WI: Jesse Jackson runs in 1996?

What if Jesse Jackson had decided to launch a campaign against Bill Clinton in 1996 for the Democratic nomination? Of course his chances of beating a sitting president would be extremely unlikely. But could he have divided the Democratic Party enough to get Clinton to move more to the left at a time when he wanted to (and did) move more towards the right in the wake of the Gingrich Revolution? How could Clinton avoid an erosion of African-American support during a primary battle with Jackson so that it doesn't hurt him later in a the general election? Could this have given Bob Dole a better chance of winning the election in November?

 
Bill "I did not have sex with that woman" Clinton

Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson

Bob "I'll stab you in the neck with this pen" Dole

and

Ross "The Boss" Perot.

Political entertainment, folks.
 
A sitting President is only ever seriously challenged in the primary when they are seriously unpopular. In 1996 Bill Clinton's approval ratings were lowest in early January, at 42% (and they kept getting higher as the primary season went on). That's nowhere near unpopular enough for any serious challenger to emerge for Clinton. In addition black voters (the group Jackson would be relying on) were fairly supportive of Bill Clinton, so they don't really have a motive to turn against him. Jackson running would be a bit of President-related trivia, but wouldn't really have an effect on the election.
 

thorr97

Banned
Perhaps Bill Clinton's Sister Souljah moment had a deeper effect on Jackson and the black community in the US than it did in OTL. That speech Clinton gave was taken as the moment when the Democratic Party leadership, as represented by Bill, told black America to shut up, sit down, and fall in line behind what the Democrats had to offer - because they had no other place (politically) to go. It was a speech which Bill Clinton used to portray himself as a centrist that the majority of Americans could relate to. This, as opposed to some "wild eyed leftist" that the GOP wanted to portray him as. It worked. But it left some pretty severe burns within the Democratic Party.

Instead of those burns being salved and deliberately forgotten, they'd be held up and kept afresh. Thus they'd be the motivator for Jackson to challenge this "false liberal" for being "no better than the Republicans!" Jackson would've been wrong but might've cost Bill and the Democrats enough to make a difference in '96.
 
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