Challenge: Republicans nominate Ron Paul in 08

The OP just says nominate. Any chance of him getting a VP nod? Any scenario in which this happens?

I don't see him getting a VP nod either. Any candidate that picked him would not get the Evangelical or conservative vote, and any GOP nomination needs that to be successful.
 
1968 in 2008

POD: California and Florida go first.

On September 1, 2007, the California state legislature sets the date of their presidential primary to the earliest date ever.

California's Republican Primary is held Thursday, December 27, 2007, in violation of Republican party rules. The primary will allocate 173 delegates on a semi-proportional basis. A poll the week before the election by Datamar predicts: Rudy Giuliani 28.0%,Mitt Romney 16.1%, Fred Thompson 14.0%, John McCain 9.9%, Mike Huckabee 7.8%, Ron Paul 4.3%, Duncan Hunter 1.6%, Tom Tancredo 1.0%, Undecided 17.3%
During a Christmas Eve televised address Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger endorses Giuliani.

On election day Undecideds break heavily for Giuliani, and he wins 38 congressional districts, with 114 delegates. Winning the Golden State overall, he also gets 14 bonus delegates for a total of 128 delegates. He has strong showings in the Bay Area and Los Angeles county, but is unable to reach a majority in the statewide popular vote.

Huckabee receives 18 delegates, with strong support among Evangelicals and working class Republicans. Romney receives 15 delegates, with strong support in wealthier suburbs and among Mormons. . McCain receives 9 delegates, mostly among the military and in the Inland Empire, where he campaigned heavily. Duncan Hunter receives 3 delegates by barely winning his own Congressional District, with McCain a close second there. Ron Paul wins no congressional districts, but still gets 5% of the popular vote, almost evenly distributed across the state, finishing third or fourth in nearly every district. He runs as a moderate libertarian Republican.

Giuliani's win is widely dismissed as a fluke by the national media, attributed to the Governor's endorsement, the liberal bent of California Republicans and poor voter mobilization among conservatives during the Christmas holiday. Essentially, no one could be bothered to stop Christmassing long enough to research candidates and so they voted for name recognition.

Florida's Republican Primary is also held early, in violation of Republican party rules, on Wednesday, January 2, 2008, the day before the Iowa caucuses. Florida awards it's 57 delegates on a winner take all basis. The statewide results are Rudy Giuliani 19%, John McCain 19%, Mike Huckabee 18%, Mitt Romney 18%, Ron Paul 10%, Fred Thompson 8%, Duncan Hunter 1%, Tom Tancredo 1% and other minor candidates made up the rest. The close outcome between Giuliani and McCain leads to a statewide recount. The national press awards the coverage of the recount story to the most senior reporters. (Given a choice between being in Florida or the snowy states of Iowa and New Hampshire in January, most senior reporters choose the Sunshine State.)

The next day, Iowa's Republican Caucusesare held and the anger among Iowa conservative republicans against Giuliani is evident, but there is little consensus over who should be the leader of the conservative wing of the party. Huckabee, McCain, Romney and Thompson split the caucuses vote evenly (with 23% each), with a slight edge for Huckabee. Giuliani gets 8% of caucus delegates. The press and commentators call it a major loss for Giuliani, but his campaign points out that Iowa only sends 40 delegates to the convention anyway, "so it doesn't matter". There is a minor controversy over this for a few days, but it peters out quickly as only second string reporters have covered Iowa.

New Hampshire, though, punishes Giuliani the following week for his Big State strategy by awarding him none of it's 12 delegates. McCain, distracted by the recounts in Florida, only half-heartedly campaigns here. Ron Paul has been campaigning heavily in New Hampshire for two weeks, pouring large amounts of his internet raised funds into the small state. He has a decent showing, getting 5 delegates. Romney gets 6, and McCain is awarded 1.

Wyoming and Nevada are won by Romney, but the results carried little weight after a national news reporter outside a caucus site in Wyoming points out that a majority of the caucusers in this county all belong to the same LDS church. There is the usual brushfire of controversy about the comment for a few days, until the nation is distracted by the Michigan primary, held January 15th, several weeks before republican party rules allowed it. Amid the controversy about Romney's religion evangelical voters split their vote among Huckabee, McCain and Thompson, giving a slight edge to Giuliani in this winner take all state. Giuliani therefore was awarded 60 more delegates. Romney, beaten in a state where his father was governor considers dropping out.

Two days later, Florida's State Supreme Court awards Giuliani it's winner take all 57 delegates.

Giuliani seemed to become an unstoppable force. A deeply divided conservative movement could not choose a standard bearer. The press seemed ready to award the nomination to Giuliani.

Then on January 20th Karl Rove, who recently resigned from the Bush White House and was an unofficial advisor to the McCain campaign wrote a cover story for Newsweek examining whether the primaries in California, Florida and Michigan should be set aside. He argued that since those states had violated Republican party rules in advancing the dates of their primaries, the results were null and void.

A major storm of controversy exploded onto the cable networks, talk radio and internet. Should the votes of three large, heavily populated states simply be invalidated completely? Should they get awarded half the delegates? Should there be new primaries? The controversy dragged on for months, with no good solution in sight. Everyone involved, and a few who weren't, lawyered up immediately and started filing briefs. The Democratic congress offered in February to hold hearings to help the Republicans sort it all out, or at least to ensure the airing of Republican dirty laundry on national tv. Republican congressional leaders were terrified to take a side, after all, what if they took one candidate's side and the opponent was elected in November? The Bush administration remained characteristically mute on the controversy.

Super Tuesday was a five way draw. Thompson dropped out and gave his delegates to McCain. No one noticed.

By Texas' March 1st primary, five candidates remained. Giuliani had a solid majority of delegates if California, Florida and Michigan were counted in full. Huckabee and Romney were evenly matched in delegates. Huckabee had nearly swept the southern delegates. Romney had done well in the midwest and west. Ron Paul was solidly in fourth place in the delegate count but pulled a steady 10% in primary after primary, except for Nevada where he nearly tied Romney's win. McCain had strong support from veterans and in the southwest, but he was running very low on money.

Texas had little interest in a liberal New York Italian, or a carefully manicured Mormon corporate executive. But they listened when Romney said during a Meet The Press interview that every sentence Giuliani ever used was composed of three things: "a noun, a verb and 9/11".

The Texas primary rules being incredibly convoluted, no one knew the final outcome until days later. Inexplicably, Ron Paul won 71 delegates, Huckabee 50, McCain 13, Romney 5, and Giuliani 1. Three delegates were appointed by the state party and were unofficially uncommitted.

On March 2nd, the New York Times ran a story connecting McCain romantically with lobbyist Vicki Iseman, and further reported he had given her clients preferential treatment in the Senate. After a week of controversy, on March 9th, McCain (whose campaign was deep in a money hole) announced he would "suspened his campaign so he could fly immediately back to Washington to work on clearing his good name of these cruel, salacious and completely untrue rumors". McCain pledged his deleagtes to Giuliani.

Romney dropped out graciously on March 13th, for the sake of party unity. He did not however, release his pledged delegates.

This left Giuliani, Huckabee and Paul among the major candidates. By June 3rd, the date of the last Republican primary, Giuliani and Huckabee had a nearly equal number of delegates, about 35% of the total. Giuliani's delegate count, however, was dependent on California, Florida and Michigan being counted in full. If they were not, he would be outvoted on the convention floor in St. Paul. Ron Paul had just over 15% of the delegates pledged to him. Romney had 10%. The remaining 5% were a scattering of minor candidates and uncommitted delegates.

During the convention the subject of the California, Michigan and Florida primaries was center stage, with debate in the credentials committee running late into the night. Vote after vote failed to reach a decision. The credentials committee finally agreed to allow the delegates from the contested states to vote in committes, but not to vote on the convention floor for the nomination. Giuliani was furious and decided to turn the platform into a poison pill.

The Giuliani and Paul delegates, in alliance, gutted the social conservative platform, including removing planks about abortion, gays and medical marijuana, with bare majorities of just over 50%.

Thousands of protesters (mostly liberal) had already converged on St. Paul, and the Minnesota state police had, as usual, confined them to "free speech zones", enclosed areas behind chain link fences set up in Rice Park. When the platform was taken over by the libertarians, though, thousands more protesters, this time radical conservative Christians, joined them in the cattle pen-like areas of the park. Police did their best to keep the two seperated, but the increased numbers of protesters quickly overwhelmed water and food supplies, available space and the port a potties in the park. Tempers flared even higher in the heat of an Indian Summer.

When word reached the park that an abortion clinic in Minneapolis and a gay bar in Mankato had been nailbombed (13 dead or wounded total) in a seemingly coordinated attack, both sides exploded.

Radical Christians (of the Fred Phelps and Operation Rescue variety) shut down traffic around the Xcel center by laying in the streets. Liberal activists attacked them with bricks and flaming trashcans. The Chritians threw animal fetuses at the liberals and the police. A running battle in the streets filled the prairie night. Police, confused and exhausted, began arresting everyone they saw, beating them if they resisted at all, even verbally. They processed those arrested in makeshift holding areas on the park in front of the State Capitol Building, a few blocks from the Xcel center north across I35.

Inside the Xcel center, the delegates were largely unaware of the disorder, except for the few who had tired of the proceedings and returend to their hotels vis various skybridges. These delegates could see the teargas and beatings below them and hurried back to their hotel rooms.

At 3 am, inside the Xcel center, Fox News correspondent and late night host Greg Gutfeld went live on the air and interviewed Mike Huckabee, asking him his opinion of the protesters. Huckabee (having been awake and politicking at the convention for nearly three days straight, and completely unaware of the intensity of the rioting) responded that they were doing the right thing to follow their consciences, that he admired them in all they do, and he only wished he could join them. Giuliani, responding to the same question countered by complimenting the police saying they had been doing a wonderful job of keeping order and they deserve our full support, and he wished he could join them rather than the protesters. (Gutfield did not bother to interview minor candidate Paul. Moderates are boring.)

At about the same time, a protester in the processing area was shot and killed. No one was sure which side the protester was on, but it didn't matter. The activists on both sides assumed it was one of theirs, and quickly overwhelmed the police holding them.

A pitched battle between the three sides raged westward and southward from the park as over 10,000 rioters tried to reach the Xcel center. The police blockaded I35 as a rampart to protect the center. MSNBC was filming the riot from the roof of United Hospital when they inadvertantly broadcast police officers (tired, angry, scared and panicked police officers, to be exact), tightly cornered up against an onramp to I35, firing blindly into a massed crowd of people which was advancing towards them, many whom were local residents simply trying to escape the neighborhood.

Seven people were gruesomely shot, on national television, before the network's overnight crew realized how horrific the raw footage was. The death toll at I35 would climb to forty. Two dozen blocks in the Thomas-Dale neighborhood between University Avenue and I94 would be burnt to the ground by morning. The campus of St. Paul College would be so heavily damaged, it would not repopen for classes for three months. The Cathedral of St. Paul, with stone walls acting like an oven, would burn so hotly the copper dome would melt.

The next morning a quiet settled over the city as the fire department doused embers and ashes. Eighty four people had been killed; twice that many seriously injured. Many of them were bystanders and neighborhood residents. Tape of one candidate seemed to be congratulating the rioters, while the other candidate seemed to be egging on the police to more violence and a firmer hand. Both tapes were played almost continuously on all networks. America was stunned to see the Culture War being fought with actual bullets and deaths. They reject it and demand moderate candidates. (But in fairness have little time to find some.)

Both Giuliani and Huckabee announce their withdrawal from the race that afternoon. Secretly, a backroom deal had been reached to nominate their seconds. The convention quietly, and without fanfare, nominated moderate libertarian Ron Paul for president, and moderate businessman Mitt Romney for Vice-President.
 
The Giuliani and Paul delegates, in alliance, gutted the social conservative platform, including removing planks about abortion, gays and medical marijuana, with bare majorities of just over 50%.

The convention quietly, and without fanfare, nominated moderate libertarian Ron Paul for president, and moderate businessman Mitt Romney for Vice-President.
Two nitpicks:

I don't think Paul delegates would participate in removing the anti-abortion language from the platform. Paul is pro-life.

And I don't think Paul could be called "moderate". His views on domestic issues are a mixture of solidly right-wing (on economics) and solidly left-wing (on social issues except for abortion). And on foreign policy he's a fairly radical isolationist.
 
I don't see him getting a VP nod either. Any candidate that picked him would not get the Evangelical or conservative vote, and any GOP nomination needs that to be successful.

Ron Paul IS a conservative.

Would the evangelicals rather vote for Obama? RP is pro-life and Obama isn't.
 
Sorry, I wasn't clear on the causality. The early California and Florida primaries cause Paul to focus on the (relatively) liberal electorates of those states, rather than the relatively conservative republican primary electorates of IA, NH, SC and (less so) NV, running towards the middle. He recasts himself as an emphatic moderate. Passively pro-life, yes, but mainly an anti-war and libertarian candidate, willing to downplay or even repudiate his few socially conservative positions to grab the center of the electorate and, in a backroom deal, to possibly get either the VP slot on a Giuliani ticket as emphasizing the party's move to the center or a VP pick by Huckabee as a way of reassuring nervous moderates about nominating a Baptist minister. (This sort of shift has happened before. Romney was sort of pro-choice when running in MA, but became pro-life when running nationally.)

Basically, frontloading two delegate-rich, less conservative states in the process, it gave moderates and liberals in the party a way to disproportionately gather early delegates, especially in winner take all Florida. This resulted in a convention floor much more moderate and in line with (perhaps even slightly to the left of on some issues) the overall electorate than the Republican party activists. The situation is similar to Johnson Democrats and leftover Dixiecrats driving the party toward the right in the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

My point with the whole scenario is that it isn't just important in what order primaries happen and whether they are winner take all or proportional, rather it is partially determinative, both of selection of the eventual nominee and in shaping the messages of the candidates.

eg: How many candidates of either party would support ethanol if Iowa weren't the first in the nation caucus? How important would Cuba policy be if Florida were the first in the nation, winner take all primary?
 
Other than the massive civil unrest breaking out at the end, I found that timeline quite interesting. However, who pushes for Florida and California to go first? It's not unheard of--Florida and Michigan for the Dems in OTL--but I'm curious.

I agree about abortion, though. That might stay, but the drugs and stuff will go.

I wonder how the Democrats are doing in that timeline?
 
Ron Paul IS a conservative.

Would the evangelicals rather vote for Obama? RP is pro-life and Obama isn't.

Ron Paul may have had a social conservative voting record, but he did not run as a social conservative in OTL. In January 2008, if you had used polling to find a thousand Paul supporters and asked them why they supported him over the other Republican candidates I would guess very few would have cited abortion. Flat tax. Opposition to the war. Balanced budgets. Medical marijuana. Strong internet campaign. Isolationism. General "cool"ness. Term limits. He could safely downplay being pro-life, without losing large numbers of supporters.

But anyone whose number issue was abortion found other candidates, like Huckabee or Brownback, for whom being pro-life was more front and center in their public persona. In the Republican party if you want to stand out and differentiate yourself from the pack, being pro-life just won't do it.
 
Other than the massive civil unrest breaking out at the end, I found that timeline quite interesting. However, who pushes for Florida and California to go first? It's not unheard of--Florida and Michigan for the Dems in OTL--but I'm curious.

I agree about abortion, though. That might stay, but the drugs and stuff will go.

I wonder how the Democrats are doing in that timeline?

Florida and Michigan went early for the Republicans, too, in OTL. It just wasn't as publicized because the Reps weren't as close of a race. The RNC cut their delegate count in half to punish them.

Well, Prankster, I must admit I hesitated on the unrest. I was thinking Chicago in 1968, but the whole scenario could have worked just as well if the conservative wing of the party (fully aware that though they were by scheduling trickery a minority at the convention, a majority in the party) had simply walked out and run an independent Huckabee/Romney ticket. There were threats of exactly that in late 2007 when Giuliani looked strong.

That would have virtually guaranteed a Giuliani/Paul ticket. (Or maybe VP would be Susan Collins or Bloomberg or Condi Rice or who knows, maybe Palin in an attempt to win back conservatives. lol)

As for who moved the primaries, well both states considered it and the outcome was almost a coin toss in OTL. If you really, really want, I can look at California state legislature internal politics, and figure it out, but it could get arcane. Maybe Tancredo and Hunter pull in every favor they have to move it up, figuring they'll run strong there? Giuliani would support the shift. Huckabee wouldn't have minded it, given that Florida is a Southern primary. The real opposition within the party to the date changes would be from Brownback and Romney. They can expect to run strong in Iowa and NH respectively.

The Democrats? Not sure. I don't think the Democrats would move Florida and California ahead of Iowa and NH. Both are swing states, and the Dems were very, very motivated to win this time. The Republicans may not have been able to conceive of the possibility of the sort of disunity they were risking. They hadn't seen anything like it since Goldwater/Rockefeller.
 
Huckabee was willing to work with Paul in West Virginia, where he gave Paul three delegates in exchange for helping derail Romney somehow.

(I can't remember the exact details)

Perhaps in this scenario, Paul could buy off Huckabee somehow? The Fair Tax isn't ideal by Paul's lights, but I would imagine it's better than the income tax (less bureaucracy that way).

I do like the idea of Tancredo and Hunter being behind the shift. That's plausible (at least to me) and a simple way to explain it.

Do you plan on continuing the TL?

Also, quick question--do those Paul newsletters from the late 1980s and early 1990s that contain rather politically-incorrect (if not outright racist) things materialize per OTL? They got widespread publicity just before the NH primary, but they don't seem to have materialized in this timeline thus far.
 
WV: On February 5, SuperTuesday, OTL, 21 races were held. McCain won 9 (including California), Romney 7, and Huckabee 5.

At the time of the West Virginia caucus, OTL, Romney was seen as the man to beat. After the first round when Giuliani and Paul dropped out, they both shifted their supporters to Huckabee, thereby denying Romney a win. (Absolutely standard behaviour for any caucus.) The West Virginia caucusers are innacurately portrayed in the national media as a bunch of working class and evangelical hillbillies, and therefore a very tough uphill climb for Romney. Winning it would have given him much momentum. In OTL, he dropped out two days later.

OTOH, it was won by Huckabee, a Southern Baptist preacher with populist economic rhetoric. The media just shrugged and moved on. Plus, WV has a split system, with a caucus in February and primary election in May. Anyone who lost in the first could return for delegates in the spring, if they stayed afloat. Giuliani and Paul both had a vested interest in keeping the race evenly divided between a large field. So did Paul make a deal with Huckabee? Maybe. I suppose it's a good thing to get goodwill and also do what you wanted to do anyway.

As it turned out, McCain winning the vast majority of CA's 173 delegates made the WV race meaningless. Had he not done so well, and the CA delegate count was more evenly split, then the otherwise fairly even split on SuperTuesday would have allowed several candidates to stay afloat.

Paul's Articles: I don't think the articles really matter for a few reasons. Paul was running third or fourth everywhere, and the media doesn't dig hard on a runnerup. Had he been a frontrunner, yes, but the media has little concept of proportional races in the US. They like to declare winners and ignore the rest. (cf Edwards and affairs) Secondly, "it was a long time ago, and a different place", or at least that's what Paul could say. A kumbaya moment on the View about his resurgent view of minorities would heal a lot of it. (cf W and drunk driving charges) Thirdly, this is, let's face it, a Republican primary process. While the vast majority of Republicans are not racist, I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of racists are Republican. It would neither hurt him nor help him in the primary. (cf Huckabee and his very, very antigay writings)

The newletters in my timeline? Umm, uhh, ummm.... yep, they surfaced. They slowly percolated from the murky land of blogs into the yellow journalism of the Enquirer and the Star. Paul himself made a speech about them and gave a heartfelt apology on several daytime tv shows and with local news anchors (soft journalists). He timed the apology to fall the Friday after the Florida primary, when the whole country was rolling their eyes at the spectacle of yet another set of hanging chads and mismarked ballots down in the Tragic Kingdom. This ensured minimum scrutiny and minimum joking on Leno.

Fair Tax? <rolls eyes> Whatever. It's sort of like overturning Roe. Every Republican primary candidate likes to advance it because it sounds good to the party base at first glance, but if the Republicans ever actually did it, there would be some very wide reaching political aftershocks. How many times did McCain, Palin, Bush, Cheney, Dole or Kemp publicly express support for the flat tax after they were nominated and they had to appeal to a broader electorate? Small businesses, independent contractors, and clergy all like having tax deductions. Suburban homeowners have grown rather accustomed to deducting their mortgage payments. But I really do not want to open that can of worms here. Wrong place, wrong time.

I have no plans to continue the timeline. Where would I take it? The general? That's easy, the Democrats win. Bush. Iraq. Republican deficits. Healthcare. It was a Democratic year. In 2008 they could have nominated a black guy or a woman and still won. I would have put even money on a gay guy. The only question would be how big of a landslide?
 
Huckabee was willing to work with Paul in West Virginia, where he gave Paul three delegates in exchange for helping derail Romney somehow.

(I can't remember the exact details)

Perhaps in this scenario, Paul could buy off Huckabee somehow? The Fair Tax isn't ideal by Paul's lights, but I would imagine it's better than the income tax (less bureaucracy that way).

I do like the idea of Tancredo and Hunter being behind the shift. That's plausible (at least to me) and a simple way to explain it.

Do you plan on continuing the TL?

Also, quick question--do those Paul newsletters from the late 1980s and early 1990s that contain rather politically-incorrect (if not outright racist) things materialize per OTL? They got widespread publicity just before the NH primary, but they don't seem to have materialized in this timeline thus far.

They were not his; why does everyone bring these up all the time? If the media or anyone else actually cared if they were racist they would have revealed these IN the late 80s and early 90s! Why is it that just when he gained traction people threw this in his face (from 20+ years ago)?! It may have been written in his name, but he did not write them, and handled this just as it came out.
 
ASB likely, but something I threw around a bit ago.

It's 2007 and Paul is attending some Republican event where Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is speaking. Suddenly, she goes into premature labor! Paul rushes tot he stage and is able to successfully deliver her baby, cell phone video capturing it all. The footage is uploaded to Youtube and quickly becomes the highest rated non dance video on the site. pundits from across the spectrum praise Paul's quick thinking, especially when it comes out that had Paul not been there, both the baby and Palin might not have survived. A few weeks later, Palin gives an emotional speech where she breaks down in tears and endorses Paul, saying she owes him her baby's life.



Many pro life and Christian conservatives flock to Paul's banner, despite their disagremnts with him over forign policy. Huckabee never becomes more then a second tier candidate while Paul in TTL takes his spot as the insurgent campaign. In regards to attacks by Romney, McCain, and Guiluani over his dovish positions, Paul responds:" With all due respect to the other candidates, I think I've shown very well that I'm a candidate that knows how to think fast during a crisis. If a threat ever emerges to the Constitution foreign or domestic, Americans can trust me to deal with it."
Paul focuses more on his pro life and Christian stances then he does his foreign policy ones, and his devoted supporters win him the Caucus in Iowa, with Romney second and Huckabee a distant third. Going into New Hampshire, it becomes a three way race between Romney, McCain, and Romney. Paul pulls off yet another win, with McCain in second and Romney in third. The loss kills McCain's campaign, and he announces a few days later he's suspending his campaign. Though he dislikes Paul, he's also not fond of Romney, and he refuses to endorse.

Romney wins a few states such as Michigan, and proclaims that he's making a comeback. He also attacks Paul more directly, saying that "America cannot afford an isolationist in these trying times." Paul is hurt by this, but is able to win in South Carolina and effectively become the frontrunner. Super Tuesday confirms this status. A strong stop Ron movement emerges, the anti Paul vote is split between Huckabee and Romney, both camps hating the other almost as much as Paul. as a result, Paul has the nomination wrapped up by mid March. His choice at the Republican convention for vice president surprises no one. Sarah Palin is nominated for VP, and once again gives a moving speech about the integrity of her running mate as video of Paul delivering her baby is played in the background.


On the Democratic side, the increased interest in Paul's campaign amongst young people takes just enough votes away from Obama in Iowa to give Edwards the win. Clinton goes on to win in New Hampshire and Nevada, and Obama wins his first primary in South Carolina. Pundits begin salivating over the possibility of a splintered Democratic convention.
In the end, Edwards fails to catch fire anywhere else, drops out and after negotiation with both camps, endorses Obama. The Illinois senator defeats Clinton even more narrowly then OTL, and announces Edwards as his VP. Clinton herself whole hardly endorses the pair, but bad blood between her supporters and Obama's hurts the Democratic ticket.

Obama is able to successfully paint Paul as out of the mainstream, and has a pretty solid lead of around 5 points over him. The breaking news in early August of the Edwards scandal destroys this lead. Edwards furiously denies the allegations, and Obama spends one week pledging to stand fully behind his running mate. However, Pictures soon surface, and Edwards reluctantly resigns from the ticket(Although being forced out would be the better term)


Obama is furious, and more than a little desperate. He offers the veep role to Hillary, who refuses. He then offers it to conservative Democrat Indiana senator Evan Bayh, who accepts. The damage is done though. Right wing radio compares the Edwards scandal to Bill Clinton, and Hillary supporters, already disliking Obama, now downright hate him. Questions begin to emerge asking when did Obama know Edwards was being dishonest. Obama claims he never knew(Which is true) but his reputation as a clean outsider is tarnished. Paul emerges from his opponent's troubles looking better then ever.

Even all this barely wins Ron Paul the election Republican fatigue is strong, and the Democrats still pick up several seats in both houses of congress. Paul only defeats Obama 51-49, and many pundits question how much of his agenda he'll be able to enact with a vengeful Democratic party and lukewarm Republican party.
 
I'm sorry, did someone suggest John McCain and Sarah Palin naked and having sex on national television in prime time?

Only if we're classifying Viagra as a mind-altering drug and using IT to spike the water at the convention.

<and I would argue once again that we really need a nauseated smile option>
 
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