WI: POTUS Ray Blanton

Any AHer from Tennessee knows something about one of the most corrupt politicians of the 70's, Ray Blanton. This governor of Tennessee was well known for accepting a controversial $20,000 pay raise, taking his friends on extravagant trips, and his many, many scandals. Blanton issued pardons to 52 state prisoners, 20 of whom were convicted murderers. Roger Humphrey, a son of a Blanton supporter was pardoned by the governor disgusting his Secretary of State, Gentry Crowell along with many others. Eventually he was arrested for mail fraud, conspiracy, and extortion. But what if...

In 1972, Ray Blanton ran for the U.S Senate against moderate Republican, Howard Baker. Howard managed to win in a landslide by tying him to the more liberal presidential candidate, George McGovern. The election was a landslide with Baker winning more than 250,000 votes than Blanton. Suppose George McGovern doesn't run, Baker gets caught in a scandal, and Blanton manages to launch a better campaign. What if Senator from Tennessee, Leonard "Ray" Blanton is sworn in as President of the United States. Then what?
 
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When would he run? I don't see him being a particularly popular figure in the Senate to launch a campaign in 1976. Maybe get Reagan or another Republican in 1976 as President, making it easier to get a Democrat in office in 1980. The hard part for Blanton is the Democratic field in the 1980 primary. He'd have to really step out of the blue to launch a campaign in 1980. Same thing with alternate elections in 1984 and 1988. I think anything past '88 probably wouldn't happen.

But let's have Reagan or another Republican win in '76 and have them win in '80 too. In the 1980 primaries, Blanton puts up a good performance, but ultimately loses to another Democrat. In 1984, Reagan and the Republicans are much less popular than in OTL '84, meaning whoever wins the Democratic primary will probably win. And despite the crowded field, Blanton's good ol' boy demeanor charms Americans and party officials alike and he narrowly wins.

So as president, Blanton can probably hope to have a good administration. I mean, he picked some nice guys in Tennessee which helped the economy and laid the groundwork for later economic growth. He could do some good for the national economy in the 80s and remain popular.

And then we get the better known side of Ray Blanton. Would he bring some of his network from Tennessee (that were associated with corruption) to Washington? Probably. Would he find some new scumbags to associate with? Probably. He'd have 12 years to get those links in Washington and such built. There would definitely be some very unsavory things going on in the White House. Would he get impeached over any of it or be forced to resign? Would he be able to do a federal version of the pardon scandal--I'm not too familiar with the workings of the federal prison system to see if Blanton could pull it off at a national level. If he did, he probably would get impeached, unless they impeached him over something else. But I think it's important to keep in mind that President Ray Blanton is going to operate differently than Governor Ray Blanton, simply because running the entire country is different than running the state of Tennessee.

On the bright side, we might get a few alcohol-fueled interviews with the media, which could end up iconic images of the 80s. I think a Blanton '88 campaign is probably out of the question, just because he'd be associated with some very scummy politics. Republicans would have a good shot at recapturing the White House. Overall Blanton's legacy would be overshadowed by corruption, although as with Richard Nixon, there would be plenty of people arguing he was underrated. He might have committed some crime while in office which they could put him in prison over after his term was up. And Blanton will probably die of alcohol-related liver disease by the end of the 90s as in OTL.
 
They don't, but Senators are historically less successful Presidential candidates.
Historically speaking, governors don't have such a good track record as vice presidents. Ray could potentially run for Veep only for the president to get killed putting Ray in the Oval Office.
 
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