Ford The Cleveland

Awhile back I had a thread about a hypothetical Ford 1980 campaign. I still find the idea intriguing, but since I'm not sure whether simply posting in that thread would violate this site's conception of necromancy, I have decided to post a new thread. The following scenario is probably wildly implausible and I apologize for that.

The first point of divergence is that former Governor Ronald Reagan is killed in some sort of accident in 1979. With Reagan out of the race the Republican Party is left initially without a clear front runner. former President Gerald Ford enters into the race, winning the Republican nomination. Ford defeats Jimmy Carter in a 1976 rematch.

Starting January 20th 1981 Gerald Ford is President once again, and will be for the next four years. What does the second Ford administration look like? And how does it compare to Reagan's first term?
 
I actually outlined a scenario once where Ford came back to beat Carter in 1980. The pod was in 1975 though-basically Sara Jane Moore manages to seriously injure Ford, though in the end he makes a full recovery. As a result of the near miss, security around the president is tightened. Lynette Throme realises that shooting the president is virtually impossible now and decides that the second most well-known republican in the country, former governor Ronald Reagan, would be an easier target. Throme's assassination of Reagan leaves the conservative fraction of the GOP without an obvious leader to coalesce around. However, one well-known senator, the ultra-conservative Jessie Helms, comes forward to challenge president Ford in the 1976 primaries none the less. Unlike Reagan however, Helms doesn't have anything like the necessary appeal to take the fight to the convention (I'd imagine he does about as well as Buchanan did in OTL's 92 primaries).

Since Helms isn't really a credible nominee for the future, he's a lot keener than Reagan to Bolt the Republicans and run on a "Conservative Party" platform. Despite Ford's rebounding popularity as a result of his assassination attempt, Helms's third party is enough of a force to hand Carter a narrow election victory (I had Ford win the popular vote but lose to Carter in the Electoral College).

None of this really affects Carter's term in any way-the problems he faced in OTL are still there and I can't see him handling them any different.

Come 1980, the 3 main candidates for the Republican Nomination are John Anderson on the left, John Connelly on the right and Ford (who is seen as the front-runner) taking the moderate vote.

Eventually Ford wins the nomination, selecting a conservative as his running mate to please the base.

Though Jessie Helms isn't keen on a Ford renomination, he decides not to Bolt the GOP this time-many republicans blame his third party candidacy for Ford's loss in the previous election cycle.

The GOP successfully frame the election as a chance to correct the mistake of electing Carter 4 years ago, from there it's not hard to see Ford winning.

His term goes similar to Reagan's first term in many ways-the economy rebounds, for one. There may be a bit less confrontation with the USSR than OTL. Ford will receive much more muted admiration from the republican base than Reagan did in OTL, though he is creddited with helping to defeat the USSR in the Cold War and has more bipartisan respect-he'd be a lot more of an Eisenhower than a Reagan if that makes sense.

Ford leaves office in 1985 as a successful president, handing the reigns of power over to his 1980 running mate, who is able to win the 1984 election on Ford's coattales.

What do you think?
 
Sounds very plausible and enjoyable. One thign that hurt Ford was his "Poland is free" comment - it's probably butterflied away in TTL (maybe Helms makes that goof in TTL if he's alloed into a debate). I think the comment reinforced ideas of Ford's clumsiness, though with words this time.

The economy wasn't great under Ford - but it did get worse under Carter. Does he still have the New York City thing in OTL where it went bankrupt? That might be a key; Carter would be seen as having saved Chrysler. Different animal but still Ford could be hurt by that if it's juxtaposed against the New York City thing where ISTR he said the Federal government wouldn't help.

Then again, I was like 6 when that happened so I don't recall clearly what happened with it.

Still, though, if he draws enough support from conservatives and picks the right running mate, I think he could win, not as big as Regan did but I think he could win.
 
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