D. B. W. I. President George W Bush

As a partisan Democrat,I am rejoicing at President Romney's defeat and looking forward to the presidency of Barack Obama. In particular I am looking forward to the new chief executive signing into law President Gore's stimulus package. I see it as the boast the economy needs. I assure you that prosperity is just around the corner. I thought that when Republicans blocked it during the last days of the Gore administration. I winced when President Romney vetoed it after the congress elected in the Democratic landslide of 2010 passed it. I knew then that President Romney was signing his political death warrant. The continued ten percent unemployment doomed his chances of winning this year.no In addition to the stimulas, I look back fondly on many of Gore's policies. My favorite is his support for education. I also admire his health care program. My nostalgia for the Gore administration led me to ask, what if we did not have those eight wonderful years. The obvious P.O.D. is Puerto Rico rejecting statehood in 1994. Whatever your political views you have to agree that George W Bush would have had a handicap as president. Like Rutherford B Hayes and John Quincy Adams, he would have had angry opponents shouting we were robbed. you recall after the 2000 election, there was a long recount in Florida that a Supreme Court decision stopped while Bush was in the lead. ITTL the five conservative justices don't reduce President Gore's margin of victory, they put George W Bush in the White House. How would he have done as president? How would he have handled angry Democrats? Since the vast majority of Democratic activists would have considered Gore the legitimate president that makes him the odds on favorite for the nomination four years later. So who wins the rematch of 2004?
 
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As a partisan Democrat,I am rejoicing at President Romney's defeat and looking forward to the presidency of Barack Obama. In particular I am looking forward to the new chief executive signing into law President Gore's stimulus package. I see it as the boast the economy needs. I assure you that prosperity is just around the corner. I thought that when Republicans blocked it during the last days of the Gore administration. I winced when President Romney vetoed it after the congress elected in the Democratic landslide of 2010. I knew then that President Romney was signing his political death warrant. t The continued ten percent unemployment would doom his chances of winning this year.
In addition to the stimulas, I look back fondly on many of Gore's policies. My favorite is his support for education. I also admire his health care program.
My nostalgia for the Gore administration led me to ask, what if we did not have those eight wonderful years. t The obvious P.O.D. is Puerto Rico rejecting statehood in 1994.
Whatever your political views you have to agree that George W Bush would have had a handicap as president. Like Rutherford B Hayes and John Quincy Adams, he would have had angry opponents shouting we were robbed. If you recall after the 2000 election, there was a long recount that a Supreme Court decision stopped while Bush was in the lead. ITTL the five conservative justices don't reduce President Gore's margin of victory, they put George W Bush in the White House. How would he have done as president? How would he have handled angry Democrats? Since the vast majority of Democratic activists would have considered Gore the legitimate president that makes him the odds on favorite for the nomination four years later. So who wins the rematch of 2004?
First off, don't be that partisan. While I would prefer Gore over Bush in 2000, Bush was a successful Governor of Texas. He was once again reelected in 2002 with 57% of the vote. He was a rather bipartisan Governor that could compromise. His successor, Kay Bailey Hutchison, mainly followed his direction, and was just reelected 2 years ago with 60% of the vote despite the Democratic landslide.

Gore may not have run in 2004 had Bush "won" in 2000. Democrats would want a new face that could carry on with an energetic campaign to defeat Bush, but Gore was equally boring. Also, bear in mind that the economy was quite strong in 2004. I would say Bush would be reelected by comfortable if not landslide margins, since no one would want to see change had the economy remained in such a good shape. Perhaps then-Senator John Edwards of North Carolina could get the nod in 2004?

Yep, John Edwards was defeated in 2010 by Mayor Pat McCrory despite the Democratic Revolution, thanks to his refusal to withdraw his candidacy after the video showing him having sex with his Senate intern while his wife has terminal cancer is being uploaded online. Remember the totally surprising defeat of John McCain by Gabrielle Giffords? Edwards should not have lost the election!

However, back in 2004 when his problems had not come out, he could provide the freshness and would run a great campaign, and would probably do better than Gore if he "lost" in 2000 and decided to run again. Gore could not even win his home state in both 2000 and 2004, since his Southerner status was gone after 8 years as Clinton's VP, but Edwards would make the South competitive. Indeed, John Edwards finished second in the Democratic primaries in 2008. He would be a better candidate, though not with better abilities and personality than Gore, to win in 2004.
 
I wouldn't discount Senator Paul Wellstone running in 2004 either!

Wellstone was arguably too liberal to win in 2004, and I would not forgive him for creating the radical Coffee Party movement to oust moderates in Democratic primaries earlier this year. He would make Bush look like a moderate:p It was after the Democratic Revolution of 2010 that the electorate began to shift particularly progressive. Gore was not even a liberal by standards today, and he would simply be ousted by a Coffee Party primary challenge had he chosen to return to Senate after his TTL loss:p
 
I think another likely POD, instead of Puerto Rico, would have been if Katherine Harris's purge of the voter rolls (which eliminated 20,000 likely voters - most of whom were Democrats) hadn't been stopped by the courts.

(OOC: if i ever do a president gore timeline it'll be with that POD so i wanted to throw out the DBWI version haha)
 

d32123

Banned
As for President Bush, I think he would have been just what the modern GOP needs. He was a compassionate conservative, not one of these firebreathing far-right types that dominate the GOP these days. He was not nearly as hawkish as most of the GOP establishment. President Bush wouldn't have been nearly as reckless in foreign policy as President Romney was. The biggest thing that he would have brought to the GOP long-term was the ability to win over Hispanic voters. Hispanic voters, especially evangelicals, backed him solidly in both the 2000 election and during his campaigns as Governor. Compare that to the modern GOP who couldn't even pull in more than 40% of the Hispanic vote in 2012. Pathetic.
 

Cook

Banned
I look back fondly on many of Gore's policies.
Oh God, how can anyone be nostalgic for the Bore, sorry - the Gore Presidency? The only man to fall asleep during his own inaugural speech!

Okay, a small exageration, but it was the longest presidential inaugural speech ever (And fair to say the dullest!)

As for President Bush, I think he would have been just what the modern GOP needs.
Bush Junior running for president is the Peter Priniciple; the family produces good state governors, but they tend to flounder at the national level.
 
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