D.B.W.I President George W Bush

As an alternative historian the what ifs of
history, of course, fascinate me. As we are about to enter the last month of President Gore´s eight years in office, it struck me that one of the most obvious examples is how the admission of Puerto
Rico as a state proved essential to Gore success in
2000. If the citizens of the 51st state had rejected
joining the Union in 1993, they would not have
provided the eight electoral votes that proved essential to
> Gore´s narrow 275 to 271 ( just one more than the
274 needed) margin of victory. In the other fifty states
And the DC, Gore lost 267 to 271. ( Many of you on this
Site are too young to remember that when Puerto Rico
became a state, the House of Representatives was
Expanded from 435 to 441. The electoral college had 538
members instead of the current 546. So it was only
necessary to win 270 electors.)
> Of course identifying the P.O.D. is only the
beginning challenge of alternative history. So
therefore I would like to begin a discussion that
completes our assignment by describing the
hypothetical Presidency of George W Bush. One of
the things to consider is how much public support
would he have enjoyed considering that he would have taken
office as the first Chief Executive since Benjamin
Harrison to have lost the popular vote. He also
would have won because of the controversial Florida
recount. While largely forgotten today the Supreme
Court´s decision in the lawsuits Bush vs Gore and Gore vs
Bush stopped the reexamining of ballots in the Sunshine State. While OTL
this reduced Al Gore´s electoral votes majority. ITTL the five
unelected conservative justices that formed the
majority, would have killed the hopes of Democrats
of keeping control of the White House. This means like Rutherford B Hayes and John Quincy Adams, Bush would have faced an opposition angry over a stolen elecion. Of course
these events would made Al Gore the legitimate President
in the hearts of most Democratic activists and
therefore guaranteed him the 2004 Democratic
nomination. So we also also have to ask ourselves.
Who would have won the 2004 rematch?
 
He also would have won because of the controversial Florida recount.

The extreme closeness of the Florida vote in OTL was a freak event. A change as major as Puerto Ricans not voting for statehood, would guarantee the recount controversy never happens in this ATL, due to butterfly effects.
 

maverick

Banned
Besides this is really hard to tell...how would George Bush be as President?

Wikipedia doesn't say that much about his time in Texas or as owner of that football team...
 

JohnJacques

Banned
I think his policy advisers should be looked at.

There are a few Jacksonites in his foreign policy team, I believe, but beyond that I don't know.

OOC: "Neo-con" doesn't enter common parlance, instead Jacksonite for Scoop Jackson becomes the norm
 
Besides this is really hard to tell...how would George Bush be as President?

Wikipedia doesn't say that much about his time in Texas or as owner of that football team...

He might have been a moderately isolationist Rockefeller Republican. Unlike Gore he might not have invaded Afgahnistan in 2004.
 
Hm. I imagine Bush Jr. would likely be a younger version of Bush Sr., which would not necessarily be a bad thing. But he'd probably also take after his father in 'Doin what's right, to hell with the voters' and raise taxes after the dotcom bubble burst, thus guaranteeing a single term. As far as who'd replace him - Lieberman? After a good long time of Southerners being on the top of the ballot, I figure a Northerner might be the one to get in. Lieberman's done a good job of swaying moderates and the fiscal conservatives onboard with plenty of Gore's policies, I bet he'd pick up a few red states if he ran.

Hmm. Howard Dean's done a remarkable job as Minister of Health (effectively toppling the whole health insurance industry without any huge economic side-effects is no mean feat), and he seems to be a bit of a firebrand populist. Let's say maybe?

I don't know who else.

Or hell, I don't know, maybe Bush'd finally settle the score with that bastard Saddam. I mean, didn't Sr. expect the shiites to topple the Baathists after the Gulf War? Dad could tell sonny about a little thing called Contras and how to organise a coup... :D
 
Excuse me Mavcerick, I think it was a baseball team. That is of course counting on memories of almost a decade ago. After his fifteen minutes of fame, the younger George Bush , sure faded from the public eye.
 
Excuse me Mavcerick, I think it was a baseball team. That is of course counting on memories of almost a decade ago. After his fifteen minutes of fame, the younger George Bush , sure faded from the public eye.

Isn't he on the board f some corporation? Franni something or other? I'd check Citizendium, but it's down atm.
 
Besides this is really hard to tell...how would George Bush be as President?

It would probably be a brief presideny. Look at Bush's career after his 2000 lose to Gore.
It was at a party hosted by Jim Baker in 2002 that after his third scotch, that he choked on a pretzel and collapsed. He's been in an irreversible coma ever since, rumors circulated in the Internet that he's even brain-dead.
Question is, what would a Cheney presidency have looked like.
 
Oh, come on. There is absolutely no reason to assume that a freak accident will be replicated in ATL.

I'm not personally fond of Bush, but if you look at some of his policies, they certainly seem reasonable and viable. Some historioans see his 'Compassionate Conservatism' as much as an attempt to tame the Religious Right as to pander to it, and the propositions bear this out. Coupled with a pro-business economic policy and what he called a 'humble' (some would say cautious) foreign policy could well avoid some of the more egregious errors of the Gore presidency. Relations with China would certainly be warmer (recall the back-and-forth over a high-ranking US delegation at the Beijing Olympics and the Chinese insistence that there were 'no more carbon offsets available' so flights had to be cancelled by the end of the year). A moderate, pro-business Republican might be just the ticket to avoid some nastier internal clashes, too. I don't think we'd have the row over gay marriage and the antipagan 'Family Faith' controversy with Bush in the White House. Very likely her'd have had his cohorts better in hand and he wouldn't have gone all controversial like Gore.
 
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