DBWI: Vice President Al Gore and Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt

When Barry Goldwater announced that he would retire from the US Senate and not run for reelection in 1986, Governor Bruce Babbitt of Arizona announced his candidacy for the Senate.

Rep. John McCain, a former Vietnam War POW, had considered running to succeed Goldwater but with polls showing a 20 point lead for Babbitt, McCain opted to run for Governor. McCain defeated perennial candidate Evan Mecham in the Republican primary and was elected Governor in 1986. McCain would be reelected in 1990.

Babbitt was elected to the Senate in 1986, a great year for the Democrats. In 1992, he ran for President but dropped out after winning only his home state primary and the Nevada caucus. The eventual nominee, Bill Clinton picked Babbitt as his running mate. The Clinton/Babbitt ticket won that year and the rest is history. Acting on Babbitt's advice, Clinton picked Senator Albert Gore of Tennessee for Secretary of the Interior.

In 2000, Vice President Babbitt ran for President and easily won the Democratic Party nomination. He selected former Senator Bill Bradley as his running mate. When Babbitt's was declared the winner of his home state of Arizona after 1:30AM, he was elected President of the United States with only Florida undecided (which would be called two weeks after Election Day for Texas Governor George W. Bush by over 600 votes).

Now retired and living in his hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona, former President Babbitt recently revealed in his autobiography that he considered running for President in 1988 instead of the Senate in 1986.

Judging from his first run for President in 1992, would Babbitt have been as successful in 1988 as a candidate?

And let's say that George H.W. Bush is still elected President in 1988 and Bill Clinton still wins the Democratic nomination in 1992 and picks Al Gore instead of Bruce Babbitt for Vice President? And in a Clinton administration, it is Babbitt that becomes Secretary of the Interior.

Had Gore been the 2000 Democratic nominee, would he have been able to win Arizona and Florida (assuming he wins the other same states as Babbitt), and win the Presidential election? Assuming Gore becomes President, would he have handled the terrorist attacks of 11/28/11 the same way that Babbitt did?

And if John McCain was elected to the Senate instead of Governor of Arizona, would he have been a credible candidate for the Presidency?
 
Why would Clinton pick Al Gore as his running mate? Both of them are Southerners. That doesn't make sense at all.
OOC::D
 
Why would Clinton pick Al Gore as his running mate? Both of them are Southerners. That doesn't make sense at all.
OOC::D

Nevertheless, Clinton's selection of Babbitt was to present the Democrats as a centrist party.
 
On the other hand if Gore had been VP he might have mucked up the 2000 campaign.

As it was Babbitt only won narrow victories in 2000 and 2004 (please don't restart the recount debate).

With Dems in the WH for 16 yrs it was tough to pass blame when the economy collapsed in 07/08 (to be fair the collapse was the result of bipartisan policies between Dem WH and GOP Congress) but the party in the WH takes the blame.

So we wouldn't have had the wipeouts of 06 and 08.

We also probably would not have had the moderates succeed in nominating Rell in 2008 if the GOP right hadn't been dying to return to power.

And while President Rell does deserve credit for the recovery, it likely would have improved whoever was in WH.

But as it stands Rell is likely to win in a landslide this year and while VP Danforth probably wont run in 16 the GOP is still going to be pretty strong.
 
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