WI: The GOP decided not to impeach over Lewinsky

people on here still think gore could have won despite OTL being best case scenario due to lewinsky energizing dems. if gore couldn't beat bush in electoral votes with THAT big thing, he couldn't beat him otherwise.

anyways gore loses popular vote in addition to electoral vote due to democratic voters not being energized. no two months of recount drama for bush.

also both parties are less prudish. Not more "liberal" or left but just less prudish overall.
 
The decision to impeach Clinton was a result of the unexpected gains that the Democrats made in the House and not losing any seats in Senate.
This cause the House Republicans to start impeachment proceedings as a way to get back at Clinton even through they knew that there was never going to be a conviction in the Senate.
 
I think the GOP gains in the 1998 midterm elections (although not anything above 10-15 seats in the House and maybe 1-3 Senate Seats) rather than having a net loss of 5 seats in the House and a draw in the Senate like OTL, as I think Democratic turnout would be depressed as I think Bill and Newt would try to "reform" Social Security. I doubt it passes, but it'd piss the Democratic base off enough and Gore likely sees more than token opposition in the 2000 primaries as a result. If Gore can bridge any divides that emerge as a result of this (perhaps he picks his strongest opponent for VP to unify the base rather than piss the base off like OTL with Lieberman), I think he wins the election, as Bush's calls to "restore honor and dignity" would have less traction than OTL. If the GOP could win in 1988 with Iran Contra and Black Tuesday (stock market crash of '87), Gore could certainly win in 2000 with or without the Lewinsky scandal. Gingrich stays on as Speaker through the rest of Clinton's term, I can't see him staying past January 2001.
 

If there's less of a backlash against Clinton, Gore may be more likely to campaign with him in 2000. And even if Gore doesn't get Clinton's help, without the bad taste left by the impeachment it may be enough to put Gore over the top in Florida.
 
What if, just like they never impeached Obama over Benghazi, the GOP didn't actually impeach Clinton over Lewinsky?
Impeaching Clinton was a massive overreach on the part of the Republicans, rather than damaging him it mostly backfired on them by appearing partisan and–to a certain extent–petty. If they don't impeach him then it likely improves their position. Their best course of action would likely be passing a resolution of censure since IIRC it had been shown he'd committed perjury and been found in contempt of court during a civil lawsuit, later leading to him having his law license being suspended. There were a couple of attempts but again their terms overreached and the leadership seems to have put most of their energy into impeachment – a basic motion censuring him for perjury and bringing his office into disrepute might well have been achievable.
 
While I'll admit my bias in personally disliking Gore I do tend towards the idea that the impeachment was a huge own goal for the Republicans and that without it Democrat voters are going to be less energised in 2000. Gore probably loses the popular vote in this scenario.
 
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