Reporting for Duty: The Presidency of John Kerry and Beyond

[Nazi Space Spy]

Chapter Thirty:

Governor George Pataki was the latest longshot candidate to emerge.​

The Iraq withdrawal announcement boosted public support for President Kerry at a time when the Republican presidential field remained divided on foreign policy matters. While Governor Bush maintained that an aggressive approach to potential terrorist hotspots would keep the threat of radical Islamism away from American shores, other rising stars like Senator Allen promised “peace with honor” and an end to nation building. But only one candidate, Congressman Paul, called for a complete end to American involvement in the Middle East. The Republican Party of South Carolina and Fox News announced that the first debate of the primary season will be held in Charleston, followed by MSNBC and Politico announcing their own debate would be conducted in New Hampshire. New York Governor George Pataki, recently reelected for a fourth term, emerged as the latest presidential candidate to seek the GOP nomination. Congressman Duncan Hunter also launched his campaign, though his lack of name recognition strangled his candidacy in the cradle. With thirteen Republicans vying to challenge President Kerry, the May debates were greatly awaited by Republican and Tea Party voters.

The Equal Pay Act is at last passed by the Senate after months of stalling by Majority Leader McConnell, who allowed a free vote on the matter after public opinion turned sharply against the Republicans. Passed by a 72-28 margin, President Kerry signed the bill into law with great fanfare at a Rose Garden ceremony, with Senator Hillary Clinton hovering noticeably in the background behind the President. Though it was a relatively smooth (if not also extremely delayed) process, the President was fully aware that the signing of the bill would mark his last legislative victory of what he hoped would prove to be his first term. But these events were buried in the news cycle by a tragic story out of western Virginia. In an incident that stunned and horrified America, Seung-Hoi Cho, a student at Virginia Tech, locked the doors of a classroom building and proceeded to shoot and kill 41 students in one of the deadliest mass shootings in memory. Cho killed himself when responding police were able to breach the chained and padlocked door, ending the slaughter after ten minutes of carnage. In the wake of the massacre, the Virginia State Legislature passed a law which introduced “red flag” provisions aimed at stopping those with mental illness from being able to legally purchase firearms. But this was only the start of another political fight. In the wake of the shooting at Virginia Tech, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) reintroduced the Assault Weapons Ban to the Senate, setting the course for another battle with Congress that the President knew he was sure to lose. With a Republican majority in both Houses, the President instead agreed to meet with Speaker Dreier and Senator McConnell in order to lay out a shared policy agreement. McConnell made it abundantly clear to the President that an assault weapons ban being restored was a non-starter, though the administration was still willing to pursue a federal version of Virginia’s “red flag” law as a compromise.

The Virginia Tech shooting saw 40+ casualties. ​

The cabinet saw a tragic vacancy when Secretary of Transportation Juanita McDonald died after a long battle with colon cancer. The Secretary’s demise results in the Deputy Secretary of Transportation John Porcari taking the reins as Acting Secretary as the President and Chief of Staff Alexis Herman begin reviewing options for McDonald’s successor. With the Republicans holding control over the Senate, the White House advisers, primarily Mary Beth Cahill, began weighing whether or not to use the vacancy to offer an olive branch to Republicans. But Alexis Herman, a veteran of the partisan warfare that defined the era of the Clinton administration, was firmly against the idea, as were a number of other prominent Democrats angered by GOP obstruction.

2008 Republican Primary (Nationwide)
Jeb Bush: 25%
George Allen: 19%
Rudy Giuliani: 16%
Mike Huckabee: 13%
Mitt Romney: 9%
John McCain: 7%
Newt Gingrich: 3%:
Ron Paul: 2%
Rick Perry: 2%
George Pataki: 1%
Sam Brownback: 1%
Duncan Hunter: 1%
Tom Tancredo: 1%

 

[Don Corleone]

Due to an extreme personal emergency, I won’t be able to update this for the next few days. Please keep my younger brother in your prayers if you’re religious, he’s been brain dead in an ICU since Friday following a heroin overdose induced stroke. I’m trying to keep my mind off it all with what little time I have available, and working on the early 2013 chapters has been cathartic. I’ll probably still get a few updates up here and there but the next week will likely be slow.

Sorry to hear that. Prayers sent.

 

[ZeroFrame]

Due to an extreme personal emergency, I won’t be able to update this for the next few days. Please keep my younger brother in your prayers if you’re religious, he’s been brain dead in an ICU since Friday following a heroin overdose induced stroke. I’m trying to keep my mind off it all with what little time I have available, and working on the early 2013 chapters has been cathartic. I’ll probably still get a few updates up here and there but the next week will likely be slow.

Sorry to hear that. Hope he gets better. My condolences and prayers to you, your brother, and your family.

 

[Nazi Space Spy]

Thank you all for the kind wishes and prayers. Tomorrow he'll be taken off life support unfortunately, but I still intend to commit to keeping this timeline going at a steady flow, The pace might be slightly slower, but I'll still try and get a few up per week. I am really enjoying working on this and I find it cathartic. It's better than thinking "what if" about my real actual life, certainly. So I will continue this, with chapter 31 coming tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Nazi Space Spy]

Chapter Thirty One:

Senator McCain, Congressman Paul, and Mayor Giuliani debate at the Reagan Library.​

The month begins with the much anticipated GOP-Fox News debate in South Carolina; Jeb Bush, the frontrunner for the nomination, came under attack from all sides but largely held his own on the stage. Defending his position on reforming immigration reform, Bush’s supporters boasted that the former Florida Governor was “the only adult in the room” and praised his pragmatic and efficient approach to problem solving as well as his record of transparency. Though some of his rivals (mainly Ron Paul and Tom Tancredo) invoked his father and brother’s record in the White House, most focused on Bush's policy positions and past political statements. Yet Bush seemed perfectly prepared for almost every attack, and impressed the public with his deep knowledge of complicated issues. Senator Allen also had a strong performance, presenting himself as a more ideologically inclined alternative, effectively pitching himself as the voice of the Tea Party wing of the party. Some clashes were particularly tense, including an exchange between Mayor Giuliani and Congressman Paul over 9/11 and America’s foreign policy. Another spat between Governor Pataki and Perry over job creation in their respective states ends poorly for the Texan Governor, who rambled through his answer almost incoherently at times. Some of the moderate candidates, particularly Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, came under fire repeatedly for flip flopping on various issues from several other candidates. The widely watched South Carolina debate was a ratings bonanza for Fox News, with most commentators hailing Bush and Allen both as the winners. But it was Ron Paul who won the internet polls, being the most Googled candidate in the hours afterward.

Rudy Giuliani launched his campaign officially after the debate, spending a large amount of time and resources in Florida, which he believed to be a more fertile launchpad for his candidacy. Embracing this strategy in the hope that Florida’s northeastern transplants would propel him into the Super Tuesday primaries, Giuliani effectively abandoned Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina to other contenders. This decision angered some in his campaign, with most Giuliani staffers in Iowa and New Hampshire finding out about the Mayor's decision through television news rather than an internal campaign communication. But while Giuliani's campaign was contracting, events on the other side of the Hudson River continued to give his national security oriented message an audience. The former New York Mayor’s experience during the 9/11 attacks after all had given him a unique perspective on the War on Terror and national security matters. This was most evident after the FBI broke up a terrorist plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey. The plotters, all Albanian Muslims, claimed to have been inspired by the sermons of a shadow Yemeni cleric named Anwar al-Awlaki, who was an American citizen known to the FBI for his ties to several Al Qaeda figures.

Two influential conservatives departed the political scene in May; first was the iconic Jerry Falwell, who died at the age of 77. The evangelical conservative was widely respected by most of the Republican candidates (aside from McCain, who famously called Falwell an “agent of intolerance” during his 2000 campaign) and was a widely sought-after endorsement. So was Jack Kemp, a former football player turned politician who ran for Vice President in 1996 with Bob Dole. Though Kemp was in ailing health and battling advanced stage cancer, he had none the less endorsed Speaker Gingrich for the Republican nomination and joined him on the campaign trail in New Hampshire not long before his demise in one of his last appearances.

Talks between McConnell and Senator Reid began over a possible bipartisan gun control bill, with both agreeing with the President that a national “red flag” law which would prevent those deemed mentally ill from purchasing firearms was needed. The National Rifle Association however was immediately against any compromise on the matter, warning that it was merely the foundation of a future federal firearms database that could lead to widespread gun confiscation. Conservative Senators rallied around Senator George Allen, who spoke out fiercely against the Red Flag law recently implemented in his home state by the Virginia legislature and signed into law by the state's Republican Governor. The NRA and Senator Allen turned their fire against Republican Governor Jerry Kilgore for signing such a bill, and for the first time, it appeared as if the Tea Party wing of the party had turned the bulk of their fire on other Republicans. Allen was not alone; Congressmen Hunter, Paul and Tancredo, Governors Perry, Huckabee, Speaker Gingrich, and Senator Brownback all opposed any attempt to curtail the second amendment in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings. But not all Republicans were so intransigent; Mayor Giuliani, Governors Pataki and Romney, Senator McCain all backed some form of action, which set the stage for another explosive debate.

Appearing together at the Reagan Library in California, the role of the second amendment was hotly debated. Among the more memorable moments, including a heated exchange between Congressman Paul and Speaker Gingrich; after Paul attacked Gingrich as a “chickenhawk,” Gingrich responded by declaring that he wasn’t eligible for the draft. Paul responded simply by noting that he had a wife and a child when he was deployed to Vietnam as a flight surgeon, stating “I went.” The moment was eclipsed however when Senator Brownback and Congressman Tom Tancredo had a tense exchange in which Tancredo referenced the Senator’s mother, who worked in the postal service, when debating whether government employees should be allowed to unionize. Governor Pataki accused Mayor Giuliani of politicizing the 9/11 attacks, which provokes an angry response from the Mayor. Governor Perry again stumbles, seemingly tired and repeatedly giving vague answers when pressed by moderators.

2008 Republican Primary (Nationwide)
Jeb Bush: 26%
George Allen: 22%
Rudy Giuliani: 15%
Mitt Romney: 10%
Mike Huckabee: 8%
John McCain: 5%
Ron Paul: 4%
Sam Brownback: 3%
Newt Gingrich: 2%:
Rick Perry: 2%
George Pataki: 1%
Duncan Hunter: 1%
Tom Tancredo: 1%

 

[Unknown]

Please clap for Jeb!

 

[Unknown]

Due to an extreme personal emergency, I won’t be able to update this for the next few days. Please keep my younger brother in your prayers if you’re religious, he’s been brain dead in an ICU since Friday following a heroin overdose induced stroke. I’m trying to keep my mind off it all with what little time I have available, and working on the early 2013 chapters has been cathartic. I’ll probably still get a few updates up here and there but the next week will likely be slow.

I'm sorry to hear that, @Nazi Space Spy...

 

[Unknown]

Thank you all for the kind wishes and prayers. Tomorrow he'll be taken off life support unfortunately, but I still intend to commit to keeping this timeline going at a steady flow, The pace might be slightly slower, but I'll still try and get a few up per week. I am really enjoying working on this and I find it cathartic. It's better than thinking "what if" about my real actual life, certainly. So I will continue this, with chapter 31 coming tonight or tomorrow.

Again, I'm sorry to hear that...

 

[TGW]

I would have left a comment sooner but in all honesty I wasn't sure how to word it, and I didn't want to come off as flippant or insincere. I'll just say that I'm very sorry for all the trouble you've been going through, that you will go through and that I hope that writing this gives you some kind of reprieve, even if only for a moment.

 

[Interesting2752]

Thank you all for the kind wishes and prayers. Tomorrow he'll be taken off life support unfortunately, but I still intend to commit to keeping this timeline going at a steady flow, The pace might be slightly slower, but I'll still try and get a few up per week. I am really enjoying working on this and I find it cathartic. It's better than thinking "what if" about my real actual life, certainly. So I will continue this, with chapter 31 coming tonight or tomorrow.

God, that sucks. I'm sorry for you and I hope you go through this well.

 

[Nazi Space Spy]

Chapter Thirty Two:

The USS Chafee, pictured before the bombing off the Horn of Africa.​

Over the summer, there is an uptick in pirate and terroristic activity in and off the coast of Somalia; after a second American ship is nearly taken, President Kerry ordered a stronger military response. The American destroyer USS Chafee bombards an alleged encampment of Somali pirates aligned with the Islamist forces who were at odds with the government of Mogadishu, killing dozens of militants. The next day, when news of the interaction trickled from the White House into newsrooms across the country, the President fell under fire from his prospective Republican opponents. At an event sponsored by the Hudson Institute, former Governor Jeb Bush calls for an increased American role in the Horn of Africa and the Indian Ocean. Senator McCain and Mayor Giuliani both called for more airstrikes against terror groups active in the lawless country.

While the nation became preoccupied by the lawless nature of Somalia, the scars from previous American involvement in the failed African state were still fresh. Polls showed that 65% of Americans opposed invading Somalia, while only 15% supported such an operation. One of the most hawkish voices in the race was Senator McCain, who campaigned vigorously with fellow Senators Graham and Lieberman throughout the country, often raising the administration’s response to the crisis on the campaign trail. But McCain’s strong support for containing what he began to call “Islamofascism” did not appeal to a war weary America, and the Senator began to see his polling collapse even further. Congressman Paul was the sole candidate to be completely opposed to military operations in Somalia, warning that it would only put western interests further at risk. The Congressman would soon prove to be vindicated on the evening of June 9th.

As the USS Chafee traveled down the eastern coast of Somalia just south of Puntland province, a speedboat laden with explosives crashed into it and exploded. Along with the two suicide bombers, the blast killed 38 American sailors and injures virtually everyone else onboard after the explosion sets off shells and fuel explosions. The ship burns in a raging inferno off the Somali coast, where hundreds of onlookers watched in the dark of the night. The ship sinks, though the survivors cling on to floating debris and are rescued nearly twelve hours later. President Kerry orders cruise missile attacks on Al Qaeda training camps as well as on compounds associated with the Islamic Courts Union in response to the attack, and the top brass at the Pentagon are tasked by Secretary Nunn with drafting a comprehensive plan to contain the Somali conflict and secure the Indian Ocean from terrorism.

Working in conjunction with the FBI, the NYPD announced that an alleged terrorist plot to bomb and shoot up JFK International Airport in New York City. Three Yemeni immigrants and a Sudanese national living illegally in the United States were taken into custody on numerous terrorism charges, all of whom confessed and claimed to have been inspired by fugitive Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki. al-Awlaki's tapes have been effective recruiting tools for Al Qaeda, and his invective had permeated into Somalia, where his message inspired thousands of impoverished Somali youths to flock to the banner of Al Shabab and the Islamic Courts Union as well.

Somalia was one of many foreign hotspots; in South America, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe spoke out against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, claiming that the regime in Caracas was funding leftist militant groups like FARC that were active within his country. At the Vatican, the Pope was attacked by a man who jumped the security barrier and landed in the Popemobile, pushing the assailant out of the slowly moving vehicle in a widely viewed incident. In the Holy Land, Fatah al-Islam, an Al Qaeda aligned militia in Lebanon, took control of a Palestinian refugee camp in the south of the country. Israel demanded the Lebanese government take action, or face a second invasion by the IDF. Fearing that such an action could cause upheaval in Iraq, President Kerry warned Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert against taking such an action, and for the time being, the Israeli military and foreign ministry officials agree to a more restrained response. In Eastern Europe, Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, and was recognized almost overnight by NATO powers to the annoyance of the Serb government and Russia while in southern Africa, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe announced that all white owned farms in the country would be seized and redistributed among the landless peasants as the long serving tyrant sought to gain further control over the country. The trans-Atlantic alliance endures the latest leadership change in London when Tony Blair resigned as party leader. The Labor Party unanimously elected Gordon Brown as leader of the party in his stead, and days later, the former Chancellor walked into #10 Downing Street for the first time as Prime Minister. In a phone call with the new British Prime Minister, Kerry reaffirms America’s commitment to cooperating with the British government in regards to anti-terrorisms efforts. France meanwhile conducted their own presidential election, with center-right candidate Nicholas Sarkozy defeating Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party.

2008 Republican Primary (Nationwide)
Jeb Bush: 23%
George Allen: 20%
Rudy Giuliani: 17%
Mitt Romney: 11%
Mike Huckabee: 8%
John McCain: 4%
Ron Paul: 4%
Sam Brownback: 4%
Newt Gingrich: 2%:
Rick Perry: 2%
George Pataki: 1%
Duncan Hunter: 1%
Tom Tancredo: 1%

 

[Marc Anthony]

Thank you all for the kind wishes and prayers. Tomorrow he'll be taken off life support unfortunately, but I still intend to commit to keeping this timeline going at a steady flow, The pace might be slightly slower, but I'll still try and get a few up per week. I am really enjoying working on this and I find it cathartic. It's better than thinking "what if" about my real actual life, certainly. So I will continue this, with chapter 31 coming tonight or tomorrow.

I just caught up with the recent updates, great TL and I'm sorry to hear about your brother

 

[Nazi Space Spy]

I just caught up with the recent updates, great TL and I'm sorry to hear about your brother

Thanks. I've been grieving his death for the last week, and it has been more challenging to write updates than I expected, but this is cathartic and I plan to keep cranking out updates when I can. In fact, you can all expect at least one this weekend. Probably tomorrow.

I also should note that I'm actually re-writing this timeline in a date-by-date format to maximize detail, but I plan on finishing this first in it's current format because it'll be a long time before I finish that. But I plan on perfecting this timeline and maybe even launching a wikibox based world-building/graphics timeline similar to what our Canadian friends are doing in the test board down the line.

 

[JLan1485]

Thanks. I've been grieving his death for the last week, and it has been more challenging to write updates than I expected, but this is cathartic and I plan to keep cranking out updates when I can. In fact, you can all expect at least one this weekend. Probably tomorrow.

I also should note that I'm actually re-writing this timeline in a date-by-date format to maximize detail, but I plan on finishing this first in it's current format because it'll be a long time before I finish that. But I plan on perfecting this timeline and maybe even launching a wikibox based world-building/graphics timeline similar to what our Canadian friends are doing in the test board down the line.

Hey haven't commented in a while, but I hope you persevere through this difficult and sad time. Losing family is never easy. Stay strong my friend. I hope your brother rests in peace.

 

[Marc Anthony]

but this is cathartic

What ever helps you through this tough time

 

[BigVic]

Looks like Jeb! is the front runner before Iowa

 

[Fenrisúlfr]

It might be interesting if you have Brown go for a 2007 snap election ITTL. Could be that having a democratic president on the opposite side of the Atlantic and a earlier withdrawal from Iraq means he feels more comfortable about it.

 

[ZeroFrame]

Thank you all for the kind wishes and prayers. Tomorrow he'll be taken off life support unfortunately, but I still intend to commit to keeping this timeline going at a steady flow, The pace might be slightly slower, but I'll still try and get a few up per week. I am really enjoying working on this and I find it cathartic. It's better than thinking "what if" about my real actual life, certainly. So I will continue this, with chapter 31 coming tonight or tomorrow.

I’m sorry to hear that. A family member dying is horrible. I hope you and your family gets through this tragic event. My prayers to you and your family.

 

[Nazi Space Spy]

Thanks again for all the kind wishes, and sorry for the lack of an update yesterday. More is coming tonight!

 

[Don Corleone]

Looks like Jeb! is the front runner before Iowa

That would be a disaster.

But it would make for a good train wreck timeline.