WI: Jesse Jackson vs. Pat Robertson 1988

In 1988, Baptist minister and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson got second place in the Democratic presidential primaries with nearly 30% of the vote. Meanwhile, Baptist minister and conservative Christian activist Pat Robertson got a less respectable third place in the Republican primaries with only 9% of the vote. But what if they somehow each won their respective nominations? Both Jackson and Robertson were controversial figures on the far sides of the political spectrum. What would the campaign be like and who would probably win? Would there be a surging third-party or independent candidate?
 
I think this would see Ron Paul getting a surge in popularity, but ultimately Jesse Jackson would win, as he is objectively way less controversial.
 
88 as my 1st presidential election vote
Hopefully a third party/independent would emerge. In 88 there were still moderates in both parties and in fact you still had some conservative democrats and liberal republicans
 
In 1988, Baptist minister and civil rights activist Jesse Jackson got second place in the Democratic presidential primaries with nearly 30% of the vote. Meanwhile, Baptist minister and conservative Christian activist Pat Robertson got a less respectable third place in the Republican primaries with only 9% of the vote. But what if they somehow each won their respective nominations? Both Jackson and Robertson were controversial figures on the far sides of the political spectrum. What would the campaign be like and who would probably win? Would there be a surging third-party or independent candidate?
The premise requires such a different political climate that conventional analysis is useless.

Leaving aside the race issue, Jackson was already well-known as a sleaze and a blowhard. Marion Barry sneered "Jesse don't wanna run nothing but his mouth.''

In 1983, US Representative Harold Washington ran for Mayor of Chicago against incumbent Jane Byrne. Her husband, retired reporter Jay McMullen, was known for shooting his mouth off, but was out of sight during the primary, which Washington won. Many people said that Washington should call Byrne, find out where she'd kept Jay, and stick Jesse there till the general election.

Of course, Robertson could always offend even more people by, say, denouncing the Catholic Church as un-Christian, or calling for adultery and sodomy to be made capital crimes. But if Robertson could win the Republican nomination, then he isn't saying things like that, and he's far more acceptable to mainstream opinion.

One might argue that Jackson's greater primary support shows he was more mainstream-acceptable, but in fact his support was almost entirely black votes, which he got all of, just for being black.

So, my opinion, as one who was a close observer of politics then, is that Robertson wins in a 50-state landslide - with minimal coattails.
 
The problem with an independent candidate joining the race is that, by the time it's apparent that Jackson and Robertson are the nominees, it would be too late to get ballot access in many states and organize a credible campaign. Of the preexisting third party candidates, Ron Paul is definitely the most electable (plus, he'd probably be able to get a better running mate than Marrou ITTL), but even then, most of the people dissatisfied with Jackson and Robertson would be pro-establishment moderates, a group which I don't really associate with Ron Paul.
 
Those of us around at the time remember this as (i) an unlikely, but not quite impossible, outcome and (ii) as a horrible choice. Throw in Ted Kennedy and Evan Meacham as the VP candidates and you have the ticket from hell on both sides.
 
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