I was looking through some old threads and found one timeline discussing a Clinton assassination in 1997 by an anti-abortion extremist, and that got me thinking about how Clinton was a huge admirer of JFK, and how eerie it would be to recreate the 1963-64 assassination-election events in the mid 90's. Would the 1996 election be a huge landslide like 1964 for the Democrats, and possibly have them winning back Congress? Does Perot decide to run again in 96 like OTL? Does Gore run again in 2000? How does this change history?
For this timeline there will be two changes to the OTL within a period of a few months. The first is in late 1995 President Clinton is assassinated by far-right militant Eric Robert Rudolph (the Olympic Park Bomber in OTL), and the second is Bob Dole suffers a health scare on the eve of the 1996 Iowa Caucus, serious enough for him to be hospitalized for a few days, but he doesn't drop out of the race, and is back on the campaign trail in a matter of weeks.
Al Gore is sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States in late 1995 and decides to run in 1996, he is unopposed in the primaries. After Bob Doles health scare, Buchanan narrowly wins the Iowa Caucus, then wins New Hampshire with a slightly bigger margin than OTL. The early momentum, coupled with the worry about Doles age and health, gives Buchanan a path to the nomination.
Gore chooses Senator Bob Graham from Florida as his running mate, this will help in a big swing state. Also, since Chiles is Governor at the time, the Democrats wouldn't lose the Senate seat in a Gore victory. I can't decide who Buchanan would pick as his running mate. Any thoughts?