There's been a couple of threads asking about What if Gore won in the 2000 presidential election, but are there any good ones on what would happen if John McCain won the primary (which was apparently "very nasty and brutal") and then went on to win the general election against Al Gore?
What would he have done similarly / differently than George W. Bush (we'll assume 9/11 and Katrina aren't butterflied) and could he have been re-elected in 2004?
No pathological nepotism, so no "yer doin a grate job Brownie!" moments for President John McCain. (1)
Katrina's disastrous results upon the Big Easy had origins generations in the making and were fully the fault of both parties (and to be blunt, John Q. Cajun-Public Dumb-ass). This is, for not allowing the $$$ and making space for improving the surge walls to the degree that the US Army Corps of Engineers wanted.
1) For purposes of full disclosure, I supported Gore, but I was hoping for McCain in the GOP primary. Then at least I'd have a palatable choice if Gore got caught in the local motel with a live girl and a dead boy and a dead girl and a live boy

So no pointing and counter-pointing of fingers regarding responsibility. McCain stands with the firefighters at 9/11, but he also goes to Mississippi and New Orleans to show he cares about the little guy,

not just Big Buildings.
What sort of PODs would be needed to make this happen? It seems like the smear campaign (from what I've read) was the work of Bush? Who does his dirty work? Perhaps they could be the turning point.
The smear merchant was using standard tactics of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy [size=-4]tm[/size], but directed at another Republican instead. The Bush campaign made sure that they kept one full degree of separation (2) between themselves and the guy doing the smearing (3). But even when McCain confronted W in a face to face debate over one of his minions' actions (4), Shrub just sat there stone faced like the devout coward he was, saying nothing. Nothing at all.

(5)
2) A "Citizens United" type before they had to be formal about it. Think of Richard Mellon-Scaife if he'd been operating his Arkansas Project in complete parallel with the 1992 Bush Campaign.
3) Reminds of a reverse situation, way back in 1962. Probably a good example of the Kennedy (what's plural for Kennedy?


) Family, especially Bobby, at their (his) worst: The 1962 California Gubernatorial Election. Richard Nixon's disastrous first attempt to make a comeback after his squeaker loss to JFK in 1960. Bobby had a devoted California political ally (don't ask me who, its been almost 40 years since I last read of this) launch a serious of public stunts designed to embarrass Nixon personally. Things like having a naked woman run up to him and kiss him while a photographer stood by.
The fact that these stories were penetrating the political ether in California, while at the same time the media refused to try to find out who was responsible for these pranks, did much to reinforce in Nixon's mind his sense of victimhood at the hands of the Ev0l Liburahl Media. And considering what happened after his "Won't you be sorry you won't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore?" speech, its not surprising to me that idiots like Howard K. Smith

did their utmost to prove Nixon's charges of deliberate liberal media bias against him to be quite correct!
JFK was still alive in 1962, and by the Grace of God, Sir Ben Bradlee, and the rest of the Liberal News Knights, they would defend the ramparts of Camelot to the end!

Just as the media's malfeasance in 1962 helped relaunch Nixon six years later, so too IMO the media's total fail in reporting the details on who was backing the McCain smears helped a man his age to still be able to snare his party's nomination eight years later.
4) Attacking an adopted Bangledeshi daughter as a McCain Black Love Child? Right out of the VRWC [size=-4]tm[/size] Playbook. One used repeatedly during Clinton War One (1991-2001) by the likes of Internet troll Matt Drudge and Foxbot Sean Hannity, despite endless negative lab results.
5) I knew then what a disaster Bush would be as POTUS.
McCain is more articulate than Bush, (6) There is no drunk driving scandal. McCain not only wins but wins the popular vote. (7) His win in Florida is narrow but not narrow enough to trigger a recount. He enjoys more legitimacy than Bush did. The tax cut is smaller and the prescription drug benefit is paid for. The national debt is lower. After 9/11, he orders an invasion of Afghanistan. I am thinking since he has the same neo con advisors as Bush did, (8) there is also an invasion of Iraq. (9) He uses the issue of terrorism and the gay marriage referendums (10) to get reelected in 2004,
6) I'M MORE ARTICULATE than Shrub. YOU'RE more articulate than W. The only people I know who were less articulate than Bush II were the two woodsmen brothers Darryl & Darryl of Larry, Darryl, & Darryl from the 1980s sitcom "Newhart".
7) Against the guy who makes Michael Dukakis look like Winston Churchill? A war hero instead of a guy who couldn't even hack filling out a cushy rich boy's slot in the Texas Air National Guard? A guy who draws in pretty much all the Independents, most Republicans (who needs the hard core who will stay at home?), and a good helping of Democrats?
McCain will have poor coattails, but Gore will be humiliated. One reason being that
McCain will by and large not be tarred by the brush of having a membership in the VRWC [size=-4]tm[/size]
8) Other than W's Own, I don't really see anyone more Neo-Con than McCain. I'm afraid the years in the Hanoi Hilton left him with a sense of personal powerlessness than may help explain his willingness to unleash the bombers.
9) IDK. First things first, and concentration of force? McCain is enough of a military man to understand the illogic of Iraq, but I can't make a guess here. Saddam's growing diabetic dementia and permanent insanity of his sons pretty much meant no real deal anyway. Iraq was sitting on a time bomb which probably would have resulted in a "Syria" all its own. But when?
10)
Bush was pathologically obsessed to the very depths of his soul with nepotism while McCain was not friends with the same people. So there would be an entirely different cabinet. (11)
That said, he did advocate invading Iran and they actually do (and did at the time, IIRC) have nukes. (12) I'd like to think he's smarter than that.
Also as an ex-vet he would not allow the CIA to torture which is nice. (13)
11) Fixed it for you. And agreed.
12) Wait, what? In 2000? What!?
13)
Maybe McCain would concentrate on Afghanistan first, before trying to deal with Iraq or IRAN? (14) I think Colin Powell would still probably be in his administration, but he wouldn't have Cheney or Rumsfeld or Rice (15) or Wolfowitz, all of whom were part of the Bush team. Also, Saddam didn't try to kill McCain's father. (16)
14) Um, [size=-4]fixed it for you?[/size]
15) Why not her?
16) Saddam's #1 life insurance policy ITTL, just as it was his death warrant IOTL. W wasn't welcome at the Bush Family Thanksgiving Dinner in Kennebunkport Maine without being able to present to his mother Barbara for the table centerpiece Saddam's head on a platter!



Would Lieberman be willing to run against his friend? If not, who would Gore choose? Also, might McCain name Lieberman to his cabinet? (Secretary of Defense maybe?)
I wonder who McCain's VP would be. (17)
Lieberman run against McCain? I would have once said never. But after his antics in my own home state of Connecticut, I think he'd have done anything to claw up the ranks. But as SecDef? He'd be perfect. I can't imagine McCain wanting anyone else.
17) Well, I understand there's this nice town in Alaska called Was-* [size=-4]nevermind[/size]
The basic problem with McCain in 2000 is that to win the Republican primaries, you need the support of *Republicans.*<snip>
As described on Amazon's "Alpha House", to win the presidential election as a Republican today is the classic Starfleet Kobiyashi Maru Scenario. No win.
You either charge in recklessly through the primaries, winning the nomination by tacking way over to the Far Right (18)...then losing the General Election because you've committed yourself to many many extreme policies or made so many public (or even not so public) statements to those effects. (19)
18) Answering the distress call at once without question and moving into the neutral zone at full warp
19) Running head on into a squadron of Klingon battlecruisers who carve you up like a roast as you discover the sent distress message was a fake
OR
You hold to more temperate, modest proposals, hoping your more extreme opponents burn themselves out and your own funding can get you through the earliest primaries (20)...only to see your numbers collapse as the Republican Base decides that you are not One Of Us, having failed at least one of the dozen or so different essential Republican primary litmus tests

(21) In the end, you can't pay your campaign debts, your people leave you for more successful campaigns, you can't even get a seat at the convention, and the only people offering you a job as an on-air guest is...MSNBC!


(22)
20) You hold off, sending your own signals to Starfleet command and the Kobiyashi Maru, asking for more details, even as you get as close to the border as you can without crossing it, using sensors at maximum power and sending robot probes to ascertain the validity of the passenger ship's signal and circumstances. You even call out to the Klingon High Command asking permission to cross the border to save the Federation passenger liner.
21) While you are waiting, another message comes in from the captain of the Kobiyashi Maru, declaring that his ship has lost all power and life support, and the warp engine corps is de-* Sensors record a detonation where the passenger ship once was. Robot sensor probes reveal the wreckage to be that of the Kobiyashi, and all hands and passengers has been killed. The probes are now close enough to reveal that there are no Klingon vessels,cloaked or otherwise, in the area.
22) At the end of the scenario, the proctor Ms. Savik announces her judgement: "According to computer analysis, and my own, had you reacted immediately you would have saved the entire crew and passengers, and even provided a warp shield to allow venting of the civilian vessel's warp core. This was a test of character, Mr. user, which you have failed. I would suggest you consider a career somewhere other than in Starfleet."