Challenge: Make Carter win in 1980 or Mccain win in 2008

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

With everything going as OTL

I'm not sure why you think we could change the results without changing the circumstances. Are you telling us to go back in time and rig the elections?

Yeah, for either of those to win, the conditions in which they ran would have to be dramatically different. You could say hostages in Iran released or bin Laden caught, but given the dire state of the economy in both cases, those things most likely just would've made the election closer. Maybe prevented a Republican Senate in 1980 or a Democratic supermajority in 2008...

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

To everyone saying no financial crisis for McCain to win, there was still a recession even before the financial crisis. I think that the economy would've had to at least been growing (even if not very fast) for McCain to have had a chance. The incumbent party can't win when there's negative growth. Period.

I also think the Dems nominating Hillary would've helped. No, I don't want to hear about Hillary doing better in this or that state. The GOP would've been way more motivated against her than Obama (whom they really didn't start hating until after he had been elected). And unlike Obama, she wouldn't have the advantage of being a "fresh face," which is what many swing voters were looking for.

Finally, Bush would've have needed to get bin Laden.