Challenge: President Carter...meet President Carter.

MacCaulay

Banned
I'm currently reading a book on Operation Just Cause (yeah...the most ironic name for an American military move ever), the invasion of Panama in 1989. In it, I found some interesting facts: Billy Carter was evidently a big lobbyist in Washington for the Panamanian government in the late 80s, which helped (sort of) influence American policy towards the various regimes leading up to and including Noriega.

But what is most interesting is that just prior to the invasion, it was decided that the rightfully elected President of Panama would choose a government and cabinet so when the US deposed Noriega a swift move to democracy could be attempted.
Through an odd chain of events it transpired that (just minutes before the invasion began) in a bunker in the Canal Zone, Billy Carter became a Vice President of Panama.

Now...I'm not sure how Presidential succession works in Panama. Truth be told, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the Panamanians aren't so sure, either, or else they'd do it more peacefully.

So your challenge is to have President Jimmy Carter in America, and President Billy Carter in Panama.
 
The first POD would have to be Billy avoiding pancreatic cancer..he'd died many months before Operation Just Cause.

September 1988, to be exact - 15 months before Just Cause went down.

Well then who the fuck got sworn in? Did they dig up someone who happened to have the exact same name? Christ...I've got to lay of the sauce...

After a bit of digging around, I suspect either you or the author of said book conflated Billy Carter and "Billy" Ford. Guillermo Endara was sworn in as president, and his running mate was Guillermo "Billy" Ford. Also note tht Billy Carter's lobbing gig was for Libya and he got "busted"for influance peddling in 1979.
 
As for Jimmy Carter being POTUS during Operation Just Cause, you would have to have Carter not win the election in 1976. So, to keep things simple, let's say that somehow, Jerry Brown wins the Democratic nomination in 1976, picks Adlai Stevenson III as his running mate, and defeats Ford narrowly in the general election. Though the Brown Administration is somewhat different than the Carter Administration of OTL, President Brown still ends up with the Iranian Hostage Crisis being a major issue in 1980, and Ronald Reagan/George Bush defeats President Brown and Vice President Stevenson. In 1984, with the Reagan Administration being exactly like it is IOTL, former Vice President Stevenson easily grabs the Democratic nomination - and loses in a landslide to President Reagan and Vice President Bush. Meanwhile, Jimmy Carter is elected US Senator from Georgia in 1978 and is re-elected in 1984, and so Senator Carter is a prominent Democratic politician in the Senate. With the Democrats focusing more and more on the issue of Iran-Contra during Reagan's second term, Senator Jimmy Carter runs for president in 1988, and after a brief primary fight, wins the Democratic nomination. With Bush having less popularity, Carter defeats Bush in the election by a very thin margin, and is so elected president just in time to be CiC during Operation Just Cause.

As to how to get Billy Carter to become president of Panama at the same time, I don't know, because I am not very fluent at all in Panama politics. However, I think the scenario above does a pretty good job at electing Jimmy Carter as president.
 
Would Carter run in 1988 at the age of 64? Bush did, but he was VP and was guaranteed the GOP nomination. Carter would be an outsider who would crumble like papier-mache against the Atwater-Rove duo.
 
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