2000: Kasich vs. Gore

[jojoju1998]

With Bush announcing that he is not running for President in November 1999, The Republican Field breaks open. And 15 People join in. One of them is Congressman John Kasich of Ohio. He runs a optimistic campaign as a Compassionate but tough fiscal conservative. He wins the Nomination in Early May, 2000. He choses Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma as his running mate.

On the Democratic Side, Al Gore faces a surprinsginly tough challenge from Senator Bill Bradley but holds him off. His running mate is the same.

Maps ?

[Sumner 1868]

Kasich of 2000 was basically a Gingrichite with an unusual obsession with welfare. Bush's big success with swing voters was distancing himself from the Republican Congress of the late 1990s (i.e., "I'm a uniter, not a divider," "compassionate conservative.") I don't see Kasich doing that, and he can't regardless. He'll win Ohio, but Gore probably FL and MO, and thus the election.

[Former Senator Haslam2020]

Rep. John Kasich/Gov. George W. Bush 287 Electoral Votes49.1%
VP Al Gore/Sen. John Kerry 47.2% 251 Electoral Votes
Activist Ralph Nader/Activist Wiona LaDuke 0 Electoral Votes 2.4%

[Kingpoleon]

279: Rep. John Kasich(R-OH)/Gov. Christine Whitman(R-NJ) - 48.6%
259: Vice Pres. Al Gore(D-TE)/Rep. Martin Frost(D-TX) - 48.0%
Other: 3.3%
Lawyer Ralph Nader(I/Ref/G-CT)/Activist David Cobb(I/Ref/G-TX) - 2.9%

Kasich runs as a "Reforming Republican". He manages to distance himself from Gingrich and is commonly compared to Kennedy in using his youth and energy to beat an incumbent and popular Vice President in a close election. As an outsider with experience who shook up the status quo, his eighteen years in Washington protect him from being accused of inexperience.

However, with a Republican nipping at Gore's heels constantly, Ralph Nader has instead ran for the Reform, Green, and an Independent nomination. He wins slightly more votes than OTL.

[Maxwell]

Yeah... Kasich wouldn't win. As tara gillespie explained, Kasich was not positioned as the moderate during that election. He would be an unmitigated disaster if he won the nomination, even against dullard Al Gore.

[Kingpoleon]

Yeah... Kasich wouldn't win. As tara gillespie explained, Kasich was not positioned as the moderate during that election. He would be an unmitigated disaster if he won the nomination, even against dullard Al Gore.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tocv82PW-hA

He ran in 2000 as a "Jolt Cola" candidate and a maverick, much like McCain did. I'm assuming ITTL that the lack of a big front runner make a young maverick more appealing to the electorate.

[Maxwell]

Yeah... Kasich wouldn't win. As tara gillespie explained, Kasich was not positioned as the moderate during that election. He would be an unmitigated disaster if he won the nomination, even against dullard Al Gore.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tocv82PW-hA

He ran in 2000 as a "Jolt Cola" candidate and a maverick, much like McCain did. I'm assuming ITTL that the lack of a big front runner make a young maverick more appealing to the electorate.

Yea... I don't see anything in that video that disproves what I think.

[Kingpoleon]

Yeah... Kasich wouldn't win. As tara gillespie explained, Kasich was not positioned as the moderate during that election. He would be an unmitigated disaster if he won the nomination, even against dullard Al Gore.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tocv82PW-hA

He ran in 2000 as a "Jolt Cola" candidate and a maverick, much like McCain did. I'm assuming ITTL that the lack of a big front runner make a young maverick more appealing to the electorate.

Yea... I don't see anything in that video that disproves what I think.

'Kasich, in his attempts to prove he was of a new era, balanced his smaller-government rhetoric with middle-of-the-road talking points. He was eager to drop names of friends across the aisle. And as someone who knew a thing or two about rough edges, he wanted to help smooth those of his party.

"It's OK to stand up and tell people in your party that they're too mean," he told a USA Today reporter on the Iowa campaign trail in March 1999. "It's OK to say I was wrong, I've changed my mind about something."'

'Kasich's efforts intensified in 1998. Pioneer PAC began looking more like the presidential precursor it truly was, with a mix of established and up-and-coming Republicans working behind the scenes. There was media consultant Ed Gillespie, who would go on to lead the Republican National Committee and now is a U.S. Senate candidate in Virginia.'

'To run Pioneer PAC, Kasich's kitchen cabinet recruited Karen Johnson*, a rising star in GOP politics. She later moved seamlessly into the role of campaign manager for Kasich's presidential bid.

"Essentially, Kasich is hoping to become the 'free media' candidate," the National Journal observed in July 1998. Wrote the Dispatch a few months later: "His strategists believe he can gain enough support from women, populist Christians, voters under age 40, entrepreneurs and Democrats who backed Ronald Reagan to be successful."'
*Karl Rove's current wife


http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2014/05/choice_of_a_new_generation_jol.html#two

[OSR stands with Israel]

Yeah... Kasich wouldn't win. As tara gillespie explained, Kasich was not positioned as the moderate during that election. He would be an unmitigated disaster if he won the nomination, even against dullard Al Gore.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Tocv82PW-hA

He ran in 2000 as a "Jolt Cola" candidate and a maverick, much like McCain did. I'm assuming ITTL that the lack of a big front runner make a young maverick more appealing to the electorate.

Wow what happened to that Kasich, he was a much better speaker back then. No Kaisch wouldnt be considered a moderate because the Tea Party had not hijacked the GOP yet.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Kasich of 2000 was basically a Gingrichite with an unusual obsession with welfare. Bush's big success with swing voters was distancing himself from the Republican Congress of the late 1990s (i.e., "I'm a uniter, not a divider," "compassionate conservative.") I don't see Kasich doing that, and he can't regardless. He'll win Ohio, but Gore probably FL and MO, and thus the election.

The irony is that had Kasich remained like his 1990's self, he would have actually had a chance of going somewhere in 2016 primary. A deficit killing reformer, with a solid rating on immigration enforcement (A from NumbersUSA) as opposed to Bush 2.0, not a good place to be if you want to defeat another Bush for the nomination.

[Kingpoleon]

I agree with this one.

Thank you.

As far as debating goes, Gore barely held back Bush. He couldn't pull back a person four years his junior with four times his energy.