I've seen in some old threads on the forum that the Reform Party was pretty open to having John McCain as their nominee in 2000. Considering the rumors that McCain nearly ditched the GOP in 2002 and how nasty the 2000 primary was (especially in South Carolina), what if McCain had run as the reform nominee in 2000?
If I had to guess who his running mate would have been, probably Lowell Weicker - another moderate to Liberal Republican who became an independent and was close with Jesse Ventura who was desperately searching for a Reform candidate in 2000 who wasn't Buchanan.
McCain was moderate enough at the time that his appeal might be fairly two-sided rather than just pulling from Bush.
Lieberman might opt not to be Gore's running mate if it means running against McCain. Kerry and Edwards were the too main runner-ups to be veep, but Gephardt, Shaheen, and Bayh were also part of the final six.
If McCain makes the debates, I could see Bush calling for Nader's inclusion on the assumption that McCain mostly hurts the GOP ticket.
If I had to guess who his running mate would have been, probably Lowell Weicker - another moderate to Liberal Republican who became an independent and was close with Jesse Ventura who was desperately searching for a Reform candidate in 2000 who wasn't Buchanan.
McCain was moderate enough at the time that his appeal might be fairly two-sided rather than just pulling from Bush.
Lieberman might opt not to be Gore's running mate if it means running against McCain. Kerry and Edwards were the too main runner-ups to be veep, but Gephardt, Shaheen, and Bayh were also part of the final six.
If McCain makes the debates, I could see Bush calling for Nader's inclusion on the assumption that McCain mostly hurts the GOP ticket.