Lee Atwater survives.

Suppose Lee Atwater, George Bush Sr.'s chief advisor hadn't died in 1991 would it have made any difference in Bush's re-election campaign in 1992?

The economy was very sluggish and the race would still be in Clinton's favor though Ross Perot would still be a headache for him.
 
Bush lost by such a margin that even Atwater couldn't have saved him. Besides, Atwater's trademark character assassination and race-baiting tactics wouldn't work as well: Clinton's adultery was suspected at the time, but not nearly as widely known as it is now, and Clinton had ordered the execution of a mentally handicapped black man while he was governor of Arkansas.
 
Even if Atwater survived his cancer, he probably wouldn't use his older, nastier tricks. His illness "woke him up" and he went around apologizing to everyone he ever wronged.

That gave me an interesting idea for a scenario--Atwater survives his cancer but refuses to use his dirty campaign tricks and ends up being fired.
 
Even if Atwater survived his cancer, he probably wouldn't use his older, nastier tricks. His illness "woke him up" and he went around apologizing to everyone he ever wronged.

That gave me an interesting idea for a scenario--Atwater survives his cancer but refuses to use his dirty campaign tricks and ends up being fired.

Perhaps, in atonement for his earlier wrongs, he signs up with the Clinton campaign? Politics makes strange bedfellows, as they say...
 
Bush lost by such a margin that even Atwater couldn't have saved him. Besides, Atwater's trademark character assassination and race-baiting tactics wouldn't work as well: Clinton's adultery was suspected at the time, but not nearly as widely known as it is now, and Clinton had ordered the execution of a mentally handicapped black man while he was governor of Arkansas.

Nah, it was Bush's unwillingness to start his campaign that killed him. As late as the fall of 1991 he still had no desire and limited staff to start up his re-election campaign.

A living Atwater might have talked him into starting up early—and Atwater was a master of the negative, not just the points you lay out, negatives work against anybody.

Even if Atwater survived his cancer, he probably wouldn't use his older, nastier tricks. His illness "woke him up" and he went around apologizing to everyone he ever wronged.

That gave me an interesting idea for a scenario--Atwater survives his cancer but refuses to use his dirty campaign tricks and ends up being fired.

Not exactly. Atwater's apology wasn't for using negative attacks, it was for the hurt he did to Dukakis (see All's Fair In Love and War, and I might have the details wrong but Atwater was certainly not apologizing for his negative attacks) and the media were far more eager to twist it around to "badboy apologizes for being mean to Dukakis".

He'd still do it again.
 
Atwater would have brought out Juanita Broadrick. Adultery is one thing, rape is quite another. Atwater would have also counseled Bush 41 against caving on the tax pledge and for using the political capital gained from the Gulf War for a massive economic reform effort.
 
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