Best case scenarios for OTL defeated parties

Thought I'd se how far this thread could go...

Basically, with a POD set in stone at exactly six months before an election in which one party suffered a heavy defeat, what's the best case scenario for that party, and why do you think so?

For example: what do you think is the best case realistic scenario for the UK Conservatives in 2001, with a POD in the autumn of 2000? I'd propose the fuel strikes of 2000 are somehow dragged out for longer, and a "Burying Bad News" type event hits the Labour Government. It's still nowhere near enough to bring anything approaching a Conservative victory- but I'd suggest a combination of factors could see the Tories do substantially better than their OTL one seat increase, perhaps instead taking twenty or thirty seats from Labour.

So, any other thoughts on how to improve the fortunes of the defeated?
 
An obvious one-
England loses the 1966 World Cup, and absent this triumph Wilson does not win a landslide for Labour.
I've certainly wondered how much smaller the 1924 Conservative Victory might have been without the Zinoviev letter, though structural issues like the migration of Liberals were obviously at work.
 
Some Canuck examples:

1984: Turner decides not to run for the Liberal leadership, as nearly happened IOTL. Chretien wins, runs a much more competent campaign. Mulroney still wins but closer to his OTL '88 margin than the 1984 earthquake.

1993: Jean Charest defeats Kim Campbell in the Tory leadership race. He manages to keep 40-50 seats.

2011: Duceppe runs a soft nationalist campaign rather than a hard nationalist one. Iggy chooses to woo either NDP or Tory voters instead of both.
 
Kevin White agrees to serve as George McGovern's running mate at the '72 convention, bringing the urban Catholic union vote behind the Democratic ticket and facilitating both a) DNC help to fix McGovern's awful campaign commercials, and b) an endorsement from George Meany, which was pointedly withheld in OTL's campaign.

This would obviously avoid the Eagleton problem as well.

Edit: Agnew's criminal cases coming to light earlier would also help the Democrats out.
 
Last edited:
1964 - Conservatives could pull off a fairly comfortable victory, albeit with a few seat losses. A majority of 15-35 is certainly possible, with different circumstances (different leaders to Wilson and Douglas-Home, a stronger Liberal revival, no retail price maintenance act, a stronger economy, a foreign affairs crisis bigger than the Spanish frigates affair during the election).
1970 - Labour could easily win a small majority around 10-25 if the economy is in better shape, especially as there were serious doubts about the Conservatives' election campaign. Better unemployment and balance of payments figures during the campaign would help Labour.
 
Apparently Labour's 1964 win was partly the result of Steptoe & Son being rescheduled to a later time, as it was watched by large numbers of Labour voters. Have it at 8pm as standard, and we could see fewer Labout voters coming out.
 
Top