WI: Al Gore Wins Tennessee

Well the majority of the electorate back in 1960 did not identify with Kennedy's Catholic faith but yet he did win big in parts of the country where Roman Catholics were a small minority. Likewise, in the most recent presidential election many of the electorate voted for Obama even though the vast majority of them did not identify with him racially and ethnically.
There are some on the extreme left, such as the Huffington Post and the Daily Kos, that might make an issue of Romney's religion. But the Democrats would have to be careful of playing that card for it could easily backfire and paint them as religious bigots.
What ironically might Romney in TL or Scenario with evangelical Christian voters and voters in the South is the fact the Democratic presidential candidate is a Jew from the northeast-as VP Lieberman would most likely be the Democratic nominee if Gore had served two terms as POTUS. The two candidates would cancel out each other when it comes to the issue of religion

The Huffington Post and Daily Kos are by no means extreme leftists - they're just partisan liberals and Democrats. RedState is likewise partisanly conservative and Republican, without being anything like the extreme right. Both sides are just well motivated, not politically fringe. Daily Kos split between Clinton Edwards and Obama in 2008, not wvwn between Kucinich, Gravel, and McKinney.

I think the difference between Mormonism in 2008 and Catholicism in 1960 is that people are still only moderately familiar with Mormonism - a national campaign would likely lead to a lot more discovery about the religion and focus on some things that have greatly offended people of other faiths. Most notably against a Jewish candidate, I think the Mormon church's baptism of Holocaust victims would put Romney in an embarrassing spot
 
I think that is more of a caricature or stereotype than a actual reflection of present day reality. It's from my experience that those who characterize the Republicans as being dominated by the 'right-wing evangelical Christians' are usually left-leaning and secular at that. These are the same type of arguments that were used against Kennedy in 1960, and used a just few years ago why an African-American cannot be elected president. That having said if Romney did get the nomination he would have to get someone who has experience serving in Congress and preferably a conservative Christian. Probably Sen. Brownback of Kansas, Sen, DeMint of South Carolina or Sen. John Ensign of Nevada :eek: Of course it's equally plausible that Mike Huckabee could have gotten the nomination. Ok, here's the scenario: At the end of Gore's second term the Democratic presidential candidate is a Jew(Lieberman) and the Republican candidate is a Mormon(Romney) and the recession and major economic crisis happens more or less around the same time as in OTL, who wins the 2008 presidential elections?

Then why did McCain feel he had to choose Sarah Palin, if not as a nod to the Christian Right?

There was lots of discussion (in e.g. national news magazines, not just internet blogs) about how the Republican base would stay home in droves if Romney won the nomination.
 
Then why did McCain feel he had to choose Sarah Palin, if not as a nod to the Christian Right?

There was lots of discussion (in e.g. national news magazines, not just internet blogs) about how the Republican base would stay home in droves if Romney won the nomination.

To be honest with you, I was surprised when he chosen Palin instead of Romney. If the Republican base stayed home in droves because McCain chosed Romney it would not primarily because of Romney's Mormonism but rather he would be perceived as not being solidly conservative (his record of flip-flopping as Gov of Mass.).
But anyrate, all that would be mute if Gore had served 2 terms as president-McCain likely would gotten the GOP nod in 04 and be defeated by Gore.
 
I'm not sure it's certain that Romney will be a player on the national stage. Gore '00 might take the teeth out of the Republican wave in 2002, particularly if he's the beneficiary of some national-unity boost following the alt-9/11.

Romney only won by 5 points in a very Democratic state - it wouldn't take a tidal wave of butterfly effects to leave the Mass statehouse in Democratic hands, or in the other direction, Jane Swift might have decided to keep her job and kept Romney from running in a primary if it was a clear Republican tidal wave coming.
 
Swift only got to be Governor in OTL because her boss, Paul Cellucci, was tapped by Dubya to be US ambassador to Canada. That will not happen in a Gore wins TL. Which means that Cellucci, who was only into his first term, will probably run again in 2002, or if he doesn't, Swift probably will.

So we can say with some confidence that Romney is unlikely to be a national political figure by 2008 if Gore wins. It's possible, but it's not likely.
 
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Swift only got to be Governor in OTL because her boss, Paul Cellucci, was tapped by Dubya to be US ambassador to Canada. That will not happen in a Gore wins TL. Which means that Cellucci, who was only into his first term, will probably run again in 2002, or if he doesn't, Swift probably will.

So we can say with some confidence that Romney is unlikely to be a national political figure by 2008 if Gore wins. It's possible, but it's not likely.

Hmm. Assuming two terms of Gore, would Celluci have a shot at the Republican nomination in 2008? Or would the RINO label sink him?
 
Swift only got to be Governor in OTL because her boss, Paul Cellucci, was tapped by Dubya to be US ambassador to Canada. That will not happen in a Gore wins TL. Which means that Cellucci, who was only into his first term, will probably run again in 2002, or if he doesn't, Swift probably will.

So we can say with some confidence that Romney is unlikely to be a national political figure by 2008 if Gore wins. It's possible, but it's not likely.

Exactly! you beat me to the punch:) My guess is that Governor Cellucci would likely run for reelection in 02 and win, therefore Romney would be effectively shut out of the Governorship until at least 2006. And even if he did run for governor and got the nomination in 06 it's far from certain he could beat Deval Patrick. At any rate, it's unlikely that Romney could be national figure to run for the presidency if he only became governor in January 2007, especially if he's running against a presidential candidate who already served two terms as VP (Lieberman). So the likely Republican presidential candidate in 2008 would therefore be Mike Huckabee.
 
Hmm. Assuming two terms of Gore, would Celluci have a shot at the Republican nomination in 2008? Or would the RINO label sink him?

I don't get the impression that Celluci was a particularly ambitious guy. If he was, he wouldn't have become an ambassador. In any case, Celluci wasn't a million miles away from Romney politically, so he'd be unlikely to get anywhere if he runs.

So the likely Republican presidential candidate in 2008 would therefore be Mike Huckabee.

Assuming, of course, that Jeb, or John Thune, or George Allen (almost certain to keep his Senate seat ITTL) or Bill Frist, any number of the other, far better candidates than Huckabee don't run. 2008 ITTL will be far different to OTL - the Democrats will be seen as certain losers simply by virtue of being in for 16 years, and the Republican field will be hugely more crowded. What we got in OTL was a scrap between mostly second-tier candidates - that won't happen here.

Huckabee has always had real problems attracting non-evangelicals. Anyone who can gain any number of them and non-evangelicals will be able to beat Huckabee like McCain did. Not much of a mountain to climb.
 
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