It's 1992, and Gary Hart, who avoided getting his affair with Donna Rice leaked, is President after having defeated Vice President Bush. The economy is souring, rumblings about Hart's personal life start to make rounds in the news circuit, and Lowell Weicker has clinched the Republican nomination by being the only moderate in a very large conservative field.
Election Day comes around, and Weicker beats Hart, who's more concerned with suppressing the knowledge of his affair than bolstering the economy.
Two years into his presidency, Lowell Weicker is dealing with attacks from the right more than the left. Newt Gingirch is challenging his agenda at every turn, and there's rumors that he might run against the President in '96. Knowing full well he'd never survive a primary against Mr. Republican, Weicker decides to go independent.
In 1996, Weicker's leading in the polls. Newt Gingirch and Jerry Brown are viewed as too conservative and too liberal respectively, and things have been good under Weicker. He wins re-election as an Independent candidate, but with the GOP firmly against him, President Weicker has been mulling over caucusing with the Democrats.