WI: Biden elected President in 2008

Biden was generally considered pretty moderate for a Democrat, so his policies would likely be more modest than Obama's, including a stimulus bill and a health care bill that probably doesn't aim for universal coverage or include an individual mandate. The GOP reaction would be correspondingly less intense, although an era of bipartisan good feelings is pretty unlikely. Opposition is likely to focus on his judicial nominees and social policies.
 
Was Biden behind the Title IX rape policy? If so, I think the backlash against "SJWs" would still occur, but there not be as much of, if any, backlash against racial minorities. Maybe the Charlottesville rally would instead occur somewhere that's symbolic of patriarchy?

I wonder what Trump would do without a "Kenyan Muslim" President to attack.
 
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Was Biden behind the Title IX rape policy? If so, I think the backlash against "SJWs" would still occur, but there not be as much of, if any, backlash against racial minorities. Maybe the Charlottesville rally would instead occur somewhere that's symbolic of patriarchy?

I wonder what Trump would do without a "Kenyan Muslim" President to attack.

Charlottesville probably doesn't happen without Obama due to butterflies. A white president makes the Charleston church shooting less likely, which in turn makes removing Confederate statues a lower priority.

Trump would be the same. He goes Don Rickles on any and all opponents.
 
Obama but less neoliberal, since only Obama could have gotten away with as little on healthcare/banking. Even Ron Paul would have had to do more on both. Ron. Paul.
 
ATL's President Joe Biden probably faces a primary challenger from the left in 2012, who he is able to defeat, but ultimately loses the general election due to party division. Biden opposed Operation Neptune Spear, so if he is President, it probably never commences.
 
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Was Biden behind the Title IX rape policy? If so, I think the backlash against "SJWs" would still occur, but there not be as much of, if any, backlash against racial minorities. Maybe the Charlottesville rally would instead occur somewhere that's symbolic of patriarchy?

I wonder what Trump would do without a "Kenyan Muslim" President to attack.

Biden was the original author of the Violence Against Women Act and touted his credentials on women's issues, so feminism is going to be more of a flashpoint relative to race ITTL, although most Republican politicians are going to focus on abortion rather than going after Title IX directly. I actually don't think Trump would run for office without Obama/birtherism - he would probably continue his habit of making noises about a presidential run on the grounds that his business experience made him supremely qualified, but not personally attack Biden.
 
What’s the POd? Obama dies in a freak bowling accident before the election and Biden takes over The ticket?

I would say it's easier to imagine Obama just not running. Michelle objects more forcefully, maybe a larger proportion of voices in his ear talk about a future where he runs with more time in the senate.

Biden topping Clinton seems a little tougher, but it's possible.

Biden v McCain is also a tough matchup, but the pendulum was swinging pretty hard against the GOP in 2008.

It's hard to imagine exactly what was going through Boehner and McConnell's minds when they came up with the "all obstruction all the time" strategy against Obama. To be...kinda careful about it, let's say that their primary fear was seeing Obama become a liberal hero whose legend would see a political realignment spanning the next 20 years. There was a lot of rhetoric about inexperience at the time, and the right treating Obama as a norms-breaker for coming in wet behind the ears, which always read on the left as a racist dog-whistle. But you know, it could be both! Aghast over his greenness, and also, I mean, you know, probably, for several of them, yeah, um...racism.

So does Biden prompt that kind of reaction? I don't think so. But! It could all just be game theory having a moment, a trend in politics that had little to do with the provocation of the Obama presidency. So maybe "all obstruction all the time" happens anyway.
 
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It's hard to imagine exactly what was going through Boehner and McConnell's minds when they came up with the "all obstruction all the time" strategy against Obama. To be...kinda careful about it, let's say that their primary fear was seeing Obama become a liberal hero whose legend would see a political realignment spanning the next 20 years. There was a lot of rhetoric about inexperience at the time, and the right treating Obama as a norms-breaker for coming in wet behind the ears, which always read on the left as a racist dog-whistle. But you know, it could be both! Aghast over his greenness, and also, I mean, you know, probably, for several of them, yeah, um...racism.

So does Biden prompt that kind of reaction? I don't think so. But! It could all just be game theory having a moment, a trend in politics that had little to do with the provocation of the Obama presidency. So maybe "all obstruction all the time" happens anyway.

With the disappearance of Blue Dogs - and northeastern Republicans - the parties are much more ideologically pure than they were in the past. We saw this even in the 1990s with the venom directed at Clinton. They were looking for any pretext for impeachment and had to resort to Monica when Whitewater turned out to be a very hole.

W briefly dodged all of that with the rally round the flag effect after 9/11 but before long it was business as usual.
 
With the disappearance of Blue Dogs - and northeastern Republicans - the parties are much more ideologically pure than they were in the past. We saw this even in the 1990s with the venom directed at Clinton. They were looking for any pretext for impeachment and had to resort to Monica when Whitewater turned out to be a very hole.

W briefly dodged all of that with the rally round the flag effect after 9/11 but before long it was business as usual.

True, the parties were continuing to sort in a pattern that stretches back to at least the 1960s- inertia takes a while to overcome. And perhaps the ramping up we saw under Obama was just that: a function of the greater partisan divide that increased cycle by cycle.

Which isn't to say that I agree with you that the venom directed at Clinton is directly comparable to the venom directed at Obama. The latter dealt with a total shutdown on all fronts, all the time, for his entire tenure. Maybe the pawl was headed towards that eventually, but I think it's a reasonable theory to say that the GOP drove harder to reach that level under Obama than they would have, and might not have made it there with Obama.
 
Have something serious happen to both Bill and Chelsea Clinton, Barack Obama decide his tenure in the Senate is too short, and John Edwards and Bill Richardson get exposed for their scandals earlier. Dennis Kucinich did poll higher than Joe Biden in OTL, but without Hillary, Obama, Edwards, and Richardson, Biden could potentially unite the establishment behind him.
 
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It's probably too late in 2008, but if I remember correctly Biden was a proponent of splitting Iraq into three countries, wasn't he?
 
It's probably too late in 2008, but if I remember correctly Biden was a proponent of splitting Iraq into three countries, wasn't he?
He was a proponent of partitioning Iraq and 2009 (the year he'd be inaugurated) would be too late of a year. Some say his proposal would have worked better in the 1990s, immediately after the Persian Gulf War. But of course, for that to happen, he'd have to be elected President in 1988.
 
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