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?