AHC: President Bill Bradley

With a PoD no earlier than Reagan's election in 1980*, how can Basketball star and Senator from New Jersey Bill Bradley be elected President of the United States?

Maybe if he ran in 88? Or maybe if his Senate re-election in 1990 was less troubled (maybe if the tax issue in NJ is somehow butterflied away)? Then there's the ever daunting run he made in 2000...

*and without denying him his two consecutive terms of OTL
 
1992 I think is the best chance he had. At the time the Media had basically outlined him as a Front-runner for the Democratic nomination, and I am inclined to think that at worst he would perform decently. Now, his 1990 reelection bid to the Senate would certainly shake him up a bit considering he is thinking about a national campaign when he just nearly lost in his own state, which could help him or hurt him when running his own campaign.

Depending on when he gets in, the only major change to the field I see is that Bob Kerrey drops out and endorse Bradley's bid for the nomination. Bradley is more recognizable and would take many of Kerrey's supporters, so his bid would for the most part be dead, if it even got off the ground (he declared in September).

From there I am not sure, it would depend on how he compared with Clinton in the eyes of Democratic voters, and how difficult it would be to compete with Tsongas and Brown in the Northeast.​
 
1992 or 1988. In '88, Bradley could potentially fill the vacuum left by the Hart scandal. Biden initially was favored to take the frontrunner's role, but scandal not him out. Eventually it was Dukakis, and I see Bradley as the stronger candidate. In 1992, Bradley would have the name recognition to compete right away. He could very easily fill the Tsongas role before Tsongas could himself. At that point, if he could gain establishment support, he would have a shot at the nomination.
 
Good ideas so far. This actually gives me an extra idea -- if Reagan is President 1981-88, and Bradley is 1993-2000, who could follow him to create a trifecta of celebrity presidents? Remember, PoDs can be back as far as 1981, so can be any Republican leaning celebrity who TTL decides to get into politics...
 
Good ideas so far. This actually gives me an extra idea -- if Reagan is President 1981-88, and Bradley is 1993-2000, who could follow him to create a trifecta of celebrity presidents? Remember, PoDs can be back as far as 1981, so can be any Republican leaning celebrity who TTL decides to get into politics...
Do you mean 88-96?
Jack Kemp was a pro football player.
Al Franken :D
 
2000 is the best shot. Prevent McCain from running in 2000, and enough of the New Hampshire voters-who register the day of the primary-should be available to push him over the top there. Then, the race will get interesting in the Democratic primaries, but Bradley could prevail. I suspect that he could also be George W. Bush in November of that year.
 
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