The Presidency of America's Maverick

[One Term Floridian]

People often underestimate how much this primary could have affected state trends moving forward.

I think in this timeline, Al Gore should do a lot better in states like WV, MO, AR & TN without Karl Rove's culture war and W's "compassionate conservatism" rhetoric. However, at the same time McCain should be able to win by doing better in states like MN, MI, PA, NM, OR, VT & WA with his maverick image.

Something like this wouldn't surprise me:

McCain wins 279-259, with MO, MN & AR being the closest states. McCain probably wins the popular vote by around the same that Gore did IRL

Imo McCain would pick a Midwesterner and Gore would pick someone other than Lieberman in this TL

[One Term Floridian]

Yeah good catch. I highly doubt Gore would be winning by over 60% in NY against McCain (should have fixed that to 50% shading), but he would still be winning the state by double digits. Those polls were probably taken at the height of McCain's upset wins during the primary and the extended media exposure that came with them. This was also probably the time when Gore was down by a considerable amount against W in the polls.