David S Poepoe
Banned
There were a certain set of conditions that came about for firestorms to form, from past air crashes burning fuel and falling debris do not create widespread damage to create those conditions.
WI: Bill Clinton dies of a Heart Attack, in Office
- Thread starter Emperor Norton I
- Start date
There were a certain set of conditions that came about for firestorms to form, from past air crashes burning fuel and falling debris do not create widespread damage to create those conditions.
Grand Admiral Thrawn
Donor
If you want high causalties have the plane crash into a dense neighborhood or skyscraper as it falls...
Gore becoming president could butterfly 9/11.
And it was a Shenyang J-8, not a MiG.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hainan_Island_incident
9/11 would be different if just for butterflies. There could be different targets, different success and failures (think if no crew rebellion worked, or if they all rebelled, or if they actually managed to beat back the terrorists), an entirely different day, or even a different plan entirely (which would create all new butterflies to deal with). And maybe the terrorists don't do it because they don't go with the plan of direct attack against the United States (something I believe some in the organization were said to have opposed since they didn't want direct heat coming down on them). It all depends on when 9/11 was planned, which I frankly don't know.
JRScott
Banned
I believe 9/11 would be much harder to do away with than what I put out. It's not impossible you could change it in the 80s or 90s but to do so you'd need a mideast settlement of many issues, and none of the main players in that time period could do it, the closest would be Jesse Jackson that might could have pulled it off in that time frame as he has had many successful negotiations for prisoners etc.
It wasn't just about the Iraq or Afghan recent wars, it was really about the west interference in the Middle East for the last 60 years. While Britain and the US did so to contain Soviet Union, they did so in ways that the people greatly suffered and as such many hold them responsible for what happened for example under the Shah of Iran and later Saddam Hussein. It will take generations to overcome those suspicions entirely. To do away with 9/11 you'd have to have a POD much farther back in time, perhaps shortly after the end of WWII, whereupon the people of the region are more free to choose their own leaders and their own path. Remember after the Barbary Wars most Muslims held the US in high regards.
It wasn't just about the Iraq or Afghan recent wars, it was really about the west interference in the Middle East for the last 60 years. While Britain and the US did so to contain Soviet Union, they did so in ways that the people greatly suffered and as such many hold them responsible for what happened for example under the Shah of Iran and later Saddam Hussein. It will take generations to overcome those suspicions entirely. To do away with 9/11 you'd have to have a POD much farther back in time, perhaps shortly after the end of WWII, whereupon the people of the region are more free to choose their own leaders and their own path. Remember after the Barbary Wars most Muslims held the US in high regards.
History can be exceedingly, exceedingly fickle. Think of it this way: did you plan out every action you did yesterday or today? Did you plan to open the refrigerator at the times you did, to specifically watch TV at this time, to run into this guy at work and talk with him, and decide exactly throughout the multiverse how precisely that conversation would go and when that conversation would end? Certainly not. That, in a nut shell, is alternate history and the trouble with trying to understand it which everyone has. Things can be likely to go a certain way, and there are macro-trends, but there's all the little stuff. History is just all the little stuff built up into macro-trends and into a larger reality.
For that reason, narratively, we do have to try our best. But 9/11 was not destined to be what it was. The macro-trend of Middle East terrorism was there, but it was certainly never destined to be exactly, specifically what it was on 9/11 in our OTL. It could have been a plane set to explode over Washington, raining down havoc and debris causing massive damage. It could have been planned to hit the Empire State Building and Chrysler building instead. It could have been planned for August 17th, 2003 or March 11th, 1999. It all depends when the plan was set into motion as this is what they were definitely going to try. And even then, things could be different given that everything in history is just in the moment. Those passengers on Flight 93 could have succeeded in stopping their hijackers and landing safely. They could have failed, and the flight could have taken out whatever target it was headed for (which I believe is still unknown). Another jet could have had a similar situation.
I'm not saying it's based on Al Gore. I'm saying it's just based on history being fickle. The chance for 9/11 occurring is still all the same, but it all isn't destined.
For that reason, narratively, we do have to try our best. But 9/11 was not destined to be what it was. The macro-trend of Middle East terrorism was there, but it was certainly never destined to be exactly, specifically what it was on 9/11 in our OTL. It could have been a plane set to explode over Washington, raining down havoc and debris causing massive damage. It could have been planned to hit the Empire State Building and Chrysler building instead. It could have been planned for August 17th, 2003 or March 11th, 1999. It all depends when the plan was set into motion as this is what they were definitely going to try. And even then, things could be different given that everything in history is just in the moment. Those passengers on Flight 93 could have succeeded in stopping their hijackers and landing safely. They could have failed, and the flight could have taken out whatever target it was headed for (which I believe is still unknown). Another jet could have had a similar situation.
I'm not saying it's based on Al Gore. I'm saying it's just based on history being fickle. The chance for 9/11 occurring is still all the same, but it all isn't destined.
JRScott
Banned
That depends on what theories of time travel and time laws you believe are correct as to how fickle or not time is wouldn't it
. I believe it was planned for 9/11 on purpose due to 911 being emergency number in America. However can't be sure of that. But the laws of time almost always depend on the writer , so yes you can have time be very fickle, or it could be very resilient to change, there have been very good books on both accounts.It's not a story version of how time works, where there can be destiny or not and the time traveler can't save President Garfield. We aren't dealing with a story; we're dealing with reality and the possibilities of reality, and trying to do our best to grasp it all with our dumb overevolved monkey brains. The universe does not self correct (with this reality being the correct one), and does not guide itself like a sentient brain with a laid out plan. It's all randomness, with cause and effect and likelihoods and laws of how physics work, but still with totally random chance within those confines. Every single little thing you do, and decision you make, completely steers your life and changes its path. It's like shooting a pinball, and having it bounce off a bunch of obstacles on the pinball machine (each of those things it bounces off of being decisions, and events, etc). But those obstacles keep shifting and changing and moving at random, with the face of it totally changing every time the ball bounces off of something. That is the flow of time and events. That is the brain to alternate history.
That is a Vegan, with the capital v.
It's not inconceivable that Clinton would go during sex. There are rumors that Nelson Rockefeller died while making it with his mistress in his office (giant, musky Nelson Rockefeller corpse on top of you till the cops come; lovely experience for that lady). And certainly that's how I plan to have Clinton go in a timeline I'm plotting out.
I do suspect if that happened, it'd be quietly covered up that that is what he was doing when he died.
As I recall the story, actually the speculation, the young lady disengaged from Rocky and dressed him before calling 911.
At least she could get elected.
And as glenn said, if McCain wanted an African-American running mate, there's better choices than Alan Keyes, who couldn't even win the Constitution Party's presidential nomination in 2008. Alan Keyes is just...a horrible choice for any remotely sane presidential candidate.
Part 1
On October 12, 1998 President Clinton goes to New York City to appear at a fund raiser for Rep. Chuck Schumer who is running for senate (in OTL this is what he did that day). Clinton complains of chest pains a half hour before he is to leave for the first Schumer fund raiser that day. He is rushed to the hospital and soon news breaks of the president being rushed to the E.R. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are quickly rushed to New York City. Meanwhile Vice-President Al Gore is in Minneapolis giving a speech to the ITU conference. Gore is rushed back to the White House as news of Clinton being rushed to the E.R. is breaking. Three hours after arriving in the hospital President Clinton dies on the operating table on night of October 12, 1998 of a massive heart attack. Meanwhile back at the White House Vice-President Gore along with outgoing WH Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles (in OTL he had announced his resignation one week earlier), Deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta and top cabinet officials are waiting for news. While Gore is in a meeting in the cabinet room, Bowles walks in and tells Gore that Clinton has died. Now President Gore says he wants to talk to Hillary before the WH gives out an official announcement. Hillary gives Gore the go ahead to release an official announcement. Gore gives new WH Press Secretary Joe Lockhart the authority to announce the death of President Clinton to the press (even though leaks from the hospital had already announced Clinton's death to the press 20 minutes earlier). 45 minutes later in the East Room Chief Justice Reinquist swears Al Gore in as POTUS. President Gore addresses the nation with a short speech after his swearing in. Conspiracy theories of Clinton's death quickly start popping up on the internet before Clinton's autopsy is even finished.
Some saying it was all fake and that Clinton faked his death to escape impeachment and a certain prison sentence, and that he was secretly moving to South America to hideout and live a quiet life with Monica Lewinsky.
Others saying it was terrorist attack by a middle eastern hotel employee with ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist group, who drugged the president to induce his heart attack.
Others saying it was the CIA trying to stop him from _______________.
A very small minority believe that he was spooked by the ghost of Vince Foster.
Clinton's state funeral is held on October 16, 1998 and Hillary models it after JFK's funeral. Clinton is buried in Little Rock on the site he had planned for his Presidential Library to be. In early November Hillary moves out of the White House to a suburb of New York City, around the same time that Senator Moynihan announces he won't run for re-election in 2000.
President Gore decides to keep Clinton's cabinet and chooses Podesta to replace Bowles as his CoS like Clinton planned. Knowing that he would only to be able to run for one term of his own, his advisers want him to pick a V-P that can win in 2004. Gore wants somebody that will he agrees with on his favorite issue (the environment) and would be a change from the norm. Worried about keeping the "soccer moms" that helped them win in 1996, Gore decides to pick a woman. Some in the media are advocating Hillary Clinton, but nobody in the WH (especially Gore) takes that too seriously. In the 1998 midterm elections because of "Clinton sympathy" and anger towards the Republicans trying to impeach Clinton (some on the left in the media said it might have caused him stress that induced his heart attack), the Democrats win control of the congress.
The Democrats pick up 22 seats (Pat Toomey loses his election to the House making his senate win in 2010 in OTL unlikely and Bob Barr loses his seat in Georgia) to gain a 228-206 majority. Dick Gephardt becomes Speaker of the House while Gingrich is blamed for the GOP's loss and Republican caucus decides to pick a new minority leader (Gingrich resigns in Jan. 1999 like in OTL). It's a fight between Bob Livingston, Dick Armey, and Tom DeLey. After it is revealed that Livingston (who supported Clinton's impeachment) had an affair, he dropped out of the race for minority leader and resigned like in OTL. The GOP caucus ultimately chooses Armey for minority leader and DeLay for minority whip.
- Carol Mosley-Braun beats Peter Fitzgerald in IL (in OTL Fitzgerald wins).
- Scotty Baesler beats Jim Bunning (in OTL Bunning wins)
- Jay Nixon beats Kit Bond (in OTL Bond wins)
- Mary Boyle beats George Voinovich (in OTL Voinovich wins)
- Michael Coles beats Paul Coverdell (in OTL Coverdell wins)
These 5 seats for the Democrats give the senate a 50-50 split. With whoever Gore picks as his V-P as the tie breaker. On November 5, 1998 Gore chooses Washington Senator Patty Murray as his Vice-President. Governor Gary Locke choses Democrat Deborah Senn to replace Murray. Murray was confirmed by both houses of congress by mid-December and was sworn in as Vice-President on December 19, 1998 during a joint session of congress (the same date in OTL when the House impeached Clinton).
In the ATL President Gore doesn't differ to much from what President Clinton did in OTL when it comes to Kosovo in 1999. The Dow Jones still closes above 10,000 on March 29. The Columbine Shooting still happens on April 20. Ehud Barak still become Prime Minister of Israel. JFK, Jr. still dies in a plane crash with his wife and sister-in-law on July 19. On New Year's Eve Boris Yeltsin still resigns and hands over power to Putin. For most of 1999 there still are some fears about Y2K but nothing happens like in OTL.
In the ATL the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act gets voted down in a Democratic controlled House so the bill never makes it to President Gore's desk. The parts of that bill that would have repealed the Glass-Steagall Act don't into effect and the 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group (Citigroup) forces Citigroup to divest prohibited assets. When other legislation supported by and lobbied for by Citigroup is stalls in congress, Citigroup is forced to break up by 2001. With a Democratic congress and the nation still feeling some "Clinton sympathy" towards the Gore administration, Gore is able to get the senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty by a slim margin. The planned terrorist attack at LAX on New Year's 2000 by Ahmad Ressam is stopped like in OTL. Like in OTL Elian Gonzalez is sent back to Cuba which angers the Republicans and Cuban-Americans population in Florida. Gore later blames this not the butterfly ballot for his loss in the state of Florida.
In late 1999 with polls showing he would lose to President Gore by a good margin, Texas Governor George W. Bush announces he will not run for president in 2000. Bush plans to wait and run in 2004. With frontrunner Bush out of the picture the race for the Republican nomination comes down to John McCain, Pat Buchanan, and Steve Forbes. Hardcore social conservatives support Buchanan while the establishment Republicans in Washington support McCain. Buchanan wins Iowa while McCain wins New Hampshire and after coming in a distant third in both Iowa and NH, Forbes drops out of the race and endorses McCain. That leaves Buchanan and McCain going into South Carolina with also ran Alan Keyes who polls in the single digits. Buchanan really focuses on getting out the social conservatives and is able to win the state in a close race. Secretly the Gore/Murray campaign is hoping Buchanan can buck the establishment and win the nomination. Buchanan gets a lot of press and raises more money as a result of his SC win. But after some heavy negative advertising against Buchanan after SC, McCain dominates in the Super Tuesday primaries. By late April McCain was locked up the nomination.
Gore goes through the primaries unopposed by any major candidates (Bill Bradley never runs in 2000 in the ATL). Gore tries to keep the memory of Bill Clinton's economic turnaround in people's minds, while his campaign surrogates constantly keep the memory of Republican attacks on the late president alive in people's minds on cable news. In early July McCain is worried about the months of polls showing him behind Gore and the lack of enthusiasm from the social conservatives. McCain wants to pick a running mate that will be a "game changer" on the Republican side (since the Democratic side will feature a woman on the ticket). The media expects McCain to pick George W. Bush, but Bush has made it clear to his inner circle in Texas and to McCain's top staffers that he won't take the V-P spot if asked. Jeb Bush feels the same way. McCain secretly talks with Colin Powell about choosing him for his running mate, but Powell turns down McCain's offer for V-P. McCain narrows his list to TX Senator Phil Gramm, PA Senator Rick Santorum, former FL Governor Bob Martinez, Elizabeth Dole, and Congressman J.C. Watts. Pat Buchanan secretly lobbies for the V-P spot but McCain has no intention of picking Buchanan.
McCain likes Gramm but his advisers feel McCain doesn't gain enough with social conservatives by picking him. Plus McCain will win Texas anyway and he wants Gramm as his Secretary of Treasury. Santorum comes from a swing state Clinton won twice, but McCain fears he's too far to the right and personally doesn't think he'd make a good president if he (McCain) died in office like Clinton did. McCain likes Dole but thinks if he picked her it would be too obvious he was pandering to women voters because Patty Murray was already on the Democratic ticket. McCain expects he'll lose female voters anyway and wants to go after a different demographic. McCain likes Watts but feels he's too inexperienced having only been in the House for 6 years. "Maybe if he was a senator or a governor" McCain says to himself. His advisers also feel the black vote will still go to Gore even with Watts on the ticket and that picking Watts might alienate southern white voters, who they're already worried about not show enough support for McCain. Wanting to win the swing state of Florida and appeal to growing Hispanic voting population nationwide, McCain picks Bob Martinez.
Both the Gore/Murray ticket and McCain/Martinez ticket have uneventful conventions that summer. At the RNC fearing a repeat of 1992, Buchanan is allowed to speak to the delegates in only a pre-approved speech that is only seen on cable news in the middle of the afternoon. Colin Powell gives the keynote speech and both Martinez's and McCain's speeches are well received and there is a slight bump in the polls for McCain tying the race for awhile after the RNC. At the DNC there is a moving 15 minute tribute film to Bill Clinton and afterwords Hillary Clinton appears on stage and places Gore's name into nomination. Harold Ford, Jr. gives the keynote speech and Murray and Gore's speeches are also well received. After the DNC Gore takes a lead in most polls but it's still a single digit lead. The debates are mostly uneventful and it looks like Gore is going to win comfortably on election day.
Then on October 12, 2000 the USS Cole is attacked by al-Queda off the coast of Yemen. McCain and the GOP decide to use the incident to try to make the Gore administration look weak on terrorism. This does even the race for a while but the McCain campaign goes too far with the attacks and the polls just before election day show Gore leading McCain by a slim margin. Gore wins the election on November 7 receiving 52% of the popular vote. McCain wins 47% with third party candidates splitting 1% of the vote. McCain wins Florida but there are still voting irregularites. The exit polls indicate Gore is expected to win Florida and is called for him early in the night. But as more votes come in the race in Florida gets tighter and Florida is taken out of Gore's column before the polls close on the west coast. Unlike in OTL Gore wins the states of Ohio and Arkansas (because of "Clinton sympathy" Gore runs ads there linking him to Clinton). But Gore still loses Tennessee to McCain. Gore wins 293 electoral votes with McCain winning 244 electoral votes with one abstaining voter from the D.C. The butterfly ballot still hurts Gore in Florida but because Gore won the election anyway and because Bob Martinez was on the GOP ticket, not much attention is given to it and in none of the voting reforms that happen as a result of the 2000 recount in Florida happen. That same night Hillary Clinton wins her election to the senate in New York like she did in OTL.
Now being elected to a term of his own President Gore he starts to assemble his own cabinet for what will be his one and only 4 year term as president. On January 20, 2001 Al Gore is re-inaugurated POTUS and Patty Murray VPOTUS. He appoints his former campaign chairman Bill Daley as his new WH Chief of Staff.
Al Gore's cabinet:
Secretary of State: Richard Holbrooke
Secretary of Defense: Sam Nunn
Secretary of Treasury: Erskine Bowles
Attorney General: Eric Holder
Secretary of the Interior: Tom Udall
Secretary of Agriculture: Jim Hunt
Secretary of Commerce: Tom Downey
Secretary of Labor: Alexis Herman
Secretary of HHS: Howard Dean
Secretary of HUD: Donna Brazile
Secretary of Transportation: Rodney Slater
Secretary of Energy: Bill Richardson
Secretary of Education: Donald M. Payne
Secretary of VA: Bob Kerrey
On October 12, 1998 President Clinton goes to New York City to appear at a fund raiser for Rep. Chuck Schumer who is running for senate (in OTL this is what he did that day). Clinton complains of chest pains a half hour before he is to leave for the first Schumer fund raiser that day. He is rushed to the hospital and soon news breaks of the president being rushed to the E.R. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton are quickly rushed to New York City. Meanwhile Vice-President Al Gore is in Minneapolis giving a speech to the ITU conference. Gore is rushed back to the White House as news of Clinton being rushed to the E.R. is breaking. Three hours after arriving in the hospital President Clinton dies on the operating table on night of October 12, 1998 of a massive heart attack. Meanwhile back at the White House Vice-President Gore along with outgoing WH Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles (in OTL he had announced his resignation one week earlier), Deputy Chief of Staff John Podesta and top cabinet officials are waiting for news. While Gore is in a meeting in the cabinet room, Bowles walks in and tells Gore that Clinton has died. Now President Gore says he wants to talk to Hillary before the WH gives out an official announcement. Hillary gives Gore the go ahead to release an official announcement. Gore gives new WH Press Secretary Joe Lockhart the authority to announce the death of President Clinton to the press (even though leaks from the hospital had already announced Clinton's death to the press 20 minutes earlier). 45 minutes later in the East Room Chief Justice Reinquist swears Al Gore in as POTUS. President Gore addresses the nation with a short speech after his swearing in. Conspiracy theories of Clinton's death quickly start popping up on the internet before Clinton's autopsy is even finished.
Some saying it was all fake and that Clinton faked his death to escape impeachment and a certain prison sentence, and that he was secretly moving to South America to hideout and live a quiet life with Monica Lewinsky.
Others saying it was terrorist attack by a middle eastern hotel employee with ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist group, who drugged the president to induce his heart attack.
Others saying it was the CIA trying to stop him from _______________.
A very small minority believe that he was spooked by the ghost of Vince Foster.
Clinton's state funeral is held on October 16, 1998 and Hillary models it after JFK's funeral. Clinton is buried in Little Rock on the site he had planned for his Presidential Library to be. In early November Hillary moves out of the White House to a suburb of New York City, around the same time that Senator Moynihan announces he won't run for re-election in 2000.
President Gore decides to keep Clinton's cabinet and chooses Podesta to replace Bowles as his CoS like Clinton planned. Knowing that he would only to be able to run for one term of his own, his advisers want him to pick a V-P that can win in 2004. Gore wants somebody that will he agrees with on his favorite issue (the environment) and would be a change from the norm. Worried about keeping the "soccer moms" that helped them win in 1996, Gore decides to pick a woman. Some in the media are advocating Hillary Clinton, but nobody in the WH (especially Gore) takes that too seriously. In the 1998 midterm elections because of "Clinton sympathy" and anger towards the Republicans trying to impeach Clinton (some on the left in the media said it might have caused him stress that induced his heart attack), the Democrats win control of the congress.
The Democrats pick up 22 seats (Pat Toomey loses his election to the House making his senate win in 2010 in OTL unlikely and Bob Barr loses his seat in Georgia) to gain a 228-206 majority. Dick Gephardt becomes Speaker of the House while Gingrich is blamed for the GOP's loss and Republican caucus decides to pick a new minority leader (Gingrich resigns in Jan. 1999 like in OTL). It's a fight between Bob Livingston, Dick Armey, and Tom DeLey. After it is revealed that Livingston (who supported Clinton's impeachment) had an affair, he dropped out of the race for minority leader and resigned like in OTL. The GOP caucus ultimately chooses Armey for minority leader and DeLay for minority whip.
- Carol Mosley-Braun beats Peter Fitzgerald in IL (in OTL Fitzgerald wins).
- Scotty Baesler beats Jim Bunning (in OTL Bunning wins)
- Jay Nixon beats Kit Bond (in OTL Bond wins)
- Mary Boyle beats George Voinovich (in OTL Voinovich wins)
- Michael Coles beats Paul Coverdell (in OTL Coverdell wins)
These 5 seats for the Democrats give the senate a 50-50 split. With whoever Gore picks as his V-P as the tie breaker. On November 5, 1998 Gore chooses Washington Senator Patty Murray as his Vice-President. Governor Gary Locke choses Democrat Deborah Senn to replace Murray. Murray was confirmed by both houses of congress by mid-December and was sworn in as Vice-President on December 19, 1998 during a joint session of congress (the same date in OTL when the House impeached Clinton).
In the ATL President Gore doesn't differ to much from what President Clinton did in OTL when it comes to Kosovo in 1999. The Dow Jones still closes above 10,000 on March 29. The Columbine Shooting still happens on April 20. Ehud Barak still become Prime Minister of Israel. JFK, Jr. still dies in a plane crash with his wife and sister-in-law on July 19. On New Year's Eve Boris Yeltsin still resigns and hands over power to Putin. For most of 1999 there still are some fears about Y2K but nothing happens like in OTL.
In the ATL the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act gets voted down in a Democratic controlled House so the bill never makes it to President Gore's desk. The parts of that bill that would have repealed the Glass-Steagall Act don't into effect and the 1998 merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group (Citigroup) forces Citigroup to divest prohibited assets. When other legislation supported by and lobbied for by Citigroup is stalls in congress, Citigroup is forced to break up by 2001. With a Democratic congress and the nation still feeling some "Clinton sympathy" towards the Gore administration, Gore is able to get the senate to ratify the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty by a slim margin. The planned terrorist attack at LAX on New Year's 2000 by Ahmad Ressam is stopped like in OTL. Like in OTL Elian Gonzalez is sent back to Cuba which angers the Republicans and Cuban-Americans population in Florida. Gore later blames this not the butterfly ballot for his loss in the state of Florida.
In late 1999 with polls showing he would lose to President Gore by a good margin, Texas Governor George W. Bush announces he will not run for president in 2000. Bush plans to wait and run in 2004. With frontrunner Bush out of the picture the race for the Republican nomination comes down to John McCain, Pat Buchanan, and Steve Forbes. Hardcore social conservatives support Buchanan while the establishment Republicans in Washington support McCain. Buchanan wins Iowa while McCain wins New Hampshire and after coming in a distant third in both Iowa and NH, Forbes drops out of the race and endorses McCain. That leaves Buchanan and McCain going into South Carolina with also ran Alan Keyes who polls in the single digits. Buchanan really focuses on getting out the social conservatives and is able to win the state in a close race. Secretly the Gore/Murray campaign is hoping Buchanan can buck the establishment and win the nomination. Buchanan gets a lot of press and raises more money as a result of his SC win. But after some heavy negative advertising against Buchanan after SC, McCain dominates in the Super Tuesday primaries. By late April McCain was locked up the nomination.
Gore goes through the primaries unopposed by any major candidates (Bill Bradley never runs in 2000 in the ATL). Gore tries to keep the memory of Bill Clinton's economic turnaround in people's minds, while his campaign surrogates constantly keep the memory of Republican attacks on the late president alive in people's minds on cable news. In early July McCain is worried about the months of polls showing him behind Gore and the lack of enthusiasm from the social conservatives. McCain wants to pick a running mate that will be a "game changer" on the Republican side (since the Democratic side will feature a woman on the ticket). The media expects McCain to pick George W. Bush, but Bush has made it clear to his inner circle in Texas and to McCain's top staffers that he won't take the V-P spot if asked. Jeb Bush feels the same way. McCain secretly talks with Colin Powell about choosing him for his running mate, but Powell turns down McCain's offer for V-P. McCain narrows his list to TX Senator Phil Gramm, PA Senator Rick Santorum, former FL Governor Bob Martinez, Elizabeth Dole, and Congressman J.C. Watts. Pat Buchanan secretly lobbies for the V-P spot but McCain has no intention of picking Buchanan.
McCain likes Gramm but his advisers feel McCain doesn't gain enough with social conservatives by picking him. Plus McCain will win Texas anyway and he wants Gramm as his Secretary of Treasury. Santorum comes from a swing state Clinton won twice, but McCain fears he's too far to the right and personally doesn't think he'd make a good president if he (McCain) died in office like Clinton did. McCain likes Dole but thinks if he picked her it would be too obvious he was pandering to women voters because Patty Murray was already on the Democratic ticket. McCain expects he'll lose female voters anyway and wants to go after a different demographic. McCain likes Watts but feels he's too inexperienced having only been in the House for 6 years. "Maybe if he was a senator or a governor" McCain says to himself. His advisers also feel the black vote will still go to Gore even with Watts on the ticket and that picking Watts might alienate southern white voters, who they're already worried about not show enough support for McCain. Wanting to win the swing state of Florida and appeal to growing Hispanic voting population nationwide, McCain picks Bob Martinez.
Both the Gore/Murray ticket and McCain/Martinez ticket have uneventful conventions that summer. At the RNC fearing a repeat of 1992, Buchanan is allowed to speak to the delegates in only a pre-approved speech that is only seen on cable news in the middle of the afternoon. Colin Powell gives the keynote speech and both Martinez's and McCain's speeches are well received and there is a slight bump in the polls for McCain tying the race for awhile after the RNC. At the DNC there is a moving 15 minute tribute film to Bill Clinton and afterwords Hillary Clinton appears on stage and places Gore's name into nomination. Harold Ford, Jr. gives the keynote speech and Murray and Gore's speeches are also well received. After the DNC Gore takes a lead in most polls but it's still a single digit lead. The debates are mostly uneventful and it looks like Gore is going to win comfortably on election day.
Then on October 12, 2000 the USS Cole is attacked by al-Queda off the coast of Yemen. McCain and the GOP decide to use the incident to try to make the Gore administration look weak on terrorism. This does even the race for a while but the McCain campaign goes too far with the attacks and the polls just before election day show Gore leading McCain by a slim margin. Gore wins the election on November 7 receiving 52% of the popular vote. McCain wins 47% with third party candidates splitting 1% of the vote. McCain wins Florida but there are still voting irregularites. The exit polls indicate Gore is expected to win Florida and is called for him early in the night. But as more votes come in the race in Florida gets tighter and Florida is taken out of Gore's column before the polls close on the west coast. Unlike in OTL Gore wins the states of Ohio and Arkansas (because of "Clinton sympathy" Gore runs ads there linking him to Clinton). But Gore still loses Tennessee to McCain. Gore wins 293 electoral votes with McCain winning 244 electoral votes with one abstaining voter from the D.C. The butterfly ballot still hurts Gore in Florida but because Gore won the election anyway and because Bob Martinez was on the GOP ticket, not much attention is given to it and in none of the voting reforms that happen as a result of the 2000 recount in Florida happen. That same night Hillary Clinton wins her election to the senate in New York like she did in OTL.
Now being elected to a term of his own President Gore he starts to assemble his own cabinet for what will be his one and only 4 year term as president. On January 20, 2001 Al Gore is re-inaugurated POTUS and Patty Murray VPOTUS. He appoints his former campaign chairman Bill Daley as his new WH Chief of Staff.
Al Gore's cabinet:
Secretary of State: Richard Holbrooke
Secretary of Defense: Sam Nunn
Secretary of Treasury: Erskine Bowles
Attorney General: Eric Holder
Secretary of the Interior: Tom Udall
Secretary of Agriculture: Jim Hunt
Secretary of Commerce: Tom Downey
Secretary of Labor: Alexis Herman
Secretary of HHS: Howard Dean
Secretary of HUD: Donna Brazile
Secretary of Transportation: Rodney Slater
Secretary of Energy: Bill Richardson
Secretary of Education: Donald M. Payne
Secretary of VA: Bob Kerrey
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Stolengood
Banned
If you want to go with an earlier, perhaps more apt, example, there's always Felix Faure...
WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON
AUGUST 19th, 1946 -- FEBRUARY 11th, 1999
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Paul V McNutt
Banned
Lets say the stress of impeachment kills him in Febuary 1999. Then I see President Gore winning in 2000 and 2004. Which means a Republican, probably Mitt Romney wins 2008.
Tsao
Banned
I thought that said 'in his office'. When getting a BJ from a young lady.
I had the exact same thought.
After 16 years out of office, I would hope the GOP would have better nominees than Mitt. Maybe McCain or Jeb Bush.
Paul V McNutt
Banned
I am assuming George W Bush loses to Gore in 2000 and Gore defeats John McCain in 2004. I am also assuming that the same Republican run in 2008 as did OTL minus John McCain.
This topic dovetails nicely with a question I've been meaning to ask, and actually a mini-timeline idea I've had for awhile. Namely, what if President Clinton's fatal heart attack happens during the post-election chaos in 2000? That is, he dies after the 2000 election, but before Bush v. Gore reaches the Supreme Court? Think about it, potentially, three different Presidents in three months, and President Al Gore as the lamest of lame ducks.
https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=196004
Although if Bush v. Gore happens IOTL I would be very surprised. The recount would probably be fully completed.