Paul Tsongas President 1993 - 1995

If Tsongas won the Democratic nomination in 1992., he would have won the general election in those bad economic times. He would not have enjoyed Clinton's Southern support. He would not carry Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. He would have won the other Clinton states and he would have won enough Perot voters to win the close states of Arizona, South Dakota ( He breaks the streak of the eleven states that OTL went Republican 1964 -2008. He infact carries South Dakota that OTL has not gone Democratic since 1964. ) and Florida. He wins with 348 electoral votes. In 1993, he depends on Republican votes to enact his capital gains tax cut. With his congressional experience he can get a health plan through in 1994. The health plan is controversial but his administration has not suffered a failure.In the 1994 midterms, the Republican win 21 fewer seats in the House and it is Democratic by 226 to 208 margin. Newt Gingrich does not become House speaker. The senate is tied 50 - 50. Vice President Gore casts the tie breaking vote to keep Democrats in charge of the Senate. I think in 1995, Tsongas cancer returns and he resigns. OTL it came back in 1996, but I think the increased job stress brings the cancer back one year earlier. I assume his resignation would come after January 20. President Gore wins the 1996 and 2000 elections.
 
In Witcover and Germond's book about the '92 election, they talked about how Tsongas got surprisingly big crowds in New Hampshire for a one term Senator, because people really wanted answers to economic issues.
 
Following is a William Raspberry column from March 1991 attempting to summarize Tsongas' industrial policy and its appeal.

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...AIBAJ&sjid=D9MEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5041,2171019&hl=en

Notice that Raspberry uses both Japan and Germany as examples, whereas these days it's only Germany doing well. And to me, that's kind of the problem with industrial policy. You have to zig and zag at exactly the right times, almost like you're timing the market. But maybe there is more to it than that and is better than that.

To use a sports analogy, people who know a lot about baseball know that a seasoned manager can go with either hit-and-run or loading up the bases for the heavy hitters, depending on which players a manager has on the team. Knows that a veteran pitcher learns how to win when he only has his B stuff, etc, etc, etc.

Even people who know a lot about economics seem to latch onto a particular theory and lose a lot of the above dynamic aspects.
 
ITTL Hillary Clinton does not have a political career. She is the wife of President Tsongas' Secretary of Education. The one that had to resign after having an affair with an intern.
 
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