled down on both its opposition to federal gun control statutes and efforts to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.
The former made its way to the Supreme Court, as part of a challenge by right-wing gun rights activists who sought to challenge California's stringent gun control laws. Banking on the court's liberal wing rejecting the challenge, the administration planned to roll out a bill that could sneak through the cracks the court's moderates (notably Chief Justice Merritt and Justice Dellinger) would, they believed, leave in their ruling allowing for a bill that would rally the troops before the midterm elections and distract from the rumblings of Senate Democrats, who had begun poking even further into lobbyist groups that they felt had gained undue influence on the administration.
The Court's ruling left the administration flat-footed. A sweeping 7-2 rejection of the challenge (with only Riley appointees voting in favor) that firmly rejected the possibility that the party could push a firearms bill acceptable to the Court through caused the administration without a plan for the midterm campaigns and the investigations into lobbyist influence within the administration took center stage. The president's eldest son, Rob Riley Jr., was soon implicated in the scandal, and the president bowed to political pressure and agreed to the creation of a joint congressional and Department of Justice investigation into the administration's ties with corporate lobbyists.
The midterms were a near-disaster for the GOP as the party had to suddenly reverse course and run away from a president whose approval ratings had plummeted overnight. The Democrats gained six seats in the Senate, with the GOP only winning tight races in Montana and West Virginia (owing to the retirement of popular Democratic incumbents and poor candidate selection by the Democrats) and Tennessee, where former presidential candidate Al Gore’s seat had been retaken by Republicans in 2008 only for his replacement Bob Corker to die in a tragic car accident and be replaced by Democratic appointee Mike McWherter- who promptly became very unpopular within both his party and the state.
In the House, the GOP kept control by the barest possible margin- the party won 218 seats to the Democrats’ 217 and kept control, with Speaker Kasich being forced to allow the Democrats unprecedented power for a minority party in exchange for an informal agreement that would keep him speaker throughout the Congress- even if vacancies and special election victories gave the Democrats a plurality or majority...
With his congressional support now gone and his plans for further economic reform scuttled, Riley returned to the traditional presidential domain of foreign relations and pushed strongly for Middle Eastern peace. But between the splintering of the Palestinian leadership and the hard-right tilt of Israeli Prime Minister Ya'alon's government meant that compromise was almost impossible and the president was forced to content himself with limiting the damage of the fighting by pressuring Ya'alon and the leaders of the Palestinian factions to small changes that he hoped could be built on by his successors.
The president's lame duck term saw a small bit of his reputation restored as his son and all but a few members of his administration were exonerated by the joint investigation. Those who were implicated the president promptly fired, giving him enough good will to pass the final part of the New Covenant that would go into law- an increase in the child tax credit and further tax credits to businesses and labor unions that had or instituted policies designed to strengthen their local community...