Result of a McCain-Gore 2000 general election?

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Deleted member 1487

If McCain won the 2000 GOP primary and faced off against Gore what would the result have been?
 
McCain in a landslide, he was seen as a moderate in the vein of Clinton for the republicans as well as having pretty substantial maverick credentials. Gore wasn't that good of a campaigner, and the general view of the time was that people were tired of the Dems being in the white house, as scandal fatigue was a real thing. The interesting thing would be how this would effect the republicans, would McCain's landslide bring the party away from the right and back towards the center?
 

Deleted member 1487

McCain in a landslide, he was seen as a moderate in the vein of Clinton for the republicans as well as having pretty substantial maverick credentials. Gore wasn't that good of a campaigner, and the general view of the time was that people were tired of the Dems being in the white house, as scandal fatigue was a real thing. The interesting thing would be how this would effect the republicans, would McCain's landslide bring the party away from the right and back towards the center?
How is McCain that good of a campaigner compared to Bush, who IOTL smashed McCain?
 
How is McCain that good of a campaigner compared to Bush, who IOTL smashed McCain?

McCain was taken down in a bit of Karl Rove politicking, involving racial dog whistling, in South Carolina. I would say, a John McCain who hones his campaign enough to defeat the Bush machine, might have the campaigning strength to beat Gore. If McCain can use his maverick reputation to win admirers in both parties he'll win the general election, otherwise he'll also lose.

I think the best McCain could do would be around 50% to Gore's 45% which gets you...

genusmap.php

McCain: 356
Gore: 182

The alternate scenario is that McCain runs the same sort of campaign that lost him the primary, and Gore does a bit better in Florida. I imagine JEB wouldn't mind someone not family losing the election so he could give it a go in 04.
 
If McCain does everything right I think he would win.
Now the McCain of 2000 was not the McCain which would win the nomination in 2008.
I assume that he does not make a "Palin" like mistake with his Veep choice and goes for someone acceptable. John Danforth who was Bush's runner-up, John Engler, the Governor of Michigan and another name on Bush's list would have also been on McCain's. Although I could see him picking a female in Liz Dole.
I also believe that Joe Lieberman who was a close personal friend of McCain, would not have been Gore's running-mate and it probably would have been Byah or Graham.
 
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Supposing this happens. If we get a 'September 11' attack ATL, would McCain have the sense to focus on Afghanistan, or would he go into Iraq like Bush?
 
Mccain goes into Afghanistan as Bush did OTL. He doesn't go after Saddam, because it makes no sense. Saddam was a monster like Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot; but he had no interest in terrorism against the west. GWB had a hard-on for Saddam because he tried to off Bush 41; 9/11 gave him the excuse to try to even the score; he got rid of Saddam; now Iraq is totally fucked.
Supposing this happens. If we get a 'September 11' attack ATL, would McCain have the sense to focus on Afghanistan, or would he go into Iraq like Bush?
 
genusmap.php

JOHN MCCAIN:34 states,422 EV'S
AL GORE:16 states+DC,116 EV'S

...are you high?

McCain winning California, Massachusetts, and Illinois? Not in a million years. The only way the Republicans win those states post culture war is if the Democrats run Timothy McVeigh.

And maybe not even then.
 
Against McCain, Gore loses the 2000 election by a much wider margin than he did IOTL. He wouldn't have the razor thin margin in Florida to excuse his terrible campaign.

The upshot is that with such a clear margin there is no post election farce. Instead of the month or so of partisan bullshit dominating the news in the US, it's all over in one night. Gore would likely have conceded by midnight. There would also be no silly conspiracy theories about how Gore was the "rightful president" who was cheated out of office by "Republican Fascists".

The downside is that comedy routines will need to find different material, what with Clinton's presidency being over and no post-election gong show.
 
McCain does better than Bush, assuming Gore runs the same kind of campaign he did OTL and snatches defeat from the jaws of victory like OTL. McCain wins all of Bush's states plus all of the states Gore won with less than a 5% margin of victory. Heck, if Engler is McCain's running mate, that could flip Michigan to the GOP as well.

Al Gore (D-TN): 204 EV
John McCain (R-AZ): 334 EV

genusmap.php
 
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...are you high?

McCain winning California, Massachusetts, and Illinois? Not in a million years. The only way the Republicans win those states post culture war is if the Democrats run Timothy McVeigh.

And maybe not even then.

And Gore isn't winning states like Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Nebraska (except the 2nd district that Obama won in '08, and even that's close to impossible). Even Montana is a stretch considering Clinton only won that state in '92 because of Perot doing well there.
 
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