A CRIPPLED NATION
Wilson couldn't, FDR wouldn't, Reagan shouldn't (resign due to disability)
1981-1982:
Ronald Reagan/George H.W. Bush (Republican) [1]
1980 def - Jimmy Carter/Walter Mondale (Democratic)
1982-1982: George H.W. Bush/none (Republican) [2]
1982-1985: George H.W. Bush/Jack Kemp (Republican)
1985-1989: George H.W. Bush/Jack Kemp (Republican)
1984 def - Lloyd Bentsen/Jesse Jackson (Democratic)
1989-1997: Paul Simon/Dick Gephardt (Democratic) [3]
1988 def - Jack Kemp/Bob Dole (Republican), Pat Buchanan/Alan Keyes (Strong America) [4]
1992 def - Jack Kemp/Dan Quayle (Republican), Pat Buchanan/Ross Perot (Strong America)
1997-1997: Elizabeth Dole/Michael Huffington (Republican) [5]
1996 def - Dick Gephardt/Al Gore (Democratic), Ross Perot/Scattered[nomination of Alan Keyes disputed at split convention] (Strong America) [6]
1997-1998: Elizabeth Dole/Michael Huffington (Republican/Independent)
1998-1998: Elizabeth Dole/none (Republican)
1998-2001: Elizabeth Dole/Jeb Bush (Republican)
2001-2009: Joe Biden/Blanche Lincoln (Democratic) [7]
2000 def - Elizabeth Dole/Jeb Bush (Republican), Michael Huffington/Condoleeza Rice (National Liberal)
2004 def - George W. Bush/W. Mitt Romney (Republican)
2009-2013: Jeb Bush/Mike Pence (Republican) [8]
2008 def - Blanche Lincoln/Jim Webb (Democratic)
2013-0000: Sonia Sotomayor/Jerry Brown (Democratic) [9]
2012 def - Jeb Bush/John McCain (Republican), Mike Pence/Rick Perry (Voters with Values) [10]
[1] Just months after his inauguration as President Ronald Reagan, the bright new hope of America, was shot and fatally wounded. Whilst he would not die he would become paralysed from the waste down and would suffer serious memory losses and associated problems - like Wilson and FDR before him he was a crippled President but, like them, he refused to resign over the issue. It was only when, during a meeting with British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Reagan incorrectly called her Nancy (his wife's name) that serious consideration was made as to the President's competence. Just over a year after the attempted assassination President Reagan was asked to step down by his chief of staff, Vice President and Secretary of State - he reluctantly agreed.
[2] Vice President Bush would take over as President, guiding the nation through seven years of tax cuts, military buildups and aggressive posturing against the Soviet Union. Financial deregulation and the ends of the Oil Shock led to a huge period of eocnomic growth, with America seen as more prosperous than ever before by many. The President's huge investment she in military spending also helped on thisnfornt, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country as weapons and new technologies were invested in at a rate never before seen. Bush's decision to arm a democratic Revolution in Iraq was controversial, and although Saddam was eventually toppled he was quickly replaced with a clique of military leaders who were just as autocratic and even more eager for military expansion and to work with the USSR. Leaving office in 1988 Bush had enough credit to endorse a successor, but not enough to win that man office, especially as the USSR began to collapse in 1988 and the administration floundered on how to deal with the crackdown against the democratic uprisings in the Baltic states and Ukraine.
[3] The paradoxical Liberal but pro balanced budget Democrat eked out a narrow majority in the 1988 election, promising cuts to the huge military spending of the Bush years, but also tax increases for the very richest and a stridently socially liberal agenda. His first term saw a continuation of the prosperity of the 1980s and, satisfied with their President and with Kemp seen as too power hungry for going for two consecutive runs the country decisively rejected the Republican Party. The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 had further added to his popularity as he helped usher the new Union of Sovereign States into the international community. When Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait in 1994 the Simon administration was hesitant to react, but when British Prime Minister David Owen began assembling a coalition to fight off the invasion it reluctantly joined. The war was a disaster, with Owen unable to negotiate an effective coalition (and resigning as a result before the SDP Conservative coalition could be defeated by Gordon Brown's Labour Liberal alliance at the next election) and this reflected poorly in the Simon administration. Vice President Gephardt was crushed by two moderate Republicans and Democrats downballot suffered across the country as Saddam's forces outmanouvered the coalition in the desert.
[4] An isolationist paleoconservative movement which broke away from the Republicans after Buchanan lost the nomination to Kemp in a fraught convention fight (with neither man reading the required delegate total and President Bush having to personally sway delegates for the second round), the acronym "SA" proved problematic for a right wing party, an issue which wield set the tone for Buchanan's poor campaign.
[5] Dole would led a troop surge in Iraq which, combined with the superior startegic planning of the new administration, allowed a quick victory and the capturing of Baghdad. The new administration was going smoothly - until the Vice President's messy divorce led to the revelation he was bisexual, his expulsion from the Republixan Party, and then his resignation as the Republican Party refused to back Dole until she asked him to stand down. He was replaced by Florida governor and fellow moderate Jeb Bush, but the spectre of the "Huffington Affair" hung over the Dole administration, especially as Huffington refused to "repent" for his bisexuality and pledged to run against the President at the next election. In the end with many North eastern republicans voting for Huffingotn/Rice over Dole, and with a general perception of incompetence around the Doke administration with the collapse of the Tech Bubble in 1999 led Joe Biden to victory.
[6] The Strong America party eventually collapsed over the nomination of "Radical Centirst" Ross Perot in 1996, with the convention unable to agree to his choice of running mate former Buchanan pick Alan Keyes, and two separate conventions all backing their own candidates (the "Atlanta" Convention backed white supremacist David Duke, the "New York" Convention backed Jesse Ventura the former Mayor from Minnesota and the "Official" Conventiom in Detroit backed Keyes). The three way split in the party (it appeared three times on the ballot) led to it being completely anhialated, and three groups went their separate ways with the "Atlanta" Convention forming the activist base which would merge into the Republican Party and form the nucleus of support for "Voters with Values" sixteen years later.
[7] Despite being really rather moderate, Joe Biden seemed distinctly radical compared to his two highly bipartisan predecessors, and was initially met with fear, though this was assuaged by his choice of running mate - the moderate Arkansan Democrat Blanche Lincoln who had taken up the mantle of "leader" of the balanced budget faction of the party. Biden would fail at an attempt to implement Universal Helath Care, but would ensure the passage of Universal Health Insurance as well as reforming the tax code and benefits system in the US to better benefit the poor. The 2004 election saw a divided Republican field, with former Dole Vice President Jeb Bush and his brother Governor George Bush of Texas fighting it out for the nomination at the convention, with the older Bush narrowly winning despite their father's intervention. The Republicans, seen as weak, divided, and nepotistic, plummeted in the polls whilst the right wing and moderate factions became increasingly hostile to one another. Winning a second term, Biden went on to pursue the "Comprehensive Nuclear Proliferation Ban" with the USS, France, and Britain's SDP-Labour-Liberal grand coalition under SDP leader Charles Kennedy, which cemented his place as one of the most popular modern Presidents. Although there were murmurs of economic instability by late 2008, this was not apparent. Despite Biden attempting a "Draft Rodham" movement to get prominent Illinois Senator Hillary Rodham to run against Lincoln for the nomination, she refused and Lincoln went on to sweep the primaries against Rodham and Biden Ally Illinois Governor Barack Obama. Her selection of Jim Webb as her running mate and the subsequent pivot to the right alienated many Dmeocrats, whilst centrists were more attracted to former VP Jeb Bush than Lincoln - the war of the two Vice Presidents saw Bush win his home state of Florida narrowly to capture the White House.
[8] In 2010 everything would come crashing down around Jeb Bush with the economy going into meltdown, and his VP and many allies arguing vehemently against a stimulus package or bailouts despite Bush's instincts. This, and the President's veto of the "Federal Overreach" granted by the "Protection of Traditions Act" (PoTA) barring Gay Marriage on a Federal Level led to a huge rupture in the party. With the economy grinding to a halt and the Democrats winning both houses in 2010, the Bush administration fell apart totally. The refusal of Bush to not seek the nomination in 2012 led the old "Atlanta" faction and the religious right to form their own ticket with VP Pence (once seen as a figure who could heal the rift in the party) and Texas Senator Rick Perry. The Democrats nominated the inspiring Progressive Sonia Sotomayor who chose elder statesman Gerry Brown as her running mate and promised a "Liberal Revolution" and huge spending increases to "save the economy" which nearly caused a rupture in the Democratic Party as her defeated rival Jim Webb defected to the Republicans. Bush would go on to lose the election in a landslide as the VwV ticket won Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia, whilst the Democrats won traditional Republican states like West Virginia, Arizona and even North Carolina. With VwV candidates challenging many moderate Republican Senators the party was further levelled in Convress, granting the Democrats 58 seats (including pro Democrat independent Bernie Sanders), the Republicans 41 and the Voters with Values party 1 (Perry). Bush became a political exile and one of the most hate men in America as Sotomayor entered the White House.
[9] Just sixteen years after electing her first female President America has elected her second, but even as she passes a major stimulus package and lobbies for a pro Equal Marriage amendment, only time will tell whether Sotomayor will be more successful than Dole. The extremist National Bolshevik Party threatens democracy in the USS, whilst the National Party in Britain threatens to smash the centrist consensus, and the VwV party looks set to overtake the Republicans in votes at the mid terms. President Sotomayor has plenty of work ahead of her...