I've always wanted to try one of these..
Let's assume that primaries are the sole deciding factor of a nominee, and that conventions are purely for rallying the base, approving a VP, and appointing various members into various positions.
According to OurCampaigns, the nominees would hypothetically be,
John McCain continues to appeal to the right, as he did in OTL,
Clinton is just coming out of a mess of a primary season.
In an attempt to boost her foreign policy credentials, she taps Wesley Clark.
The Green Party would field no candidate and would endorse Ralph Nader, like a number of Greens wanted to see happen in 2004. This means the Green label and Peace and Freedom label will appear with Nader's name in various states. Nader exclusively offers himself up as a Progressive standard-bearer for discouraged Obama supporters. Due to Clinton being the Dem. nominee and not Obama, plusNader having a more organized campaign, some of the bigger names that were behind him back in 2000, are once again behind him again.
Don J. Grundmann dislikes Alan Keyes and his faction and Seidenberg and his faction. To this day he'll remind you how much he does if you were to mention it, so unfortunately, he gets stuck mucking around in Constitution Party related matters and less in the actual 2008 race and the CST Party suffers. He doesn't get the serious endorsement of Ron Paul, much like his OTL counterpart did.
With Smith's nomination, members of the LP like Bob Barr and Wayne Root would remain more quiet. Smith is gusto for Ron Paul, and as opposed to what Bob Barr did in not attending his little 3rd Party conference, gets the free press time. Smith uses this as an opportunity to go after all the disenfranchised Ron Paul supporters she can in anyway possible. Also, due to the above mentioned bit about the Constitution Party, the Smith ticket gets the personal Ron Paul endorsement. She picks marijuana activist and CA Libertarian, Steve Kubby, to be her running mate. LP in-fighting is at a low.
McCain/Palin
Clinton/Clark
Smith/Kubby
Nader/Gonzales
Grundmann/Baldwin
I understand there's a lot of 3rd Party talk here, but now you have a primary damaged and wary Clinton who's trying to save her anti-war credentials via Clark, the McCain of 2008, a failing economy and two slightly more serious alternatives. I want to see how much this would hurt McCain and Clinton, and if there's any instances where some States would now flip because of that (and also because of the fact Clinton is on the ticket instead of Obama)
If you don't like the VP choices, feel free to adjust them as deemed fit,
