AH challange: President Ron Paul

You never specified when the POD was. If we put the POD 20+ years ago, it could make nearly anyone president. Maybe have Ron Paul not run for President as a Libertarian in 1988. If he runs for the Senate or Governorship, or tried to return to the House earlier than OTL, maybe he would be seen as more of a mainstream Republican, instead of an outsider. From there his career could go almost anywhere. Who know? By 2008, he might be a legitimate front-runner for the Republican nomination.

If you want a more recent POD, we'd have to go for something crazy, like having all of the other candidates drop dead.
 
basically follows my personal reasoning. I cant see the republican party actually nominating Ron Paul unless the primaries are very bitterly contested and/or all the other candidates are discredited or just hate each other so much that he emerges as the only real compromise pick. But if the republicans self-destruct in the primaries to that degree (at least as bad as Obama-Clinton was supposed to be), and Paul comes out on top (may or may not alientate sections of the party, the general election will probably be all but uwinnable (as if the GOP wasn't in a tough enough spot already).

In the Ron Paul discussion forums, we posited that Paul could win the 25% of the GOP that opposed the Iraq War if the other candidates split up the 75% that opposed it enough.

Unfortunately, that did not happen.
 
How could Ron Paul have won the Republican Primary and then the Presidential Election in 2008?

Ron Paul has a few strikes against him to begin with: 1. He's a mere congressman(House of Reps), the last time a member of the House of Reps was elected president was sometime during the 19th century. 2. Though he has some good ideas he does come off as a bit kooky and many of his supporters are complete whackjobs to say the least. And 3. He couldn't even win the Texas Primary (his home state!).
 
He couldn't win the Republican primary. He could have a chance of, at the least, making an impact if he switched sides to the Libertarian Party, got his supporters in the Republican Party on board, raised money, got commercials and the like, and found himself able to get into the debates. He gives a third option to the American people, and he takes at the very least a huge chunk of votes.

Really, the only reason why Americans supposedly don't support his ideas, is because many don't even know who he is, probably. Compare how good Ross Perot did in polls after the debates, to how he did before. Few knew who he was.

It's like asking someone if they like Coke, Pepsi, or Sprite, when they haven't even heard of Sprite.
 
At some point prior to the campaign, Paul realizes that it's a bad idea to try to win Republican support using left-wing arguments like "our empire" or blaming the U.S. for 9/11.

(The latter point gravely injured his chances of victory)

You've gone rather conservative since november...
 
I'm a liberal, so I'd hate a Paul Presidency. But here's an idea.

John Kerry is elected President in 2004, and his administration is a complete disaster. (Not saying that's what would happen, but for President Paul, Kerry has to fail miserably.)

John McCain drops out of the race due to finances.


Romney's campaign implodes Muskie style.

And we get a race between Paul and Huckabee.

Paul narrowly wins the nomination.

Kerry, being nearly universally unpopular, is defeated by President Paul

Paul will face a highly hostile congress and nation as the economy continues to worsen. Paul will be see as heartless/cruel.

He will be a one termer. And ironically enough, his term will itself inspire an era of interventionism.
 
The military wouldn't recognize Paul as a candidate for civilian govt. after a decapitation strike. At least one of the Presidential successors is out of D.C. at any time, so that there would be a successor ready to take the oath, get aboard NEACP, and get on with retaliation. The surviving members of Congress would elect a new Speaker, who would be next in line, and the Senate survivors would elect a new President Pro Tem, who would follow the Speaker. Only if there is no surviving successor does the military take over government (the document has been mentioned in several books dealing with WW III, it's called PD-58, and it was issued by none other than Mr. Peanut in 1979).

How about a PoD of him remaining more firmly in the Republican fold, albeit in the libertarian wing, throughout his career. Butterflies make him speaker in 2004-2006, when the strike happens. He happens to be outside DC when the strike comes.

Ron Paul is president.

Alternatively, put him later in the line of succession, yet first among the survivors.
 
ASBs merge Ron Jeremy and Les Paul into one super-stud bad-ass jazz guitarist named Ron Paul. He becomes President of Sax and Violins, a music and porn industry magazine. :cool:
 
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