DBWI: Bush Picks Cheney for his VP?

Says on the Wikipedia page for former Defense Secretary Richard Cheney that he was in charge of Bush's VP Selection Committee -- and there's a rumor, it seems, that he first nominated himself. Supposing this to be true --

Does the 2000 Election go any different? After all, Ridge was pretty important toward delivering Pennsylvania. If they do still win -- what kind of VP is Cheney? Any butterflies in how the Administration responds to events like 9/11? How is the 2008 election different?

On a related note, while we're at it, anybody think this is true? Maybe without it, we see Cheney return to the Cabinet, perhaps?
 
For starters, no Powell/Allen ticket in 2008. And thus, no President Powell

Aside from that... I dunno too much about Cheney, so I can't say.
 
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*gasp* that would mean no Vice President Powell after Ridge resigns due to that sex scandal! Bush might have actually gone ahead with that dumbass proposal to invade Iraq! :eek:
 
Seeing the Kurd-Shiite Alliance taking over Baghdad the other day, I Believe things might go different in Iraq, the U.S Came pretty close to invading Iraq until they agreed to begin dismantling some weapons, butterflying any Arab Spring in Iraq. President Powell as the first Black president might be butterflied away as well, since he likely would of gotten a different cabinet role if Cheney was VP.
 

JoeMulk

Banned
completely ASB, Cheany had absolutely no charisma. PA was a crucial state for Bush and without Chaeny on the ticket I think that he'd lose it and thus the election.
 
Not happening. Cheney is from Texas just like Bush is, so Texas' electors could not vote for both Bush and Cheney, so it would have the exact same effect as Bush picking Bob Graham. Cheney could move, yes but why pick a candidate who is contingent on that when there are so many other options?
 
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Actually if you eliminate Ridge and subtract those EV's from the Bush tally you take him down into the 270's.

IIRC there was talk about issues with the Florida vote in 2000 (GOP only won by about 50,000 votes out of several million).

If PA goes Dem, do we a bigger fight over Florida ?
 
Dick Cheney also had a couple of open heart surgeries in the past decade. Bush made the right call in not having him a heartbeat away from the Presidency (no pun intended).

If the US started a war with Iraq, it would have become our "Vietnam" and probably the Democrats would have won back the White House in 2008 if that had become an issue.

I wonder if there would still be a Tea Party movement had Hillary Clinton won the Presidency in 2008.
 

JoeMulk

Banned
It's a good thing that nobody has tried to take out Iraq. Those Weekly Standard cranks went around trying to convince Clinton, Bush and Clinton but none of them listened. They still publish insane screeds promoting regime change but nobody really takes them seriously since the Arab Spring and the Iraqi's rose up and overthrew Saddam in a popular movement on there own.
 
I wonder if there would still be a Tea Party movement had Hillary Clinton won the Presidency in 2008.
Probably not. It'll probably fizzle out if a white democrat wins in 2012 (not impossible; unemployment is still at 8.1% and no POTUS since FDR got another term with unemployment over 7.2%). It'll get a lot nastier if that one senator from Illinois runs, though. Then you have a black guy, a democrat, AND a screaming liberal in the white house.

edit: OOC: yeah, it's pretty much obvious to me that the Teabaggers only exist because a black guy was elected president, aberrations in florida aside. It would still have happened with Colin Powell.
 
Dick Cheney also had a couple of open heart surgeries in the past decade. Bush made the right call in not having him a heartbeat away from the Presidency (no pun intended).

If the US started a war with Iraq, it would have become our "Vietnam" and probably the Democrats would have won back the White House in 2008 if that had become an issue.

I wonder if there would still be a Tea Party movement had Hillary Clinton won the Presidency in 2008.
If we'd've gone to war with Iraq it would've been over in a month like the last time. Where does all this 'new Vietnam' nonsense come from? Heck, the last time we lost more men to our own side than to the Iraqis.

No, there wouldn't have been a tea party if the Democrats had won- it was because the Democratic majority in congress had to come to terms with the Powell presidency that the Tea Party exists in the first place- you know the story, of course, that Powell and Senators McCain, Graham, Frist, Dewine, and Specter met with Senators Lieberman, Biden, Gravel, Kennedy, and Rockefeller over tea and coffee to come up with the 2009 budget deal. The Tea Party moderates started with that Gang of Ten and grew to include, currently, twenty-two senators (ten Republican, eleven Democrat, and Specter) and seventy representatives (thirty-nine Republican, thirty-one Democrat).
 
Actually if you eliminate Ridge and subtract those EV's from the Bush tally you take him down into the 270's.

IIRC there was talk about issues with the Florida vote in 2000 (GOP only won by about 50,000 votes out of several million).

If PA goes Dem, do we a bigger fight over Florida ?


Would there then be question about the legitimy of Bushs victory? I mean he trailed Gore with 30.000 votes in the elections. And if he just got 275 electors instead 298, I think this could become a bit of a problem.
 
The VP slot is now the milestone for a future presidential run: taking an old former SecDef with heart problems will not help that, with no charisma at all. Ridge had at least some credentials. Just look on the Democratic tickets: Kerry, Edwards, Bayh... All of them were youngsters, ready to take their standard-bearer's place after two terms.
 
Actually if you eliminate Ridge and subtract those EV's from the Bush tally you take him down into the 270's.

IIRC there was talk about issues with the Florida vote in 2000 (GOP only won by about 50,000 votes out of several million).

If PA goes Dem, do we a bigger fight over Florida ?

OOC: Sorry if it wasn't that obvious, but I implied in my post that Gore picked Bob Graham instead of Lieberman as his running mate, which would probably mean Gore wins Florida.
 
OOC: Sorry if it wasn't that obvious, but I implied in my post that Gore picked Bob Graham instead of Lieberman as his running mate, which would probably mean Gore wins Florida.

OOC: It was definitly not obvious enough. The Thread already moved in a differnt direction. And wouldn´t have Bush lost the election, if he got Pennsylvania and lose Florida?
 
OOC: Actually did the math and no, he wouldn't -- he'd get exactly the 269 ECVs needed to win.

OOC: That would only get him tied with Gore and send the election to the House, but given how close the election was, butterflies and picking a more moderate running mate could get him New Mexico or Wisconsin and thus the election.

OOC: It was definitly not obvious enough. The Thread already moved in a differnt direction. And wouldn´t have Bush lost the election, if he got Pennsylvania and lose Florida?

On the other hand, going off on exposition in DBWIs generally isn't very popular. Damned if you, damned if you don't I guess. :eek:
 
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