Challenge: The Independent McCain/Leiberman Presidency

Faraday Cage

This ticket could of very well happened, but how and when would they have actually won and how would they manage, against the odds, to be effective despite a Democratic and/or Republican Congress?
 
You're right, that could actually be a possibility. I think the question would be which election year? I'm thinking 2004 would be the best chance for them to run since neither Bush or Kerry were very appealing candidates.
 

Faraday Cage

So, if elected in 2004 could McCain and Lieberman get enough support from one or both parties in Congress to accomplish anything?
 
You'd need to turn McCain against Bush pretty fiercely. I'm not exactly sure what could have made him turn towards a Bush backer this year besides party loyalty; the 2000 campaign against him was pretty low and it's hard to imagine something much nastier.

Maybe the reaction would have been different? The stress of the attacks cause Cindy McCain to relapse in her drug addiction, and she dies of an overdose shortly after the general election. McCain blames Bush for his wife's death, and leaves the GOP when the new session of Congress is formed in January 2001. As an independent, he caucuses with teh Democrats, giving them 51 seats and is named the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, where he regularly spars with the administration.

The Democrats gain seats ITTL in 2002, and thus no longer need McCain for a majority, leading them to move leftwards and McCain stops caucusing with them and instead is a true independent in 2003 and 2004. He runs for the Presidency in 2004, and Lieberman, soundly defeated in the Democratic primary by a more anti-War candidate than Kerry (Dean? Or Kerry himself with a different strategy) joins the ticket that sumnmer.
 
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