The recent debate in the Bush Assassinated TL on whether Cheney could have nominated Colin Powell as vice president reminded me how many AHers dismiss the power of social conservative in the Republican Party.
This inspired me to write a TL that shows the power of the religious right.
The best part is that I know that most of you will disagree with my views.
My P.O.D. is that John McCain attempts to name Joe Lieberman as his running mate. I think this would be a disaster for McCain, I say attempts because I don't think a majority of the delegates of the Republican Convention would vote for a pro choice liberal like Lieberman. McCain then chooses his runner up choice Sarah Palin. He gets all the negatives from picking Palin but none of the positive. Yes I think there were positives from Pailin. She helped build bridges to skeptical social conservatives. Social Conservative would have been put off by McCain big tent rhetoric when pushing Lieberman. Because of the protest votes for Bob Barr and Alan Keyes and the stay at homes, he loses worse than OTL.
I am confident he loses Georgia, Missouri, the Dakotas and Montana. It is also possible that he loses South Carolina and Texas. So Obama wins by 400 to 453 electoral votes. There is also enough stay at homes to defeat Mitch McConnell and Saxbe Chamblis. So the Democrats enjoy a filibuster proof majority from January 2009 to January 2011. The Dream Act passes and the Bush Tax Cut expires. The deficit is lower. The debt limit drama comes during the 2012 presidential campaign,