AHC: Dennis Kucinich elected President in 2008

Your challenge is to, using a POD between June, 16, 2007 and November, 4, 2008, is to get Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich to win the 2008 Election. This is no small feat given his Far-Left* views. I'm thinking one way would be for him to do what Obama did OTL and rally support through the Internet. Your thoughts?
* By American standards.
 
Is it a requirement for all OTL 2008 candidates to still be in the running?
No, of course not. Speaking of whihc, that seems like another good POD: Obama decides not to run. That would give Dennis a clear path to portray himself as "the Left-wing alternative."to Hillary.
 
Dennis takes a page from Carter and campaigns among Iowans early and often.

He also takes a page from Bill Clinton in '92 and talks about how average Americans are working longer hours for less.

And he takes a page from Bernie Sanders and talks about the overlap between anti-corporate liberalism(?) and Main Street conservatism. I'm not exactly sure of the wording Bernie has used of late. But in response to a question, Dennis says with a twinkle in his eye, Let's just say I'm a corporate skeptic.

And, it becomes a three-way race, with Hillary the centrist, Dennis on her left, and a credible candidate on the right who says, look, you can't make economic progress by going after corporations and killing the goose who lays the golden egg.

And for a good month, it's essentially a three-way tie. But then Dennis starts pulling away with more Americans thinking he's speaking to their experience. And Dennis starts winning about 50% of the vote with the other candidates getting about 25% each. Now, that would be an interesting race!
 
Dennis takes a page from Carter and campaigns among Iowans early and often.

He also takes a page from Bill Clinton in '92 and talks about how average Americans are working longer hours for less.

And he takes a page from Bernie Sanders and talks about the overlap between anti-corporate liberalism(?) and Main Street conservatism. I'm not exactly sure of the wording Bernie has used of late. But in response to a question, Dennis says with a twinkle in his eye, Let's just say I'm a corporate skeptic.

And, it becomes a three-way race, with Hillary the centrist, Dennis on her left, and a credible candidate on the right who says, look, you can't make economic progress by going after corporations and killing the goose who lays the golden egg.

And for a good month, it's essentially a three-way tie. But then Dennis starts pulling away with more Americans thinking he's speaking to their experience. And Dennis starts winning about 50% of the vote with the other candidates getting about 25% each. Now, that would be an interesting race!
Sounds like it would make a very good TL.
 
It's not just that Kucinich was far-left; he was also somewhat kooky (UFOs, anyone?) and unprincipled (attempting to carpetbag to Washington State, joining Fox News after retirement, etc.)
 
Your challenge is to, using a POD between June, 16, 2007 and November, 4, 2008, is to get Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich to win the 2008 Election. This is no small feat given his Far-Left* views. I'm thinking one way would be for him to do what Obama did OTL and rally support through the Internet. Your thoughts?
* By American standards.

Well across the pond, the equivalent to Kucinich winning the Democratic presidential nomination looks like it's about to happen.

So maybe not quite ASB, even if it's pretty farfetched.
 
http://www.salon.com/2010/03/10/kos_kucinich/

Sure, it’s good to see a politician standing up for his beliefs and fighting for a point of view that might not otherwise be represented. But there are ways to do that and simultaneously be an effective legislator. Kucinich simply isn’t, and he’s never really tried hard to be. (You could also argue — I would — that the way he goes about things makes him pretty ineffective as a spokesman for his ideals.)
Okay, makes it all the more of a challenge!

Presidents have been elected with major negatives before and/or major holes in their resume. They just have.
 
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Okay, makes it all the more of a challenge!

Presidents have been elected with major negatives before and/or major holes in their resume. They just have.
*cough* Iran-Contra *cough*
*Just to be clear, that's a George H.W Bush slam, not a Reagan slam.
 
*cough* Iran-Contra *cough*
*Just to be clear, that's a George H.W Bush slam, not a Reagan slam.

George H.W. Bush had been CIA Director, Ambassador to the UN, a Congressman, and VP. He had one of the strongest resumes for President discounting Iran-Contra. Dennis Kucinich was just a congressman who never accomplished anything.
 
And on the Democratic side of the ledger, I think the case could be made that Harry Truman didn't really do much as a Senator, but did alright as President.

And Senator Truman was largely picked in '44 to be FDR's Vice President because he was acceptable to southern Democrats. Now, in fairness, he had made a name for himself chairing the "Truman Committee" during WWII looking into defense spending.

======

And if you want lightly experienced presidents, we can just as well look at the last two. George W. Bush had been Texas Governor for six years, in a state with a not very active state government and where arguably the Lt. Governor is just as powerful. And Barack Obama had been U.S. Senator from '04 to '08. And I'd say, although it may shock people, that both of them have kind of done alright.
 
So, Dennis talks about the FDR experimental approach. And he adds his own ideas and he builds on it.

He talks about taking a solidly medium step. Not a baby step where you can't tell what's going on, but enough of a medium step that you can get some clear feedback.

And if it works, you roll with it. And if not, you try something else.

And Dennis is the only candidate really talking about the loss of middle-class jobs, and how we might rebuild them.

And all this strikes a very responsive chord. It hardly matters that he hadn't done much in Congress.
 
So, Dennis talks about the FDR experimental approach. And he adds his own ideas and he builds on it.

He talks about taking a solidly medium step. Not a baby step where you can't tell what's going on, but enough of a medium step that you can get some clear feedback.

And if it works, you roll with it. And if not, you try something else.

And Dennis is the only candidate really talking about the loss of middle-class jobs, and how we might rebuild them.

And all this strikes a very responsive chord. It hardly matters that he hadn't done much in Congress.
I'd still like to see this as a full TL.
 
I think people have forgotten, or are unaware of, his stint as the mayor of Cleveland. Had he ever been a factor, that would have been drug out, and any chances he would have had would have been dashed.

This is only a realistic scenario if some disaster killed almost all of the candidates, maybe an alien attack (perhaps from the entities flying one of those UFOs he saw).
 
I followed this all very closely at the time. MSNBC and the Blogosphere were like drugs to me.

lol sorry, but, this is absurdly ASB. Like, Nazis win in North Africa level ASB. Sealion is much more plausible actually lol. Kucinich was a fringe figure. If the frontrunners all got lost in the Bermuda triangle, Bill Richardson would be the new leader while Vilsack scrambles to get back in and Gore finally has his In hoc signo vinces moment.

BTW if Obama doesn't run, its very possible that Edwards beats Hillary himself. Look at the Iowa caucus polling data, there were many weeks where Edwards was beating both of them. Edwards, being the amazingly talented televangelist/used cars salesman/Ted Bundy sociopath that he was, would have ultimately resorted to attacking Hillary's piss-poor triangulating with a zealous bloodthirstiness that Obama has always lacked. (him and Dodd were the sharks circling when Tim Russert caught Hillary with that question about the drivers licenses for illegal immigrants, Obeezy just watched) That's the best route for a niiiiice Dystopian NeoCon presidency imho: Obama sits out, Edwards wins a dirty nomination fight (no post-primary peace w/ the Clintons) by viciously attacking on ideological grounds, THEN his side piece & love child detonate as the ultimate October Surprise.

Voila! Now you have President McCain. Unless........

"I, Sarah Louise Palin, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So help me God."

War with Iran? ABSOLUTELY. Invasion of Syria? Probably. War with Russia? Welcome to NATO, Ukraine! :eek::eek::eek:

God, someone please do this timeline, its so obvious lol.
 
I think people have forgotten, or are unaware of, his stint as the mayor of Cleveland. Had he ever been a factor, that would have been drug out, and any chances he would have had would have been dashed.
I think this was where Dennis made a conscious decision that accepting default for the city of Cleveland was better than the alternative, reducing pensions to retired workers? I don't know all the details.

But I do think Dennis was pretty upfront about it.
 
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