What if Bill Clinton won the 1992 election? What if his sex scandals were revealed later, or weren't revealed at all? What if Ross Perot decided to run four years earlier instead of waiting until 1996? Also, Would he have had as much success in 1992 as he did in 1996? Bush's victory over Clinton was smaller than what it was in '88 over Dukakis, but still a landslide nonetheless with him carrying 37 states and 396 electoral college votes. If Clinton's affairs got out either before or after the 1996 how does that affect the democrats?

OOC: POD(s) here is Bush doesn't back down on taxes and the democrats in congress decide not to raise taxes fearing a government shutdown. The other POD is that Perot decides to stay out in 1992 and waits until 1996. He does better in 1996 than he did in 1992, but how much better is up to ya'll ;).
 
It would hurt the Dems a bit, but not as bad as Nixon hurt the GOP.

Ironically enough, Clinton in power would’ve helped the GOP in the long run.

Bush’s tax cuts were a fucking disaster on the economy and the USA entered the millennium in economic decline. Eventually, Al Gore got voted and began fixing things.

But the GOP were never the same. Perot got the GOP moderates in his Reform party though it also became the home for the Blue Dogs after Progressives pushed the Dems further left.
 
Bush’s tax cuts were a fucking disaster on the economy and the USA entered the millennium in economic decline. Eventually, Al Gore got voted and began fixing things.
What are you talking about? The economy was booming in his second term!
the USA entered the millennium in economic decline.
Again, what are you talking about? Sure there was a recession in the early 90’s, but it rebounded. The undemoloymwnt rate in 1996 was 5.6%, and Bush had a approval rating of 55.9% when he left office.
 
What are you talking about? The economy was booming in his second term!

Again, what are you talking about? Sure there was a recession in the early 90’s, but it rebounded. The undemoloymwnt rate in 1996 was 5.6%, and Bush had a approval rating of 55.9% when he left office.

That’s like saying Reagan’s tax cuts were responsible for the 80s. The tax cuts made things worse and thus he had to raise taxes, which did fix things.

Kinda like what happened here.

Beyond that, he did not accomplish over domestically besides the usual neo-conservative goals.
 
Eventually, Al Gore got voted and began fixing things.
Yea, in 2012... it didn’t help him that he was on a losing thicket that should have won in 1992 when he launched that exploratory committee in 1996. He was a decent if not good president, but I think he could have won in 1996 if Clinton didn’t loose so badly. At least when he was Secretary of State during Cuomo’s second term he was able to redeem himself.
Perot got the GOP moderates in his Reform party though it also became the home for the Blue Dogs after Progressives pushed the Dems further left.
Looking at the 2004 ticket that statement is accurate. The Brown/McCain ticket didn’t even manage to get any electoral votes.
 
That’s like saying Reagan’s tax cuts were responsible for the 80s. The tax cuts made things worse and thus he had to raise taxes, which did fix things.

Kinda like what happened here.

Beyond that, he did not accomplish over domestically besides the usual neo-conservative goals.
All I was trying to say was that the us wasn’t doing as bad as you were saying. There was a hiccup, but it wasn’t a moment that maked any sort of long term decline. I don’t know if this helps, but Bush was able to uncover a second plot to destroy the world trade centers. After the attempted bombing of the WTC in 1993, his administration was able to stop a plan to crash commercial planes into the buildings.
 
Yeah, but Bush was not much of a noteworthy president besides being at the right place at the right time. He made the war on drugs worse and his post-presidential stuff shows he could’ve been worse
 
He made the war on drugs worse and his post-presidential stuff shows he could’ve been worse
Perhaps if Clinton won, he would have ended it? It seems far fetched, but he did weed in college, and would know that it wasn’t “the devils lettuce.”
 
Perhaps if Clinton won, he would have ended it? It seems far fetched, but he did weed in college, and would know that it wasn’t “the devils lettuce.”
Probably not. Jeb! Smoked week but still continued the war on drugs. He did back off a little bit in his second term, but his compromise with the democrats didn’t do much.
 
Well, Bush's second term was where most of his more triumphant parts of his legacy happened, especially on the foreign policy front. For all of the complaints here, Bush's Marshall Plan II to Eastern Europe alone is a landmark, no say nothing of writing the playbook on counterterrorism after the World Trade Center bombings, or his work in South Africa and Rwanda. Bush was the first American President since Teddy Roosevelt to win the Nobel Prize for godsake.

I don't see an Arkansas Governor most known for chasing skirts, willing or unwilling, having to kind of foreign policy experience needed to pull off delicate things like that.

Which means we don't see the former Warsaw Pact and USSR integrated into modern Europe and NATO, we possibly see a violent end to apartheid in South Africa, or god help us, the Rwanda crisis escalates into fullscale genocide.

President Bush has one hell of a mixed legacy at home, but damned if he wasn't the most critical President on foreign policy in a generation or two. I'll take some lousy drug laws we're only now getting rolled back for a peaceful, friendly and developed Europe stretching from Dublin to Vladivostok.
 
Top