IMO the most important election in our history looking back is 2000, look how much our world has changed in those 8 years, so what would have happened had the recount been allowed to continue and the Supreme Court does not interfere? How would an Al Gore presidency prosecuted the war on terror? Could 9/11 have been prevented 9/11 with all the advanced knowledge? Would the Patriot Act still have been imposed? What of Iraq or the tax cuts to the rich? and what would his chances be of re-election in 2004?
Under Gore's ruberic and the NY Times recount Bush still won for whatever thats worth
Al Gore may or may not have been crippled politically by 9/11; he would have been in administration for 8 years and 9 months at that point with multiple terror attacks having taken place whilst he was in a position of authority along with much of the national security staff.... recriminations would abound about why terrorism wasn't taken more seriously after 1993 bombing and the cole; it would take super artful political manuevering not to be destroyed by those questions
Something like the patriot act would be imposed (it has been approved with dem votes along with republican ones over and over again)
Iraq falls into the category of maybe since it was a DLC pet project for years (Leiberman, Kerry and Hillary would be on board and that's a substantial part of what would have been Gore's leadership base)
tax cuts (only slightly smaller in scale) still happen as Gore had proposed massive tax cuts as part of his election platform in 2000
Reelection would depend if he could survive the recriminations about 9/11; the dems would have been in power 12 years at that point; I wouldn't rate his chances of survival of even getting to that point as high let alone being reelected