U.S. Presidents since 1960
1961-1965: Richard Nixon / Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (Republican)
def. 1960 John F. Kennedy / Lyndon B. Johnson (Democrat)
Nixon faced a tougher than expected challenge from the Democrats, but ultimately came out on top. The most important accomplishment of his presidency was the passage of the Civil Rights Act, which was described as both revolutionary by its supporters, but dangerously radical to its detractors on the right and far too modest to its detractors on the left. However, many still remembered the failure of the Bay of Pigs, and more still simply found Nixon untrustworthy and unlikable, putting him in a precarious situation in 1964.
1965-1969: John F. Kennedy / Hubert Humphrey (D)
def. 1964 Richard Nixon / Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (R) and George Wallace / Ezra Taft Benson (American)
Despite his previous defeat, Senator Jack Kennedy managed to shockingly clench the Democratic nomination a second time, choosing Minnesota senator Hubert Humphrey as his running mate. This was seen as a massive slight by Southern Democrats, who, lead by Alabama senator George Wallace, formed the pro-segregation American Party. Nonetheless, Kennedy managed to come on top in the ensuing election, something that was greatly helped by an unconfirmed leak alleging that the Nixon campaign was using covert methods to undermine its opponents. The presidency was not easy on Kennedy, however; the faltering economy that had also in part led to his victory over Nixon continued, as did tensions with the communist regime in North Vietnam. This led to the controversial decision to send American troops into Vietnam, outraging the left. Kennedy expected that he might face a challenge from the left in 1968, but considering his administration's efforts in expanding Nixon's civil rights legacy, he was very surprised by where it came from.
1969-1977: Nelson Rockefeller / William Scranton (R)
def. 1968 John F. Kennedy / Hubert Humphrey (D), George Wallace / J. Edgar Hoover (A), and Martin Luther King Jr. / Benjamin Spock (Peoples)[1]
def. 1972 Hubert Humphrey / Robert F. Kennedy (D) and Eugene McCarthy / Gore Vidal (P)
In 1968, liberal-to-moderate Republican Nelson Rockefeller won the nomination and created a bit of a stir among the conservatives by choosing fellow moderate William Scranton as his running mate, trying to create a ticket that will draw in dissatisfied Democrats. Meanwhile, George Wallace decided to carry the American Party's banner one more time, seeing the other candidate's hostility towards "Southern interests." His repeat candidacy was not taken seriously at first, but it gained much attention when he announced his running mate: (in)famous FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, who, dissatisfied with the other candidates stances and with the subversiveness inherent in the rising American counterculture, decided to join Wallace for the ultimate law-and-order ticket. Hoover's decision to join Wallace was likely influenced by the reluctant entry of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. into the race as a left-wing pro-peace candidate. Kennedy, faced with a near-identical situation to President Truman in 1948, tried to pull of a similar upset. However, while Wallace failed to meet his 1964 performance, becoming the American Party's last major candidate, and King ultimate failed to galvanize liberals and African-Americans as much as he had hoped, the papers reading "Rockefeller defeats Kennedy" were in fact true. A stressed and exhausted Kennedy, suffering from Addison's disease, later died the year he left office. Rockefeller's first term saw economic prosperity, but also an increase in tensions with Vietnam. Under the staunch anticommunist, tensions with the Soviets were at an all time high. Nonetheless, despite a primary challenge from the archconservative Senator Barry Goldwater, he managed to win easily in 1972: Hubert Humphrey attempted to mend his party's divisions by choosing JFK's more antiwar brother Robert as his running mate, but the Peoples Party's nomination of his primary rival, Eugene McCarthy, who chose Representative Gore Vidal as his running mate, complicated matters. In the end, it was hard to match the incumbent president's popularity. Rockefeller's second term was notable for three major things: the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, the end of the Vietnam War in a stalemate between the North and South, and a NORAD glitch that nearly led to nuclear war[2]. Rockefeller's popularity gave the Republicans an advantage in 1976, but they knew that their position was vulnerable.
1977-1985: Mo Udall / Edmund Muskie (D)
def. 1976: William Scranton / John B. Anderson (R)
def. 1980 Ronald Reagan / Howard Baker (R)
In 1976, Vice President Scranton defeated conservative California governor Ronald Reagan in the Republican primaries and, as a conciliation to conservative Republicans, who had long felt neglected in presidential politics, chose the solidly right-wing Representative John Bayard Anderson as his running mate[3]. Meanwhile, the Democrats managed to heal the rift within the party through the liberal ticket of senators Mo Udall and Edmund Muskie. Ultimately, Udall narrowly beat Scranton; it is believed that a key part of his victory was his support of détente with the Soviet Union, which the American people, exhausted by the Vietnam war and frightened by the NORAD incident, were very receptive to. The Udall administration introduced a number of liberal reforms, including an expansion of social security and the EPA. Ronald Reagan clinched the Republican nomination in 1980, but, while many attracted to his charisma, his message of fiscal responsibility and denouncement of "appeasement" with the Soviet Union simply did not find much appeal with the American public, who largely approved of Udall's presidency. However, with a perception of inaction in the face of Soviet aggression in Afghanistan and elsewhere, especially following the socialist uprising in Iran, the Democrats faced a situation in 1984 similar to the Republicans' in 1976.
1985-1986: Antonin Scalia / Howard Baker (R)
def. 1984 Ted Kennedy / Jimmy Carter (D)
In 1984, the seventy-year-old Vice President Muskie opted not to run for president, leaving an open field that was taken by Senator Ted Kennedy, the youngest of the Kennedy brothers, who chose moderate Southerner Jimmy Carter as his running mate. The Republicans, meanwhile, were overtaken by a dark horse candidate: Antonin Scalia, an acclaimed archconservative legal scholar who had served as attorney general and governor of New Jersey and chose Senate Republican Leader and 1980 VP Candidate Howard Baker as his running mate. Winning in an upset, Scalia seemed to have brought the conservative revolution that Reagan had failed. His presidency was a difficult one, marked by his recording-breaking use of the presidential veto, following his strong belief in limited government. However, Scalia is remembered fondly due to what happened on May 1, 1986: a lone gunman shot the president, who died instantly.
1986-1989: Howard Baker / John B. Anderson (R)
The earliest act of the Baker administration was the investigation of President Scalia's murder. The assassin made open use of communist mantras, but it soon became apparent that he suffered from significant mental health problems, leading to the controversial ruling of not guilty by reason of insanity. Nonetheless, the assassination is credited with temporarily moving public opinion away from détente. President Baker, a moderate Republican, sought to soothe worries that he would fail to fulfill Scalia's legacy by choosing conservative Illinois senator John B. Anderson as his vice president. The Republicans won landslide victories in the 1986 midterms, creating the first Republican majority in the House of Representatives since the 1950s, and Baker seemed destined for a second term, but this would not be the case. He controversially sent troops to help the pro-American dictatorial regime of Iraq against the (semi-)democratic socialist government of Iran, a conflict that many thought America was on the wrong side of. Then, when the economy crashed in 1987, his efforts to fix it through government intervention met stiff opposition from the right, putting Baker in the worst possible situation for re-election.
1989-1993: Lee Iacocca / Tip O'Neil (Independent)[4]
def. 1988 Pat Buchanan / Jack Kemp (R) and Jesse Jackson / Gary Hart (D)
Challenging Baker in the primaries was the paleoconservative Pat Buchanan, who Scalia had appointed as Chief of Staff and who had quit during the Baker administration due to irreconcilable differences with the president. Buchanan claimed that Baker had betrayed President Scalia's legacy and that he was mistaken in getting involved in the Iran-Iraq conflict, claims that resonated greatly with the Republican base. After a drawn-out primary contest, Buchanan became the first person in history to unseat an incumbent president from within his own party and chose fiscal conservative Jack Kemp as his running mate. The Democrats, seeing that neither Baker nor Buchanan stood a chance to win the general election, saw this as a golden opportunity. Unfortunately for them, the primaries were ultimately won by Baptist minister and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, a controversial and solidly left-winged figure. He chose Colorado senator Gary Hart as his running mate, a decision that was made with a great deal of reluctance on both sides. With two highly controversial nominees, this was the perfect time for a candidate outside of the two parties to arise, and so one did in the form of Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, who took his friend, retired Democratic Speaker of the House Tip O'Neil as his running mate. Pat Buchanan was blasted as inexperienced, unrealistically isolationist, and allegedly racist, while Jackson was accused of being a radical, fraud, and/or antisemite and Senator Hart faced allegations of sexual misconduct. In particular, Jackon's reference to President Scalia as a "son of a bitch" destroyed any chance he might have had of becoming president. Iacocca won easily, becoming the first non-partisan president since George Washington, leading to a flood of predictions that his presidency would usher in an era of prosperity and the end of the two-party system. In the end, these predictions were massively over-optimistic. Iacocca's administration ended up cooperating with moderates in both parties, pushing a centrist agenda. Having focused more on the vague idea of leadership than actual policy-making, President Iacocca relied greatly on Vice President O'Neil for getting things done in Washington, and he would ultimately be most greatly remembered for completing the détente with the Soviet Union under President Mikhail Gorbachev. Although the economy had not recovered as much as many had hoped during his presidency, Iacocca seemed well poised to win a second term in 1992.
1993-2001: Bill Bradley / Paul Tsongas (1993-1995), Colin Powell (1995-2001) (D)
def. 1992 Lee Iacocca / Tip O'Neil (I) and Lynn Martin / Bill Weld (R)
def. 1996 Ross Perot / Bob Dole (R)
In 1992, both major parties were desperate to rehabilitate their image. Bill Bradley, a liberal basketball player-turn-senator (truly the successor to Udall), won the nomination and chose the runner-up, moderate former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas, as his running mate. Meanwhile, Republican Illinois Senator Lynn Morley Martin became the first woman to be a major party's presidential nominee and chose Massachusetts Governor William Weld as her running mate. In stark contrast to 1988, the general election campaign of 1992 was remembered as one of the most respectful ones in history, with all sides wanting to maintain a positive image. Bill Bradley performed well in the debates, and many were attracted by his talk of reform and his plans to fight poverty and provide universal healthcare. Nonetheless, while it was considered that an electoral majority may not be reached, virtually everyone thought that President Iacocca would at least win a plurality. However, on November 8, 1992, Senator Bradley won a plurality of both the electoral and popular vote, bring the election to Congress. President Iacocca accepted the result, allowing Bradley and Tsongas to be elected by the House and Senate respectively. Bradley's first term saw a number of reforms, largely focused on corruption and campaign finance, which were largely successful, although the proposal to abolish or reform the electoral college in light of what happened in the election went nowhere. His attempts to implement economically liberal reforms, such as free college and universal healthcare, were not as successful, especially after the 1994 midterms, which saw hosts of Republicans denouncing "Bradley-care." Bradley also continued Iacocca's foreign policy legacy, overseeing the fall of the Iron Curtain, the democratization of the Soviet Union, and the reunification of Germany, China, and Vietnam. Vice-President Tsongas, suffering from cancer, resigned in 1995, and Bradley managed to convince his Secretary of Defense, the formerly nonpartisan Colin Powell, to take the office of vice president, becoming the first African-American to hold the office. In 1996, the Republicans were overtaken by Ross Perot, a businessman who had supported Iacocca in 1988 and 1992 and appealed to an independent outsider spirit. Perot chose longtime Republican senator Bob Dole as his running mate and attacked Bradley on fiscal issues, namely the growing national debt. In the end however, the eccentric Perot and honestly quite boring Dole failed to captivate America enough to unseat Bradley. In his second term, Bradley continued his attempts at reform and also saw the start of a cultural revolution in America, most notably on the issue of LGBT rights. Bradley's most notable action on this issue was the passage of a bill lifting the ban on gay members of the military, to the chagrin of conservatives and, according to rumor, his own vice president. The popular Powell had made it excessively clear that he had no interest in pursuing the presidency in 2000, leaving the field wide open.
2001-2005: Ralph Nader / Al Gore (D)
def. 2000 Mitt Romney / Newt Gingrich (R)
Very quickly, two major names emerged for the Democratic nomination: liberal Connecticut Senator Ralph Nader, who as a lawyer and lawmaker had worked for consumer and environmental protection, and moderate Tennessee Governor Al Gore, who shared Nader's environmentalism, but otherwise took a middle-of-the-road approach. Nader's stubborn progressiveness and apparent incorruptibility won him the primaries, but he was eventually convinced that the only way to win the general was to choose Governor Gore, who he had spent months denouncing as a corrupt, dishonest flip-flopper, as his running mate. Meanwhile, Senator Mitt Romney came on top in the Republican primaries and chose Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich as his running mate, a pairing with equally bad chemistry as Nader/Gore. 2000 undid any progress that 1992 might have done in improving the political debate. Smears and insults were thrown left and right; Nader was a radical and Romney was spineless and corrupt, and both were constantly feuding with and being contradicted by their running mates. In the end, the only real winner was late night TV shows, which produced a fair share of laughs. The election was extremely close - Nader definitely won the electoral vote, but it was nearly a week before it was confirmed that he also won the popular. He said that he was open to, and even supported, the abolition of the Electoral College so that this uncertainty would never happen again, but, like in 1992, this suggestion went nowhere. The first issues on Nader's agenda included "tough-on-corporations" legislation and increased environmental regulations, one of the few issues that he and Vice President Gore managed to successfully cooperate on. The course of history changed significantly late in 2000, when al-Qaeda, in cooperation with entities within Hamas, launched a large-scale terrorist attack in Israel. Calls came from all corners to "stand strong with Israel" and pursue al-Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden, at all costs. President Nader condemned the attack and called for justice, but also urged moderation and called for sustainable peace in the Middle East, which he said was the only way that this could be permanently prevented. This was met by outrage by Republicans and pro-Israel Democrats, who claimed that Nader was sympathizing with the attackers. Foreign policy issues, particularly the relationship with Israel, took up much more of Nader's time than he would have liked, and he would later say that Republicans intentionally focused on the issue as a distraction from progressive domestic policies that Nader wanted to implement. Nader did cooperate closely with the Israeli government, although, in the eyes of the Likud administration, obstruction would be a better word for it than cooperation, while Nader would say that he simply made sure that the will of the United Nations was followed and basic human rights were adhered to. He knew that he was vulnerable in 2004, but decided to stand strong.
2005-2010: Donald Trump / Hillary Rodham[5] (R)
def. 2004 Ralph Nader / Al Gore (D)
def. 2008 John F. Kennedy Jr. / Barack Obama (D) and Ron Paul / Walter B. Jones (Liberty)
Some wanted Nader to stand down in 2004, and when he refused some even asked Vice President Gore to run against him in the primaries, but he also refused. Nader did receive a primary challenge in the form of fellow Nutmegger Joe Lieberman. However, the moderate-to-conservative Senator Lieberman was no match to Nader in the Democratic Primaries. Meanwhile, bombastic billionaire Donald Trump sought the Republican nomination as a moderate outsider in the same vein as Iacocca and Perot. With his primary victory, he chose Illinois Senator Hillary Rodham as his running mate. This was considered a perfect match: the main complaints about Trump were that he was inexperienced, too moderate, and perceived as misogynistic and racist; Rodham, meanwhile, was a solidly conservative insider who was a woman and had a good relationship with the African-American community (in fact, one time where she got in trouble with the conservative base was when she made a statement praising civil rights leader and left-wing politician Martin Luther King Jr., which was soon downplayed). However, the simple truth is that, no matter who his running mate was, Trump was almost sure to win against Nader, and win he did, making Hillary Rodham the first female vice-president in US history. Nader would be remembered as weak and incompetent by the right and a good man who was simply too stubborn and politically inept by the left. Trump tried out his brand of "dealmaker" diplomacy, putting pressure on Middle Eastern countries while supplying military aid to Israel's counter-terrorism efforts, all while dealing with the President Vladimir Putin of the Soviet Union, who had reversed the process of democratization that the country had gone through under Gorbachev and others and who was threatening countries such as Ukraine and Chechnya, which had peacefully gained independence in the 1990s. On the domestic front, Trump implemented a protectionist trade policy, increased security along the border with Mexico, and chose to reform rather than repeal the healthcare and education systems put in place by Presidents Bradley and Nader. In 2004, the Democrats nominated New York Governor John F. Kennedy Jr., the son of the former president, as their nominee, and he chose the equally young and charismatic Illinois representative Barack Obama as his running mate. Meanwhile, dissatisfied by the interventionism and lack of fiscal moderation of the Trump administration, former Texas Senator Ron Paul formed the Liberty Party as a merger of several smaller libertarian and paleoconservative parties, and managed to convince North Carolina Representative Walter B. Jones Jr. to become his running mate. Democrats were practically giddy. After the failures of the Nader administration, they had the perfect ticket and a Republican spoiler. After having the White House for twelve of the last sixteen years, they could win it again. It was, however, not to be. In what at the time looked to be a feat of master campaigning, the Trump campaign managed to neutralize threats on its left and right, to the point that victory was apparent even before it was announced that Osama bin Laden was assassinated in October 2004. The first notable event of Trump's second term was the landmark Supreme Court ruling that bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional. Both President Trump and Vice President Rodham supported the decision (or, rather, they stood by it after it was made), a major showing of how much cultural opinion of the issue had changed in the last decade. However, Trump's second term is best remembered by the allegations that he and the Vice President used covert methods to undermine Obama's and Paul's campaigns. This was followed by a host of other allegations of unethical behavior by Trump and Rodham. These allegations were originally met with scorn by the administration and compared to the supposedly made-up allegations against Nixon in 1964. However, as more evidence came out, a full-on investigation was started, leading to the impeachment and removal from office of President Trump and Vice President Clinton. The administration said that this was a power-grab on the part of Barack Obama, who was elected as Speaker of the House in 2009, but the general consensus is that at least some of the allegations were true, even if both Trump and Clinton were found not guilty in trials after their removal from office.
2010-2017: Barack Obama / Jim Webb (D)
def. 2012 Buddy Roemer / Larry Lessig[5] (R)
President Obama, hoping to mend relations with Republicans who felt that he had grabbed power, chose moderate Democratic Senator Jim Webb as his vice president. In his first term, he tried to establish himself as a middle-of-the-road center-left Democrat, pursuing policies halfway between the Nader and Trump administrations. In 2012, the Republicans sought to reverse the legacy of Trump by nominating the anti-corruption, conservative Senator Buddy Roemer, who chose Pennsylvania Governor Larry Lessig as his running mate, a libertarian conservative whose support of Ron Paul in 2008 earned him scorn among Republicans at the time, but made him into a principled hero at the time of impeachment. However, Obama was still popular and the Trump's administration had still left its mark on the Republican Party, allowing Obama to easily win reelection in 2012. With a mandate for his second term, Obama pursued immigration reform and a continuation of Bradley's healthcare and education reforms. However, an attempted coup in Turkey, leading to a civil war between the Islamist government and a Kemalist military faction, which the United States and NATO stayed neutral during, overshadowed domestic issues during the end of his second term.
Taking Office in 2017: Anthony Weiner / Gary Johnson (D/R)
2016 Anthony Weiner / Ronald Reagan Jr. (D), Michael Huffington / Gary Johnson (R), Ted Nugent / Joe Miller (L), and Bernie Sanders / Faith Spotted Eagle (I)
Vice President Jim Webb sought the Democratic nomination in 2016, but his moderate policies put many Democrats off; even President Obama, who stayed neutral during the primaries, only gave a lukewarm praise of his Vice President. In the end, New York City Mayor Anthony Weiner won the primaries, choosing Governor Ronald Reagan Jr. of California as his running mate, a solidly liberal Democrat in contrast to his strongly conservative father. Meanwhile, moderate California Senator Michael Huffington came on top during the Republican Primaries in an upset and chose libertarian New Mexico Senator Gary Johnson as his running mate. This moderate ticket was made worse in the eyes of some conservatives by the Huffington's recently admitted bisexuality, making him the first openly LGBT nominee of a major party. This led to the candidacy of former Texas Governor Ted Nugent for the Liberty Party, joined by Alaska Senator Joe Miller. Unlike the libertarian-leaning candidacy of Ron Paul in 2008, which also managed to attract some Democratic voters, Nugent's campaign was solidly conservative. Meanwhile, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders had announced his independent candidacy in 2015, supposedly assuming that Webb would become the Democratic nominee. However, he refused to retract his candidacy in face of the liberal Weiner/Reagan ticket, saying that many key issues were still not being addressed. His running mate was Native American activist and former South Dakota state legislator Faith Spotted Eagle. Although he ran as an independent, Sanders won the nomination of several minor left-wing parties, earning him ballot access in all fifty states. The chaotic election saw no candidate get a majority of 270 electoral votes, with Ted Nugent becoming the first third party candidate to gain electoral votes since George Wallace in 1968 (Lee Iacocca notwithstanding). The Democratic House chose Weiner, who won a popular plurality, as president, while the Republican Senate chose Johnson as vice president. A number of jokes have been made about the euphemisms in both the president and vice president-elect's names, but this has been overshadowed by the curiosity and anxiety over how the next four years will play out with a politically divided executive branch.
[1] IOTL, George Wallace actually did contact J. Edgar Hoover about being his running mate in 1968 (he didn't respond) and MLK was pressed to run for president (he refused).
[2] There have been a few NORAD glitches IOTL, but I made up this particular one.
[3] While he later became the leading liberal Republican IOTL, John B. Anderson started out as an extreme conservative.
[4] IOTL, Iacocca considered running for president in 1988, but was talked out of it by Tip O'Neil.
[5] Both Hillary Clinton and Larry Lessig were hardcore conservatives IOTL before moving to the left in college.