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I'm just throwing around a few ideas here for what could be my next TL.

In 1992, Ross Perot was ahead in the polls for almost two months around June. Unfortunately, he rapidly declined due to his withdrawal from the race and subsequent perceptions of, well, eccentricity. Even if he had gained the projected amount from polls (about 39%), such a result probably would have thrown the election into the Democratic-controlled Congress, where he would have had no supporters.

So how could Perot have won? Well, I've been fiddling around with Electoral College calculators. Perot gained an above-average proportion of the vote in the following states:


State


Perot's Percentage of Vote

Maine

30

Alaska

28

Kansas

27

Utah

27

Idaho

27

Nevada

26

Montana

26

Wyoming

26

Minnesota

24

Washington

24

Oregon

24

Nebraska

24

Arizona

24

North Dakota

23

Oklahoma

23

Vermont

23

Massachusetts

23

New Hampshire

23

Colorado

23

Rhode Island

23

South Dakota

22

Wisconsin

22

Missouri

22

Connecticut

22

Texas

22

Ohio

21

California

21

Delaware

20

Indiana

20

Florida

20

United States Average

19



If he had won all of those states, he would have gained 291 electoral votes-and thus the presidency. Of course, there's no uniform swing for such a thing. If he'd gained a 4% swing from Clinton in Maine, he would have won there, whereas he required something more along the order of 15%, drawing equally from both parties, to win in Florida. Either way, he requires a national vote somewhere in the order of, say, 35%, at the very, very least.

So how can he achieve such a thing? Not dropping out would be essential, obviously, but how could it be done? And, more importantly, what is the ensuing Perot presidency like?
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