DBWI: Bush over McCain

JoeMulk

Banned
In 2000 some of the vicious attacks by the Bush campaign against McCain in South Carolina backfired and made Bush look vicious. We all know the rest, McCain ran away with the GOP nomination. What if the attacks hadn't backfired and played in Bush's favor?
 
I think the negative attacks would come back to hurt Bush in the general election. It was a close one and I think Gore could have beaten Bush.
 

JoeMulk

Banned
It would have been close. I almost wonder if with Bush's brother as governor of Florida we would have had a repeat of 1960 with Jeb as Mayor Daley.
 
Al Gore was a very weak candidate. He had to be to blow that election the way that he did. He was the vice president, he was the chosen successor of one of the most popular US presidents, he had a booming economy to prop him up. And he lost. He couldn't even carry his home state (Tennessee), let alone push out the Republicans in places like Ohio or Florida.

Put him against Bush rather than McCain and the election is a tad closer, but gore is still going to lose. The loss will just hurt that much more as it will have been a nail biter, not something that was decided well before midnight.

Now, unlike McCain, Bush might only get four years. He's not the strongest candidate, and the Dems might somebody more electable than Kerry in 2004 if they thought that even had a slight chance of actually winning.
 
Eh...

Bush is a bit too far to the right to appeal nationally, IMO. He was a good candidate for the "Darn tootin'!" branch of the conservative base, but there's no way he'd be able to compete in, say, Florida.

(OOC: :D)

If he somehow did manage to win, though, he would've handled 1/4* very differently; heck, he may have wanted to go after Iraq and Kuwait rather than just stick with Afghanistan as McCain did.

(OOC: Refers to terrorist attacks that destroyed the Sears Tower and Tower 1 of the WTC on 4 January 2002; Tower 2 survived the attack)
 

JoeMulk

Banned
It's too bad that Tower 2 of the World Trade Center was recently demolished thanks to budget cuts. It's been closed since the attack due to smoke damage and debris from the first tower as well as collapsed asbestos. I can't fucking believe that they couldn't scrape enough money together to save a New York landmark.
 
It's too bad that Tower 2 of the World Trade Center was recently demolished thanks to budget cuts. It's been closed since the attack due to smoke damage and debris from the first tower as well as collapsed asbestos. I can't fucking believe that they couldn't scrape enough money together to save a New York landmark.
Yeah, it was a real shame. Still, it did look rather lonely in the skyline.
 
You forget, the SC poll closing scandal helped sink Bush as well. Had we not had that, McCain's most important legacy, the election reform law would not have been passed. Bush wouldn't have had the coattails McCain had, so expect no Senator Lazio. (Ashcroft may still have lost to Mel Carnahan, though.)
The Religious Right hasn't done so well since Keyes bolted the party and split the vote. I wouldn't see them not backing Bush...unless he cussed out someone in front of a mike.
 
America would have been screwed, Mc Cain normalized relations with Iraq, got Osama after the attacks, and did his level best to create a unity government in the wake of the 911 attacks. I may not agree with every thing he did and stood for but he was a good president who led us through some dark times.
 
America would have been screwed, Mc Cain normalized relations with Iraq, got Osama after the attacks, and did his level best to create a unity government in the wake of the 911 attacks. I may not agree with every thing he did and stood for but he was a good president who led us through some dark times.
911? What's that? :confused:

(OOC: Read my post)
 
Yeah, it was a real shame. Still, it did look rather lonely in the skyline.
To be honest I thought it was kinda ugly. The two of them were impressive but by itself Tower 2 was just a big grey brick.

I like the plan they've got for the replacement tower, though -- the obelisk design is very nice.
 
Jeb and whatshername in Florida are less enthusiastic about the Choicepoint voter purge in Florida. Voters purged for felonies committed six years in the future remain on the rolls. Gore barely wins Florida, but that doesn't matter as he wins West Virginia as the NRA was not sure where McCain stood and did not flood it with ads.

Gore listens to Richard Clarke, when 9/11 comes fighters are scrambled immediately. one plane is shot down. One plane is rammed by an unarmed fighter. The other two planes are warned of the danger, One plane survives because of resistance by flight attendants and passengers, the other crashes in a struggle after the hijackers make it to the cockpit.
 
Lets say, for a moment, that George W. Bush is elected President in 2000. I have to agree with most people that Al Gore was a weak candidate in that election, and was likely to lose to the Republican candidate. Its one of the reasons I voted Nader way back then.

How do you think he would have dealt with 9/11? We all know that McCain's war in Afganistan was largely successfull, although the Taliban still holds out in some secluded areas to this day. Would Bush have gone into Afganistan, and would his war policy have been as adept as McCain's?
By the way, here's a weird thought. What is Bush decides to go after Saddam as well? We know that the President of Iraq tried to assassinate George Sr. back in the day. Maybe, with the people supporting him, Bush would try for some good-ol Texas style justice?
Personally, I don't see it going well, if he does. He'll have two wars to deal with, and even the United States is going to have difficulty dealing with them both. Besides, although we recently saw the overthrow of Saddam in iraw as aprt fo the Arab Spring, I really wonder if the population of Iraq would be willing to see foreign troops on thier soil to take down the dictator.
One last thing. who do you think Bush chooses as his Vice-President? McCain's choice of Libby Dole was a great stroke. Do you think she ends up on the Bush ticket at all?
 
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