alternatehistory.com

On May 10, 2005, President George W. Bush was giving a speech in the Freedom Square in Tbilisi, Georgia, the nation's capital. A man by name Vladimir Arutyunian threw a live hand grenade towards Bush, speaking. The grenade had its pin pulled, but did not explode because a red tartan handkerchief was wrapped tightly around it, preventing the safety lever from detaching. (Arutyunian had been holding it in the handkerchief while Bush was speaking.) No-one was harmed that day, and Arutyunian was arrested in July, and given a life sentence.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it: what if Arutyunian had not used the handkerchief? The POD might be something as simple as he forgot it, and he hides it in a jacket (IOTL, he was wearing one), and the assassination attempt succeeds. The causalities might include President Bush, his wife, and perhaps the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. With Bush dead, the president is Dick Cheney. While I have my own views about the man, from a purely allohistorical, non-partisan perspective, what would the Cheney administration be like? I have doubts about his competence, especially in the face of things such as Hurricane Katrina.
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