DBWI: Clinton wins the 1992 Democratic nomination

We know that in 1992, the Democratic Party doubted it could beat Bush considering he was seen as unbeatable. During the nomination race, the insurgent campaign of Jerry Brown surprisingly won after eking out wins in his home state California and other states like New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota and others. While the DNC was a mess, Brown was nominated and he unexpectedly picked Paul Tsongas or the Vice President slot.

In 1992 we got a surprise. Even with all the smearing of Brown and Tsongas as socialist and with a pretty dirty campaign, Brown won and we got eight years of Democrats.

What do you guys think would have happened if Clinton won the nomination?

Would he have even won the election?
 
I think people would see Clinton as another Carter. Another Governor from the South? It'd send people straight into the arms of Bush. Brown had the massive advantage of being from California, with its mass of Electoral Votes. Arkansas is too small to be a viable base for a general election.

There also seems to be some issue with Clinton being a bit of a womaniser - which means he'd be another Carter, without Carter's moral advantages. I see Bush getting re-elected by about the same margin he beat Dukakis by.
 
Okay, but still, all those people who would have been turned off by Clinton would probably be potential Perot voters here.

True, I think Perot would have done better in TTL than OTL. Mind you, he saved Brown's bacon in 1996 with that split vote in Ohio...
 
True, I think Perot would have done better in TTL than OTL. Mind you, he saved Brown's bacon in 1996 with that split vote in Ohio...

I'm pretty sure that even without Perot Brown would still have beaten Dole. A post election analysis showed that Brown would've been re-elected with 51% of the popular vote and over 300 electoral votes.

Anyway, Brown's presidency certainly was eventful. NAFTA got mothballed, his original 1993 budget proposal failed in Congress (the flat tax was just untenable), and the GOP retook Congress in 1994. Though at least the Dems managed to regain the House in 1996. What did Brown achieve in his second term? Anyone remember?
 
Clinton smoked pot and cheated on his wife. Both of those are dealbreaker for voters.

George W. Bush used cocaine and that was a factor in his failure to win the nomination in 2000. If Clinton had overcome marijuana the cocaine scandal might not have had any impact. (Kind of strange that it still matters - a lot of voters have smoked weed.) In fact, Barack Obama admitted to hard drug use in one of his books and it almost derailed his appointment to the Supreme Court in 2006.
 
Anyway, Brown's presidency certainly was eventful. NAFTA got mothballed, his original 1993 budget proposal failed in Congress (the flat tax was just untenable), and the GOP retook Congress in 1994. Though at least the Dems managed to regain the House in 1996. What did Brown achieve in his second term? Anyone remember?

It was pretty sadly uneventful. For all the chest thumping by Republicans and anyone else that Brown was a socialist hippie, his two term Presidency didn't amount to very much. During his election campaign he blasted his own party and the Republican Party and as a populist, his "take-back US for the people" style rhetoric, while resonating with enough Americans to elect him, didn't really make any of his future allies and enemies in Congress very happy. Hey, at least he re-installed the solar panels to the White House.

He tried to pass term limits, but boy how that ended up same with his plan to abolish the Department of Education. In his second term, well, I might not be remembering very well but I don't think he was able to did much as he was still stonewalled. At least he appointed Cuomo to the SCOTUS in his first term.

Either way, we know that Brown's term happened to land in the middle of the Yugoslav Wars.

I don't remember what he did though or what impact the USA had on it. Does anyone here recall?
 
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Made an electoral map for this one for fun.

I doubt Clinton would win California, actually.
 
Still, he would've done better in the South.

He would have done better in the South, but do you think it would've been enough for him? Plus, I feel like he'd disenfranchise many of the former Republican states that turned Blue in the north in this election. I doubt he'd win as much as Brown did in there. But one thing that we'll certainly lose is jokes about having the first brown President.
 
He would have done better in the South, but do you think it would've been enough for him? Plus, I feel like he'd disenfranchise many of the former Republican states that turned Blue in the north in this election. I doubt he'd win as much as Brown did in there. But one thing that we'll certainly lose is jokes about having the first brown President.

He flips Arkansas as he's a popular native son. Good chance of flipping Louisiana as well - it's more moderate on social issues due to higher urbanization and Catholic cultural influence, and being a rogue on the personal level fits in with a lot of popular historical politicians there. And he plays the saxophone. Can't hurt in the birthplace of jazz.

But without California that leaves him at 268. Needs one more of the OTL red states and none look like that good a candidate.
 
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