WI: Bush Wins the Popular Vote in 2000

Amadeus

If not for that last minute DUI scandal, George W. Bush might have won the popular vote in 2000 and carried enough electoral votes to become America's 43rd President. The POD is that the DUI story doesn't break until a week after the election, allowing Bush to narrowly win the presidency with both the popular and electoral vote. Would anything be different about Bush's presidency or the post-2000 history of the US had Bush entered office sans the contested recount and perceptions of illegitimacy?
 

David T

Well, if he won both the popular vote and a clear (if still narrow) victory in FL, it would be harder to deny the legitimacy of his election--though if this was because the DUI was concealed until after the election, his enemies will say that made it morally if not legally illegitimate. If he won the popular vote but FL was as close as in OTL and it still came down to a 5-4 SCOTUS decision, there would still be those who said he "stole" it.
 
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Amadeus

David T said:
Well, if he won both the popular vote and a clear (if still narrow) victory in FL, it would be harder to deny the legitimacy of his election--though if this was because the DUI was concealed until after the election, his enemies will say that made it morally if not legally illegitimate. If he won the popular vote but FL was as close as in OTL and it still came down to a 54-4 SCOTUS decision, there would still be those who said he "stole" it
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IMO the DUI would be a dark cloud hanging over Bush's head during the transition and early months. It would hammer in the perception that he's a reckless frat boy and many would wonder if the Bush family used their connections to postpone the release of the story. In OTL the DUI scandal was overshadowed by the recount controversy and Supreme Court intervention, but here that still lingers in the public consciousness.
 

Amadeus

RightHoJeeves said:
If there's no recount debacle then I guess Nader gets to be the scapegoat for frustrated Democrats more than he was OTL.
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I agree. And liberals would generally be less angry at the Supreme Court without the blatantly partisan intervention that handed Dubya the Presidency.
 
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