"A Heartbeat Away"
1989-1991: Vice Pres. George H.W. Bush/Sen. Dan Quayle (Republican-TX/IN)
-1988: George H.W. Bush/Sen. Dan Quayle def. Michael Dukakis/John Glenn(Democratic)\
1991-1991: Vice Pres. Dan Quayle/vacant (Republican-IN/vacant) [1]
1991-1993: Pres. Dan Quayle/Sen. Bob Dole [2] (Republican-IN/KS)
1993-1998: Sen. Lloyd Bentsen/Fmr. Gov. Jerry Brown (Democratic-TX/CA)
-1992: Lloyd Bentsen/Jerry Brown def. Ross Perot/Lowell Weicker (Independent) [4]; Dan Quayle/Trent Lott (Republican) [5]
-1996: Lloyd Bentsen/Jerry Brown def. Bill Weld/Carroll Campbell (Republican); Ross Perot/David Boren (United We Stand); Ralph Nader/Bernie Sanders (Alternative for America) [6]
1998-2001: Vice Pres. Jerry Brown/Sen. Harvey Gantt (Democratic-CA/NC) [7]
2001-2002: Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf [8]/Vice Pres. Harvey Gantt (United We Stand-FL/Democratic-NC) [9]
-2000: Norman Schwarzkopf/Arlen Specter def. Jerry Brown/Harvey Gantt (Democratic); Tommy Thompson/Pete Wilson (Republican); Bernie Sanders/Sheila Keuhl (Alternative for America)
2002-2005: Pres. Norman Schwarzkopf/Sen. Arlen Specter (United We Stand-FL/PA) [10]
2005-2009: Gov. Matt Salmon/Fmr. Sen. Fred Thompson (Republican-AZ/TN) [11]
-2004: Matt Salmon/Fred Thompson def. Ted Strickland/Dina Titus (Democratic); Arlen Specter/Tim Penny (United We Stand); Bernie Sanders/Al Sharpton (Alternative for America)
2009-2013: Fmr. Vice Pres. Harvey Gantt/Sen. Maj. Leader Tom Daschle (Democratic-NC/SD) [12]
-2008: Harvey Gantt/Tom Daschle def. Matt Salmon/Fred Thompson (Republican); Bernie Sanders/Dennis Kucinich (Alternative for America)
2013-2021: Gov. Diane Black/Sen. Marc Ferzan (Republican-TN/NJ) [13]
-2012: Diane Black/Marc Ferzan def. Harvey Gantt/Tom Daschle (Democratic); Ron Paul/Bob Barr (Free Enterprise); Bernie Sanders/Jill Stein (Alternative for America)
-2016: Diane Black/Marc Ferzan def. Tom Pereillo/Felecia Rotellini (Democratic); Randall Paul/Cameron Winklevoss (Free Enterprise); Cornel West/John E. Waters (Alternative for America)
2021-2029: Sen. Cynthia Wolken/Gov. Mike Nutter (Democratic-MT/PA) [15]
-2020: Cynthia Wolken/Mike Nutter def. Michael Bay/Dan Patrick (Republican) [14]; Peter Thiel/Austin Petersen (Free Enterprise); Cornel West/Ai Jen Poo (Alternative for America)
-2024: Cynthia Wolken/Mike Nutter def. John James/Phil Scott (Republican); Michael Bay/Corey Stewart (Proud Americans)
2029-present: Gov. Peyton Manning/Rep. David Valadao (Republican-IN/CA) [16]
-2028: Peyton Manning/David Valadao def. Mike Nutter/Liz Watson (Democratic)
1. On August 1, 1991, while giving a speech regarding Ukrainian independence following the Cold War, President Bush was assassinated by a hardline-communist Russian Afghan War Vet. Mere minutes later, President Quayle was sworn into office. The new president's first act was to condemn not just the assassin, but the government of Russia as well, by implying (in a rare display of rhetorical tact by Quayle) that he was connected to the KGB. This newfound hostility incensed Vladimir Zhirinovski and many of the hardliners within the Duma, and he strove to be the devil on Yeltsin's shoulder. However, Yeltsin stuck to his reformist positions, and as a result, Zhirinovski ground the legislative process to a halt, further endangering the already-struggling Russian economy.
2. In order to endear himself to the Republican establishment, President Quayle nominated Bob Dole as his vice president. However, Dole would soon come to know that though he was the ex officio VP, the real Number 2 was Chief of Staff Pat Buchanan. Feeling shut out, Vice President Dole would later announce that he would not be present on the re-election ticket with President Quayle. At the 1992 RNC, Quayle announced that his new running mate would be another establishment Republican, but one more in line with his vision: Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi.
3. After a contentious primary season, Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas became the democratic nominee over Jerry Brown. Having served in the senate for many years and having nearly been selected as Dukakis's running mate in '88, Bentsen was a natural campaigner. His erudite, grandfatherly demeanor was not only a perfect contrast to President Quayle, but to his primary challengers, Jerry Brown and Bill Clinton. Clinton crashed and burnt after his personal indiscretions were leaked, and Bentsen grabbed the southern delegates. The rest of the primaries were a bloody battle, but Bentsen prevailed over the eccentric Brown. In order to unite the party, Brown was nominated as VP.
4. Another oddity of the 1992 campaign season was the entrance of tech billionaire Ross Perot of Texas, who campaigned on fiscal responsibility, investment into America's digital infrastructure, and the defeat of NAFTA. His run would have seemed outright quixotic if he wasn't running against tickets featuring Governor Moonbeam and a man who couldn't spell the word "potato" correctly. However, in an event not seen since 1912, his third party run finished second in the electoral vote count. Scholars attribute this to Quayle's lack of appeal outside of his native Indiana and the Deep South, and the Perot/Weicker ticket picking up Republicans who were disillusioned by the party's recent leap into interventionism and social conservatism.
5. According to historians, Quayle was doomed from the start. The delayed recovery from the 1990 recession was furthered by investors' fears that Quayle's belligerence towards Russia would trigger World War III. Bentsen, ever the seasoned politician, was able to connect with voters worried about the economy and foreign policy in a way Quayle simply couldn't, by exuding a calming, paternal aura. However, as much as Bentsen seemed to be a steady hand at the wheel, he was also one stone-cold motherfucker. This was exemplified in the infamous "Mr. President, you're no Jack Kennedy" comment he delivered to Quayle, who had just likened himself to America's thirty-fifth president during a debate.
6. In 1996, Bentsen's re-election was more or less a sure thing. The economy had recovered, and the United States had stopped poking the bear. Meanwhile, the Republicans decided to repudiate "Quaylism" and nominated Governor Bill Weld, a Massachusetts moderate, and Ross Perot ran once more, under the "United We Stand" banner. However, in a field of centrists and moderate conservatives, two men sought to be a voice for progress: activist Ralph Nader and Rep. Bernie Sanders, who ran as the leaders of the "Alternative for America" party. In the end, Bentsen and Brown won in a landslide, and continued to implement their agenda for a prosperous new millennium.
7. Unfortunately, the Bentsen era would come to an early end. In 1998, the President suffered from a debilitating stroke, and resigned from office. Jerry Brown was quickly inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States. At first, things went swimmingly. He nominated Senator Harvey Gantt, a man most known for his narrow victory over Jesse Helms in 1990, as his vice president. The economy continued to truck along. However, across the pond, tensions began to brew. Within the first few months of the Brown presidency, Russia collapsed into civil war. As it turns out, one politician's prevention of the government from helping a populace in need leads to economic turmoil, which, if unchecked, leads to high political tensions. Brown was not selected for his foreign policy chops, and jokes were often made by late night TV hosts that he was meditating during NSC meetings. His short presidency would thus be defined by foreign policy clusterfucks that ensued.
8. Ross Perot's exit from electoral politics left the United We Stand party in disarray. The party's big tent nature made it a natural home to wings comprised of paleoconservative, isolationist Quayle admin. exiles, A4A-lite protectionists, and the establishment radical centrists, whatever that means. However, like any bird with too many wings, it was bound to crash (all you ornithologists can cite me on that).
However, with foreign policy being the dominant topic of the 2000 election, a strong draft effort was created by party members calling upon Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf to be the nominee. Schwarzkopf was initially reluctant, but upon seeing that the major parties' nominees were Jerry Brown and Tommy Thompson, he decided that he would have to step up and serve his country once more.
9. The resulting election was one of the most chaotic in American history. A hung electoral college led to a contingent congressional vote, which narrowly voted for Schwarzkopf as president and Gantt as VP. On January 20, the first president from neither the Democrats or Republicans in well over a century took office, promising to return the world to a state of stability so that every man, woman, and child in America could sleep peacefully. Once the speech was over, the politics began. Schwarzkopf and Gantt agreed to split the duties of the office, with The Bear dealing with foreign policy and Gantt taking domestic affairs. This arrangement worked well for the first year or so, but Schwarzkopf, wanting to appear as a legitimate independent, asked Gantt to step down so his original running mate could have the office. Gantt obliged, and Arlen Specter would be nominated as VP.
10. However, the realities of an independent presidency set in, and once the situation in Eastern Europe calmed down, partisanship effectively prevented Stormin' Norman from getting anything done on the domestic front. He had hopes that Specter and his history of bipartisanship would allow him to wade these waters, but both he and his veep were seen as too liberal for the Republicans and too conservative for the Democrats. President Schwarzkopf did however fulfill his original promise of defusing tensions in Russia, and as such, he decided that preventing the world from turning into a nuclear wasteland was enough of a legacy. In late 2003, the president announced that he would not be seeking re-election. Thus began the end of the United We Stand Party, and the return to business as usual.
11. After twelve years out of power, the young, charismatic Governor of Arizona led the GOP back to the White House. He abandoned much of the inflammatory reactionist rhetoric of Quayle for a more center-right social policy, and prioritized economic issues over social ones. Rounding out the ticket was Former Senator Fred Thompson, a social and fiscal conservative. However, this Republican dream team faced a nightmare in the looming recession, brought on by a housing bubble and bank deregulation started in the Bush presidency that was never truly stopped.
12. Gantt had already been co-President for a few years under Schwarzkopf, so his return from retirement went off without a hitch. The large democratic field suddenly became much smaller, and Gantt sailed to the nomination. He and Senator Daschle trounced President Salmon, and sought to turn around the sinking ship. However, try as they might, the economy was still shaky come re-election season. Furthermore, the war in Ukraine began under Gantt's tenure, providing his successor with ample ammunition to attack him.
13. Governor Black had made history as the first female president, following the first black president. Fortunately for her, her time in office would be much less tumultuous than her predecessors. Alongside Marc Ferzan, the junior senator from New Jersey, she quickly got to work on revitalizing the economy with a set of tax cuts and loosened regulations. However, the crown jewel of her legacy was the light rail system she greenlit as part of compromise jobs bill with the Democrats. Overall, there were no major hiccups outside of a row with the opposition over healthcare in her first term. As such, one would think that such a presidency would provide solid coattails for her Vice President.
14. However, you would be wrong. Vice President Ferzan was chosen as a moderate who could temper Black's conservatism. Moderatism, unfortunately, was not what the Republican base was seeking in 2020. The Ukraine War fizzled out after a series of drone strikes, leaving the hawks in the party with so-called blue balls. Enter director of the "acclaimed" Transformers film series and nationalist conservative media pundit, Michael Bay. Conservatives had inferred from the Autobots' escapades in Eastern Europe that Bay was fairly hawkish, and when he began to rail against the "spineless" Ferzan, he earned their backing. Thus, he stole the nomination, and what was supposed to be a third term for the Black administration became the first term for President Wolken.
15. President Cynthia Wolken was the consummate outsider. Having started as a state representative from Missoula, Wolken quickly climbed the latter and defeated Senator Zinke. Within months, she became the new voice of the agri-populist left, fighting for what was left of America's labor unions and, in her presidency, passing yet another public works bill (this time focusing on the country's energy grid) and a universal healthcare program. The economy continued to grow under her presidency, but when that growth began to slow, the prospect of tax increases to fund stimulus programs was met with hostility. And when the state of the economy officially was labelled a recession, the proverbial shit hit the fan.
16. America needed someone who had experience calling the shots, and to many on the right, nobody fit that better than former Colts quarterback and Governor of Indiana Peyton Manning. President Manning and Vice Presiden Valadao (formerly the senator from cobalt-blue California, in one of those quirks of the open primary system) pulled from President Black's playbook, though on the whole, Manning marked a departure from Republican orthodoxy, choosing to be more socially-conservative and fiscally-moderate. However, with Social Security benefits scheduled to be cut in the next few years, time will tell if the new president will be able to keep the economy from going belly-up.
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