AHC: President Daniel Inouye

Just had a thought -- do you think the Republicans might pit McCain against Inouye in 1996? Make it a "war hero vs war hero" thing to neutralise that.


Oh, come on, you can impose any damn "pattern" on presidential administrations so long as you pick the right starting point. For instance, beginning in 1933 there was 12 years of anomalous Democratic dominance (Roosevelt '33-'45), followed by over 30 years of an "each party gets two terms" pattern (Truman '45-'53, Eisenhower '53-'61, Kennedy/Johnson '61-'69, Nixon/Ford '69-'77, then finally broken by Carter '77-'81) followed by an anomalous 12 years of Republican dominance (Reagan/Bush '81-'93), and then back to an "each party gets two terms" pattern again (Clinton '93-'01, Bush jr '01-'09, Obama '09-'1?).

It's meaningless. People will vote for who they vote for based on the circumstances of the time, not because of the frickin' patterns of history.

I can go both ways on this topic. I do believe that there is a political cycle, but that the cycle can be disrupted given the reason you mentioned.
 

pnyckqx

Banned
Reviewing the honourable Senator's political career, I would say the best place to start would be around the time of the Iran-Contra hearings in the late 1980s, with his mentioning the "shadow government" that sponsored the whole mess.

Have a fringe-left element of the Democrats begin to press for Inouye to ascend to the White House, citing his war record (loss of right forearm, Medal of Honor and other awards), which could win the support of other Asian-Americans, then spread to the various other ethnic minorities for a possible 1992 run.
First, you'd have to butterfly away Inowe's Medal of Honor, as it wasn't upgraded until June of 2000. This may or may not put a damper on his campaign. i vote not, as along with Bob Dole, the man has very visible evidence of his heroism and service.

That said, 92 is a very good year for Inowe to challenge Bush 41. Like Clinton, Inowe is from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, but has popularity with the fringe Left.
 


That said, 92 is a very good year for Inowe to challenge Bush 41. Like Clinton, Inowe is from the moderate wing of the Democratic Party, but has popularity with the fringe Left.
The problem is that 1992 was not a good year to be Japanese-American. I think it's hard for people who were too young to remember that year to understand what it was like, but there was a real fear from many people that Japan was going to own the US any day now. It was even a fairly major topic on the campaign trail. I can remember hearing Americans say things like "Japan lost the war, now they are trying to conquer the US with (unfair) trade", and they were 100% serious. Honestly, in 1992 being Japanese-American would still be a big burden.
 
The problem is that 1992 was not a good year to be Japanese-American. I think it's hard for people who were too young to remember that year to understand what it was like, but there was a real fear from many people that Japan was going to own the US any day now. It was even a fairly major topic on the campaign trail. I can remember hearing Americans say things like "Japan lost the war, now they are trying to conquer the US with (unfair) trade", and they were 100% serious. Honestly, in 1992 being Japanese-American would still be a big burden.

But if he put a white southern democratic governor on the ticket (bill clinton), i believe this would relieve the fears.
 
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