WI: Jesse Jackson presidency (1985-1993)

What if Civil Rights Activist Jesse Jackson, Sr. won the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination over the establishment candidates, former Vice President Walter Mondale and Colorado Senator Gary Hart, and somehow, defeated President Ronald Reagan? What would a Jesse Jackson presidency look like, as the first African American president?
 
This is going into ASB territory IMHO. Winning the nomination is plausible I guess, but the General election is another story. Jackson's chances of beating Reagan are less than Mondale's in OTL.
 
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This is going into ASB territory IMHO. Winning the nomination is plausible I guess, but the General election is another story. Jackson's chances of beating Reagan's are less than Mondale's.

I'd go a step further and say that his winning the nomination is also in ASB territory. Not gonna happen. Not in any conceivable sequence of events. Not even if Mondale and Hart both drop dead in the middle of the campaign and John Glenn is caught with a dead girl or live boy. Jesse Jackson was not only supremely unqualified to be President and to have the nuclear launch codes, but America in 1984 was also still, and even among Democrats, not ready to elect a black President. His candidacy was tolerated in 1984 and 1988 because Democrats could not afford to alienate black voters.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but as someone who was around then, the idea is simply beyond the realm of even the remotely plausible. For all the racism we see today, things were even worse in 1984.
 
I'd go a step further and say that his winning the nomination is also in ASB territory. Not gonna happen. Not in any conceivable sequence of events. Not even if Mondale and Hart both drop dead in the middle of the campaign and John Glenn is caught with a dead girl or live boy. Jesse Jackson was not only supremely unqualified to be President and to have the nuclear launch codes, but America in 1984 was also still, and even among Democrats, not ready to elect a black President. His candidacy was tolerated in 1984 and 1988 because Democrats could not afford to alienate black voters.

Sorry if I sound harsh, but as someone who was around then, the idea is simply beyond the realm of even the remotely plausible. For all the racism we see today, things were even worse in 1984.
No need to be sorry, I agree with you, I just wasn't willing to go as far as saying it (my great grandfather of all people did vote for Jesse back in the day XD).
 
Jackson's best chance is to win in 1988, he came closest there, and the Republicans somehow nominate Pat Robertson. Even then the result would likely be President Robertson.
 
No way in hell, does he get the nomination, elected, or re-elected.

There is a reason why he dropped off the map politically aside from some TV appearances after his 1988 run - because a crapload of his scandals and skeletons came bursting out of the closet, and "Hymietown" just was the last nail in the coffin.
 
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