DBWI: President Ronald Reagan

This is one of the USA's great political could-have-beens, and I wouldn't be surprised if this has been asked before, but what if Ronald Reagan became President?

As far as I can see, most obvious scenario is Reagan winning his challenge for the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 against incumbent President Ford, and going on to win the general election against Governor Carter.

On the other hand, there is the possibility that Reagan could have become President in 1980. Perhaps if he'd decided to challenge Vice-President Bob Dole for the nomination - but that'd be unlikely, I think. Or on the other hand, if Ford had lost in 1976, maybe Reagan could have won the nomination four years later - he wouldn't be tarred by having been on a losing ticket like Dole would have, and he would be running against Carter and not Teddy Kennedy like in OTL. At any rate he couldn't have done worse than Dole did, or George Bush in 1984.

But the best bet would be 1976 - by 1984 Reagan would probably be too old to run for re-election and win, so if he were elected in 1976 he'd be able to potentially serve two terms.
 
You are certainly delving into the realm of ASB. You are asking people to imagine an ATL wherein "Obi Wan Kenobi" of the Star Wars (1978) trilogy never returned to Hollywood. Furthermore, you are asking people to take seriously the idea of a Hollywood actor as President of the United States. I know that people were cynical enough to back celebrities Warren Beatty (D-CA) and Cybill Shepherd (R-TX) in their bids for the 2000 presidential nominations, but remember that most rational people ignored their campaigns...
 
The 1980 scenario is more plausible, simply due to the degree of ineptness that Carter showed in foreign policy. If we had listened to him on the Shah for example we would probably be seeing the reaction the British did. Also using 1984 is sort of a bizarre comparison to make since Ted lost that election. Granted you're referring to the 2nd-place primary winner and Reagan was a bit of a long shot but still..
 
Last edited:
(OOC: I've decided to ignore Mr Bondoc, as per usual)

Also using 1984 is sort of a bizarre comparison to make since Ted lost that election.
George Bush won fairly in the Electoral College but he barely got a plurality in the popular vote in 1984. 1988 was the landslide election, remember? :D
 
Reagan? I guess I could imagine it. He WAS Governor of California for two terms. But somehow he also seemed a bit of a lightweight. And some of his ideas were strange and scary sounding. In a fragile world situation such as we confronted in 1976 or 1980, would we really want to take a chance on a more pleasant Barry Goldwater?
 
I was in High School back in '76 when Reagen ran for the GOP nomination against President Ford and remember how certain many of us were that, if elected POTUS, he would lead us into a nuclear war. I see no reason why my friends, family and I would have felt different about him 4 years later. I shudder to think of the consequences if he had run and won.
 
Ronald Reagan? The actor? The straight man to a chimp in the Bonzo movies?!?:eek:

Someone have Ian move this thread to the ASB section.:rolleyes:
 
Ronald Reagan, the actor and governor of California. I guess it's understandable you'd only know him as an actor if you were born some time after the early '80s, but Ronald Reagan was a fairly prominent Republican politician in the '60s and especially the '70s.

Jeez, I'm not even American and I know more about American political history. :rolleyes:

(OOC: Read the damn thread)
 
Surely the important question would be, "What were Ronald Reagan's policies"? He was a very successful Governor of California, following a more-or-less centrist agenda, but keen on cutting taxes.

Assuming a Reagan win in 1980 is probably the least unlikely possibility, given that he could hardly hope to unseat a sitting President from his own party. Given his advanced age, a second term would be almost out of the question - wouldn't he have been in his late 70s in 1988?

So, I'm going to stick my neck out and say that RR would have been a fairly successful one-term President, increasing military spending and restoring the US to parity at least with the Soviet Union, and probably increasing the quality of life for Americans by reducing their taxes.

Who would his successor have been in 1984? Dole? Kemp? Bush? That's a question for another thread, perhaps.
 
Who would his successor have been in 1984? Dole? Kemp? Bush? That's a question for another thread, perhaps.
It's tempting to say Bush... but there's a good chance it could be Dole. It depends on what the POD is, really, because that'd determine who would be Reagan's vice-president.

If the POD is that Reagan becomes president in '76, then I'd bet the ticket would be Reagan-Dole, in which case Dole is his successor in '84 (that is, if the Democrats don't win in '80 like OTL). If the POD is that Reagan wins in '80 after Ford, then there's a good chance Dole might stay on as VP - especially as Reagan would probably be a one-termer - in which case Dole is his successor again. But if the POD is that Reagan wins after Carter, then Dole probably wouldn't be on the ticket as he would have been on the losing Ford-Dole ticket in '76, so someone else - possibly even Bush - would be Reagan's successor.

All this is assuming the Democrats don't win in '84, of course.
 
I still remember Ted Kennedy's flawless extraction plan, leaving nothing but dead terrorists and one pissed-off Shah. Beautiful work. Proving that you don't mess with the United States.

(OOC: Hope I'm in the right TL here, *is slightly confused* :p)
 
I still remember Ted Kennedy's flawless extraction plan, leaving nothing but dead terrorists and one pissed-off Shah. Beautiful work. Proving that you don't mess with the United States.

(OOC: Hope I'm in the right TL here, *is slightly confused* :p)


Those 'terrorists' include dozens of innocent civilians!
 
Those 'terrorists' include dozens of innocent civilians!

Yes well, the non-innocent ones learned that human shields don't always work. It sucks that they died but its not the fault of the rescuers. Wrong place, wrong time. "Collateral damage" (as the military term goes) can happen no matter how much the military hopes to avoid it.
 
Top