McCain Picks Pawlenty

[Yelnoc]

10:35
South Dakota and Nebraska are called for McCain.

10:38
Arizona is called for McCain.

11:00
Idaho and North Dakota are called for McCain.  California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington are called for Obama.

[Yelnoc]

11:13
North Carolina is called for McCain.

11:20
Ohio is called for McCain.

11:34
Virginia is called for Obama.  Obama has now broken the 270 electoral vote threshold, allowing this election to be called for Obama.

11:45
Florida is called for McCain

11:50
Nevada is called for Obama

12:00
Montana is called for McCain.  Colorado is called for Obama.

[Yelnoc]

12:00
Missouri is finally called for McCain.

1:00
Alaska, the last state to close its polls, goes for McCain. 

National Results
Obama-49.7%
McCain-48.2%
Barr-0.9%
Nader-0.6%
Other-0.6%

Total Voters: 131,463,122


 
Analysis
McCain surprised many pundits by taking all of the states marked “toss-up” and many that leaned Obama up until election night.  Despite this, high turnout amongst blacks allowed Obama to capture Virginia and thus the election.  Also notable was Libertarian candidate Bob Barr’s performance.  Largely because of Rep. Ron Paul’s endorsement at the Rally for the Republic, Barr broke the one million threshold, receiving almost 1% of all votes cast.  In 2012, the Libertarian Party will have ballot access in all 50 states.

[Yelnoc]

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Stay tuned, you'll see
 

Sorry, that doesn't make a sense.

Pawlenty would never have an impact to make it as close. Let's face the fact, he's Mr. Irrevelant. No way popular in his own state, gets barely reelected only because his DFL opponent was a fool. He have no charisma, and while might not lose an independents like Palin, he'd never help with a base the way she did either. And that's mean, in the best case, no change at all.

Obviously this timeline diverges from ours with McCain's selection of Pawlenty but from there butterflies are not contained.  I hope I didn't make the changes too subtle, but the McCain campaign has not recieved nearly as much flak as they did in OTL because of this selection.  This means that notable figure, such as Colin Powell endorse him rather than Obama and the McCain campaign never gives up hope, which I tried to indicate with TTL's SNL appearance.

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McCain lost Ohio in OTL by less than 5%.  This was one of the decisions I was very split upon, but my logic is that Pawlenty in addition to the McCain campaign's additional momentum and Powell's endorsement sways just enough voters to hand the state to McCain by a few tenth's of a percent.

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Possibly.  I am still looking into whether there would have been any notable changes.  If I can't justify making any changes than probably not.

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My thoughts exactly.

[Yelnoc]

Senate Elections - 2008



Minnesota: Incumbent Republican senator Norm Coleman defeated Al Franken in a race that came down to a few hundred votes.  The strong showing of Minnesota Independent Party candidate Dean Barkley who garnered over 15% of all votes cast indubitably had a strong impact on the race.




Oregon: Incumbent Republican senator Gordon Smith very narrowly beat out democratic challenger Jeff Merkley.  Dave Brownlow of the Constitution Party did well, breaking 3% and very nearly spoiling the election to the Democrats.






House Elections - 2008



Connecticut 4: Incumbent Republican Chris Shayes manages to stave of democratic challenger Jim Himes, winning reelection by less than 1%.




*     *     *

The above are the only notable changes from the OTL results.  Presume that all other elections went as they did in real life, though there may be some changes in the percentage of votes that each candidate recieved.

[Yelnoc]

Sorry guys, I have been busy with life.  I will try and have the next update posted tomorrow.

[Yelnoc]

So, in this TL, what happened in Alaska when it was revealed that the governor's daughter was pregnant?

Lucky her, she is not up for reelection until 2010.  The story might not have broken until December 2008 when her daughter starts having regular doctors visits.  After all, the Palin familiy would not be under the intense public crutiny that a vice presidential candidate recieves.

I will try and have update posted later today.

[Yelnoc]

Proposition 8



November 5, 2008
California’s Proposition 8, a voter initiative to define marriage as only between one man and one woman, passes by an extraordinarily thin margin with 50.11% voting yes and 49.89% voting no.  There is already buzz on the internet about planned demonstrations from pro-gay rights activists and it can be expected that numerous lawsuits will be filed against this amendment over the next few days.

[Yelnoc]

Financial Crisis Update



November 10, 2008
The US Government announces a $40 billion bailout to American International Group.  Meanwhile, Circuit City files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

 

[Yelnoc]

Will this continue, or is this just for the 2008 election?

It will continue eventually.  My outline for after the election was rather vague, henc eth etemporary hiatus.  Meanwhile, I suggest checking my other timeline, "The Progressive Party (1924-?)" which is linked in my sig.

[Yelnoc]

Incase you were wondering, this timeline is very dead.  Some of things you saw here will make a reappearance in another timeline that I have been working on and will hopefully be ready to post either tonight or tomorrow.

[Yelnoc]

New Timeline!

What's the fate of the Progressive Party TL thus far?

Well, to be honest I have gotten kind of lazy but it's in the works.  That one, when it is finally completed, is going to be much more than a conventional political timeline.  Simulating world events for a century isn't the easiest thing in the world.

This other timeline is kind of a product me getting stuck on the PPTL.  And I should have part 1 up in an hour or so.