Suppose you are in an ATL where the US either does not exist (British don't colonize America, failed Revolution etc.) or is much weaker (Articles of Confederation, Balkanization, Native American uber-state contains US growth west of the Appalachians etc.). At some point today, ATL you logs on to ATL AH.com and comes across a curious timeline. Not being actual history, it inevitably lacks some of the finer points which would explain a number of "fortunate coincidences," but it is nonetheless a rather detailed summary of the OTL history of the United States of America. Reading diligently through this interesting timeline you find that an unstable colonial rebellion becomes the greatest power in the world in a bit over 200 years. The country has its set backs, but on the whole manages a brisk pace of improvement, in the process winning a number of wars against a rather impressive collection of world powers. Finally you reach the end of the unfinished timeline, which inevitably includes yet another unlikely event: this time the election of a minority President, and though suffering economically, the US again looks as though it is in a favorable position.
How do you interpret this timeline, is it a believably scenario, or a ridiculous wank of a country which everyone can clearly see would never have managed to get past its inter-regional/racial/religious tensions?
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This is not intended to turn into an America-bash-fest or for that matter an American-awesomeness-fest, please try not to include your political/national/ethical opinions about America. However feel free to include your ATL political/national/ethical view on American History. This is intended to be fun so let's try to avoid any crazy arguments. Finally if you reference information from OTL US history, please include only appropriate information i.e. Truman's Vice President Alben Barkley would not be included in the TL since his largest achievement seems to be nicknaming himself "the Veep", however Eisenhower's VP Richard Nixon would be in the TL since he ran against JFK and then became President himself in 1969.