DBWI: Bush Surviving Past 1992?

Hi all,

As we all know, President George Bush had a heart attack in January 1992, leaving his young VP, Dan Quayle as president. My question is, what would have happened had Bush lived? Bush of course was extremely popular with the public at large at the time of his death (and remains so to this day).

So, would he be able to win re-election against Tsongas, assuming he'd still be the dem nominee? I'm aware that Quayle pulled off a narrow electoral win in OTL, but Tsongas managed to win the popular vote despite Bush's death giving Quayle a continued sympathy boost.

On one hand, Bush is more popular than Quayle ever was, but on the other, would a living Bush be able to maintain his post-Golf War popularity, despite the economy being in recession? I'm not sure about that to be honest, but let’s assume Bush does win in 1992, because there are loads of 'Tsongas wins' discussions on here. What happens during his second term and what differences are there from Quayle's presidency?

I wonder what happens to Quayle himself, if he doesn't succeed Bush as president? I doubt anyone would argue Quayle was one of the greats, but on the other hand he wasn't as bad as his critics thought he would have been and his big loss to Cuomo in 1996 was more down to voters wanting a change after 16 years of GOP rule. As I understand it, Quayle was seen as a complete joke before he became president, as aposed to the partial joke he is seen as today. Would Quayle even be Bush's running mate in 92 and if he was, would Quayle run (and be nominated) in 1996, in either a Bush wins or Bush loses in 92 scenario?

Finally, how is Jeb's career affected by his father surviving? Butterflies could well mean he isn't elected president in 2008 at least.
 
Quayle turned out to be a solid president. He did lean a bit to the right, and he proved to be surprisingly good at foreign policy - his enthusiastic response in 1988 and that "potatoe" incident concealed someone who knew what was going on in the former Soviet Union. Want to know why things in Eastern Europe are relatively stable and we have good relations with Russia? Dan Quayle's the big reason.

He also was sharp - he vetoed the proposed 1993 tax increase, and that probably helped the 1990s economic boom after the brief 1991-1992 recession. What killed Quayle was his efforts to reform Social Security and Medicare. Cuomo demagouged those issues to a narrow win, but it was close, and he still did not get a real majority in the House or Senate.

Cuomo's push in 1997-1998 for a tax hike, and the fact that he also pushed unpopular environmental laws and gun control laws that just cost the Democrats the west just lead to devastating losses in the midterms, and he got voted out in 2000, losing to George W. Bush and Orrin Hatch. Quayle is considered very underrated as a President.
 
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