Possibly. Being Speaker and running for President is a tough task. Does he stay the Democratic leader in the house, or does he hand the reigns over to Pelosi for the sake of focusing on a potential Presidential run.
The Towers Still Stand: An Alternate take on early 21st Century America.
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Idk, you decide. It's just good that he'll probably win after coming so close IOTL. And I just thought, ironically Democrats will obstruct Bush's agenda, but because he's a Republican it's good, so obstructionism isn't an issue but the policies. Looking forward to more(btw, will you do a sequel to the Ford Tl or not?)
I'm still deciding on whether Gephardt will be speaker or not. I agree that it would be cool if he did, but I also don't want to create a difficult Presidential race either. I'll figure that out soon.
It's on my very, very long "To Do" list. I hope to start a sequel sometime in the next 6 months.
The 2002 Midterms.
November 5th, 2002. The House Goes Blue and the Senate Gets Bluer:
The Midterm elections that took place on November 5th, 2002 proved to be good for the Democratic party. In the House, they saw a gain of 25 seats, giving them a majority of 237-197 (238 if you count Independent Congressman Bernie Sanders of Vermont). This would mark the first time in eight years that the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. Despite speculations that he would step down from his position as the leading Democrat in the house for the sake of focusing on a potential Presidential campaign, Dick Gephardt said in his speech that night that "I look forward to working with the President and members of Congress of both parties as the next Speaker of the House to solve the problems that face America." Even before the elections, sources in Capitol hill suggested that if he were to seek the position as Speaker of the House, Gephardt would not face any challenges from members of his party.
The Democrats saw a gain of two seats in the Senate, one in Colorado where Tom Strickland defeated Republican incumbent Wayne Allard and in New Hampshire where Jeanne Shaheen defeated Republican Candidate John Sununu. Democratic incumbents Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, Max Cleland of Georgia, and Jean Carnahan of Missouri managed to fight off tough challengers and hold on to their seats as well. The Democrats now, with Independents Jim Jeffords and Lincoln Chafee caucusing with them, had 55 seats in the Senate. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said that "with a bigger majority in the Senate and now a majority in the house, the work of the people can be done."
In the Governors race, the Democrats managed to narrowly keep the Governorships in Alabama and Vermont and also managed to gain the Governorships in Illinois, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Michigan, Arizona, Maine, and Kansas. Despite his brother's low approval ratings, Jeb Bush managed to get re elected in Florida. The Republicans also managed to pick up the governorships of Maryland, Georgia, Hawaii, Alaska, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
President Bush congratulated all those that were elected or re elected and said that he looked forward to meeting with Speaker Designate Gephardt and Senate Majority Leader Daschle at the White House in the coming days. The President's approval rating on election day was at 42%, just as it was throughout most of October.
Will President Bush be able to work with a fully Democratic Congress? Will he be willing to Compromise? Will the Newly elected Democratic majority work with the President and make some concessions? Stay tuned to find out?
Italics= Races that went the other way OTL.
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I come bearing information of useless proportions!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_Entertainment_Awards said:
Penny for The Guy
Banned
Wellstone perhaps leading a social-democracy caucus? (Perhaps not a big caucus, but...)
This TL is good! Keep it like that.
Good to see that the mighty WTC is still standing.
Good to see that the mighty WTC is still standing.
Thank you both. I'm glad everyone is enjoying !!!This TL is good! Keep it like that.
Good to see that the mighty WTC is still standing.
JJohnson
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Check out this video about some other things to consider, as well as this one. 9-11 wasn't just bin Laden, it was several other things including the Saudis.
There might've been other factors. With that said, I don't want to get into conspiracies.
I am enjoying this TL plus with the WTC still up it could change how we look at terrorism in this TL
November 12th, 2002. Former VP Al Gore "thrilled" with Midterm results:
On November 12th, 2002, Former Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper were interviewed on "Larry King Live," and was asked about the Midterm Elections that took place a week earlier. Gore said he was "thrilled" about the results and said that Dick Gephardt will make a great Speaker of the House. The Former Vice President and Former Democratic Presidential nominee said that "I hope the newly elected Democratic Congress will get the country back on track." The Gores were also asked about the 2000 election and the Vice President said that "it was tough losing that election. We fought hard, but the court made it's decision." His wife, Former Second Lady Tipper Gore, went as far as saying that "we did win, but the Supreme Court stole it from us." Larry King also asked if the Former Vice President was considering another run for the Presidency in 2004, and Gore said "as of now, I haven't seriously thought about running again, but anything is possible."
The Former Second Couple were also asked about their marriage and life after the Vice Presidency.
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I think you mean Democratic congress.
Gore shouldn't run for president in 2004, because that makes this TL boring.
BTW, what was the deficit in 2001 ITTL?
Fixed.
If he does run, it won't be unopposed. As for the deficit, IRC, it was the Bush tax cuts that brought the budget back into deficit (I'm not good with economic figures), but it's still lower than OTL without the Wars and with Bush being gridlocked.
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End of the Year Review: 2002.
End of the Year Review for 2002:
2002 began with President Bush signing his "No Child Left Behind Act" into law and with the Justice Department beginning a criminal investigation of Enron, the energy company that declared bankruptcy at the end of 2001. It was also the year that Bush and hardline Republicans failed to reform Social Security, resulting in the President losing much of his political capitol. WorldCom, the telecommunications company, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in July, making it the biggest bankruptcy filing in history. As a result of this and the result of the Enron Scandal, which also hurt President Bush politically, the Sarbanes Oxley Act which set expanded or new requirements for public accounting firms, boards, and management. Also signed was the bi partisan "McCain Feingold Act," (sorry I didn't create an update about this), which reformed campaign finance. President Bush reluctantly signed this after congress passed it.
The November midterms saw the Democrats retake the House of Representatives for the first time since 1994 after gaining 25 seats. Dick Gephardt would go on to be the next Speaker of the House. The elections also saw the Democrats gain 2 seats in the Senate and saw a net gain in Governorships as well.
Abroad, on August 20th, 2002, the four year anniversary of the U.S. Missile Strike on Afghanistan and Sudan, terrorists attacked the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, where U.S. troops were station since the 1991 Gulf War. 200 U.S. service men and women were killed in the attack. Despite the Bush administration's suspicions that Saddam Hussein's Iraq might've been involved in the attack, after capturing and interrogating one of the attackers involved, it was confirmed that the Taliban Regime in Afghanistan ordered the attack on the base. The U.S. would begin to gradually withdrawing its troops from Saudi Arabia. The Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which limited the number of Nuclear arsenal to between 1700 and 2,200 operationally deployed warheads for each country was also signed on May 24th. This treaty would replace the ABM treaty of 1972, which the US withdrew from earlier in the year and the START II treaty of 1993, which the Russians withdrew from as a result of the U.S. withdrawing from the ABM treaty.
The unemployment rate also, abet slowly, climbed throughout 2002, reaching 5.9% by the end of the year. The Dow Jones industrial Average also fell below 7200 points. President Bush ended 2002 with an approval rating of 42%, the lowest of his Presidency thus far. The deficit also saw a small increase due to a weak economy.
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