DBWI: George W. Bush Elected Governor of Texas in 1994:

So, as we all know, both George W. Bush and Jeb Bush ran for Governor in Texas and Florida respectively in 1994 and both narrowly lost. Jeb Bush would run for Governor of Florida again in four years and win, would get re elected in 2002, and then he and running mate Bill Frist would go on to defeat President Al Gore and Congressman Dick Gephardt (Vice President Ann Richards would decline to seek re election in 2004 due to failing Health) in 2004. President Bush and Vice President Frist would narrowly defeat Senator Hillary Clinton and running mate Evan Bayh in 2008, despite Clinton winning the popular vote by 200 thousand votes. Bush, who was viewed as an average President in his first term, is largely seen as a failed President due to presiding over the 2009 financial crisis and the fallout from it.

George W. Bush on the other hand stayed out of politics after being defeated by Ann Richards in 1994. His career in Baseball continued until 2006 when he retired. He has spent most of the last 12 years as a contributor on FOX "News." So how would things have played out if George W. Bush defeated Ann Richards in 1994? How would a Bush Governorship in Texas fair? Would he have been re elected in 1998? Would he be the Bush son that went on to be President instead of Jeb? If so, how would he have fared as President?
 
So, as we all know, both George W. Bush and Jeb Bush ran for Governor in Texas and Florida respectively in 1994 and both narrowly lost. Jeb Bush would run for Governor of Florida again in four years and win, would get re elected in 2002, and then he and running mate Bill Frist would go on to defeat President Al Gore and Congressman Dick Gephardt (Vice President Ann Richards would decline to seek re election in 2004 due to failing Health) in 2004. President Bush and Vice President Frist would narrowly defeat Senator Hillary Clinton and running mate Evan Bayh in 2008, despite Clinton winning the popular vote by 200 million votes. Bush, who was viewed as an average President in his first term, is largely seen as a failed President due to presiding over the 2009 financial crisis and the fallout from it.

George W. Bush on the other hand stayed out of politics after being defeated by Ann Richards in 1994. His career in Baseball continued until 2006 when he retired. He has spent most of the last 12 years as a contributor on FOX "News." So how would things have played out if George W. Bush defeated Ann Richards in 1994? How would a Bush Governorship in Texas fair? Would he have been re elected in 1998? Would he be the Bush son that went on to be President instead of Jeb? If so, how would he have fared as President?

OOC: uh...
 
The popular vote is sort of moot. If a Republican actually bothered to campaign in New York, Illinois, and California they'd improve enough on margin that they'd take the PV. The same can't really be said of Democrats because the only large state they don't contest is Texas. Of the 10 biggest states, 1 is red, 3 are blue, and 6 are purple.
----------

Jeb's record by 2006 included
-8 years as Governor (including 2 years as head of the RGA)
-2 years as Florida Secretary of Commerce
-Dade County GOP Chairman
-Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's Campaign manager
-Was a board memebr of the Heritage Foundation
-Co-founded Florida's first charter school in conjunction with the Urban League

If you discount the Governorship, it's still fairly impressive (not to mention the work he did on his father's campaigns) and it made him an effective governor.

George W Bush on the other hand had a failed house run, a decent oil industry career, and a baseball team. I'm not sure he'd be an above-average governor or even a decent governor.

Jeb was an average-level (if not slightly above average) president who had the unfortunate circumstance of presiding during a period in which we needed a much more than average President. Had George W Bush ended up as President I think he'd have fared much worse. He also likely would have picked a more senior running mate than Jeb did in order to deal with accusations of youth and inexperience.
 
He might've been a decent contender for 2000 in the primary, but I doubt he would have won the general against Gore. And since I'm guessing the GOP wouldn't have nominated brothers back to back, Jeb wouldn't have been nominated in '04, so we would have had a different President from 2005 to 2013. Maaaybe McCain could have gotten the 2004 nomination? I think Gore was slated to lose in 2004 anyway, since 16 years of the same party is very unlikely.

If George W. Bush somehow won in 2000, he probably would have lost in 2004 himself. I can't see Americans supporting an unpopular war (an Afghanistan was really unpopular at the time, even though we see it was the right decision in hindsight) under any President.

Was 2004 just destined to be an election where the incumbent lost? What do you guys think?
 
He might've been a decent contender for 2000 in the primary, but I doubt he would have won the general against Gore. And since I'm guessing the GOP wouldn't have nominated brothers back to back, Jeb wouldn't have been nominated in '04, so we would have had a different President from 2005 to 2013. Maaaybe McCain could have gotten the 2004 nomination? I think Gore was slated to lose in 2004 anyway, since 16 years of the same party is very unlikely.

If George W. Bush somehow won in 2000, he probably would have lost in 2004 himself. I can't see Americans supporting an unpopular war (an Afghanistan was really unpopular at the time, even though we see it was the right decision in hindsight) under any President.

Was 2004 just destined to be an election where the incumbent lost? What do you guys think?
I think it's winnable. Gore only narrowly lost the election, things were starting to turn around in Afghanistan by mid to late 2004, and while the recovery from the "dotcom" recession was weak, it was still a recovery and Gore could rightfully say the economy was back on track and that he kept the recession from getting worse in the aftermath of 9/11. If Jack Kemp managed to beat Gore in 2000, I think he could've conceivably fought off a Democratic challenger (which would most likely be Gephardt, Biden, Kerry, or Edwards) so long as he played his cards right from late 2001-2004.
 
I think it's winnable. Gore only narrowly lost the election, things were starting to turn around in Afghanistan by mid to late 2004, and while the recovery from the "dotcom" recession was weak, it was still a recovery and Gore could rightfully say the economy was back on track and that he kept the recession from getting worse in the aftermath of 9/11. If Jack Kemp managed to beat Gore in 2000, I think he could've conceivably fought off a Democratic challenger (which would most likely be Gephardt, Biden, Kerry, or Edwards) so long as he played his cards right from late 2001-2004.

Jeb Bush still managed to beat an incumbent Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton in '08. And from what I've seen on the few Fox News segments that I can stomach, his brother (George W. Bush) was more charismatic than he was.

Of course, that's assuming that George can beat Kemp in the primary. The 2000 Republican primary was already pretty close between Kemp and McCain.
 
George W. Bush would have been an awful President. All the shit he shovels into the faces of FOX viewers on The New Hour every day? That guy, President? Might as well have Sean Hannity as VP for the ultimate FOX News ticket.

Slightly off topic, but apparently Bush considered running for Governor of New York this year. Imagine a crazy like him against Governor Teachout. He'd be crushed worse than Rudy Giuliani will be, and that's saying something.
 
Teachout won a three-way race aby garnering the Green, WFP, and Liberal lines and Anthony Weiner imploding catastrophically.

I'm not sure why you think Rudy's gonna get crushed. He's still well liked in the city and if he gets 40% of the vote in the city he's a shoe-in.
 
Watch the TV ad that shows footage of then Homeland Security Secretary Giuliani praising the nuclear destruction of Kabul side by side next to pictures of Afghan children with 80-90 percent of their bodies scarred. Then explain to me why you think Rudy won't get crushed, even in NYC.
 

manav95

Banned
Watch the TV ad that shows footage of then Homeland Security Secretary Giuliani praising the nuclear destruction of Kabul side by side next to pictures of Afghan children with 80-90 percent of their bodies scarred. Then explain to me why you think Rudy won't get crushed, even in NYC.

Well if the Democrats are smarter, they would have used that to gain supermajorities in 2012 but they failed to capitalize on that. The Republicans even took back the House in 2016 and swept a bunch of Deep South seats in the process.
 
Would "W" have ordered the nuclear strikes in Afghanistan that Jeb did OTL?
Watch the TV ad that shows footage of then Homeland Security Secretary Giuliani praising the nuclear destruction of Kabul side by side next to pictures of Afghan children with 80-90 percent of their bodies scarred. Then explain to me why you think Rudy won't get crushed, even in NYC.
Well if the Democrats are smarter, they would have used that to gain supermajorities in 2012 but they failed to capitalize on that. The Republicans even took back the House in 2016 and swept a bunch of Deep South seats in the process.
OOC: ‘Dah Fuck?
 

Cook

Banned
Frankly I'm surprised he lasted so long on Fox; his politics were just too far to the left to sit well there.
 
Top