The Romney Administration

[UWS]

Will Romney select a different running mate?

[UWS]

A large reason Romney lost was because he drained a large amount of his coffers in the primary in this scenario Romney wins the primary more easy right?

Yah that was one of the reasons he lost. Newt and Santorum campaign against him also made him go pretty far to the right , which allowed Obama to easily label him as a flip flopper when Romney tried to pivot to the Center in the General. This time he pretty much has the nomination won by South Carolina, and straight up wins it 3 weeks before Super Tuesday(In 2012 there were many primaries before Super Tuesday).


Some other reasons why I think he lost in OTL were:


- Obama getting Healthcare Reform Passed(In this TL , Obamacare never passes and instead all Obama gets is increasing Medicaid funding ) . This also

- The Paul Ryan Pick(This pick cost Romney FL, and cost him I would say 2-3 percentage points in OH , PA which greatly narrowed his path to 270)

- Third Debate loss

- Overall how narrow his path to 270 was(This allowed Obama to go on the offensive while keeping Romney on the Defensive.)

And a reason why people say Ryan cost Romney Florida in real life must be because of Ryan's past opposition to the Cuban Embargo, which might have displeased some Cuban-American voters that are a crucial voting group to win in Florida.

[UWS]

Notable Republican candidates running for the Senate



Anderson Cooper: with many Democratic Senators up for reelection in Republican States, Republican leaders believe that not only can they win back the White House and The Senate but also win a substantial majority in the Senate. Here with us is John King to talk about how that can be possible

John King: People may be asking Republicans need a net gain of 12 seats to get a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, so how can they get there. While that is true they do need 12 seats to get a filibuster-majority in the Senate, they can get effectively get a filibuster-proof Senate on many of the issues Governor Romney is running on by getting around 54-55 Senate Seats. The reason for this in 2014 there are 5-6 Democrats running in Republican States in 2014, so for them to be reelected they cant be obstructionists.

Cooper: Well getting even 54 requires a gain of 6 seats and with both Maine and Massachusetts being states they can lose in they may need to flip 8 seats. What is their strategy to get that many seats

King: Well most people believe they will flip Montana , North Dakota , and South Dakota so even if they lose the two seats they are vulnerable in that would give them 49 seats, which is 5 seats away from 54. Now to get those 5 seats the GOP is running many notable candidates and some of them include

Jeb Bush - who while many people may think would be unelectable due to being the brother of George W Bush, was a very popular governor of Florida. So if he gets the nomination FL Senate seat would definitely be in play.

Bob McDonnell - The Current Governor of Virginia will be running for Jim Webb's seat and with Webb retiring, he would definitely have the advantage against whomever the Democrats run

Jim Talent- The Former Senator from Missouri who barely lost in a Democratic Wave in 2006. This time with conditions much more favorable to Republicans

Tommy Thompson - The Former Governor from Wisconsin, and with this seat being an open seat this seat also could be very much in play

Tom Ridge- The Former Governor from Pennsylvania, is running for the Senate.

Lastly Current Indiana Senator Richard Lugar has decided to retire, and let current Governor Mitch Daniels run for this seat to avoid the unelectable Tea Party Candidate getting the nomination.

If they do this they would get to 54 seats

Anderson Cooper : Well but currently Tom Ridge is losing in almost all the primary polls and Wisconsin wont be easy.


King : Well yes I dont believe that Tom Ridge will get the GOP nomination either and if Thompson loses in November which is very possible due to Wisconsin being a Democratic State they are also running candidates who are notable at the state level in Ohio , New Mexico states which are considered to be swing states . So even if they lose PA, WI, MA , and ME they still can get to 54 seats.

Cooper: It wont be easy though

King : No it definitely wont be easy, but it is possible

Ridge was also the 1st Secretary of Homeland Security when this Department was established under George W. Bush.

[UWS]

I guess there is no 47 % comment in this scenario?

[UWS]

Romney!

[UWS]

Why is Massachusetts unmarked.

Too Close to Call (Will be recounted )

I guess Scott Brown narrowly wins due to Romney's connections in his home state of Massachusetts.

[UWS]

I want to thank UWS for making the last photoshopped image(Since I dont have photoshop software) and for two future photoshopped images(Of Romney's future SOTU , and any Oval Office Addresses he may have to give).

It's a great pleasure! Awesome timeline, by the way.

[UWS]

How many senate seats does the GOP have? Because if they have between 55 and 60 seats, they can override the filibuster, the moreover that there are surely pro-free trade Democrats in the Senate.

[UWS]

Just to remind that in Louisiana's case there is a jungle primary in November 2014 and then a runoff in next month if no one gets at least 50 %. So now there should be more than 2 candidates.

[UWS]

François Fillon  elected French President, defeating the Far Right Candidate Marine Le-Pen in a landslide


First Round Results:

François Fillon 23.5%
Marine Le-Pen 20.7%
Emmanual Macron 20.4%
Jean-Luc Mélenchon 19.3%
Benoît Hamon 6.1%
Nicolas Dupont-Aignan 5.2%
Others 4.8%


Second Round Results:

François Fillon 64.9%
Marine Le-Pen 35.1%

Okay time out…this part is somewhat off the rails.  Speaking as someone who is half French how would this TL change history to allow Fillon to win?  I get Brexit not happening because Romney was not as public as Obama about it (and yay) but Fillon's defeat was due to a massive nepotism scandal that I don't see Romney really changing.  Please explain how Fillon would win because this part is a bit confusing and I don't see how this TL would have caused this (or at least caused this without a complete collapse in PS numbers)

I definitely don't like Fillon winning, but I think in this TL it's explained as a part of a global right-wing trend where the establishment right does well in elections. It's possible that an alternate history will have many different changes. However, yeah, I don't see Fillon overcoming this scandal and actually beating both Macron and Le Pen in the first round.

I guess the global centre-right just is more popular in this TL, maybe because of Romney's successes. And I don't think Fillon was lost at all. Penelopegate wasn't the only way he screwed up, his campaign was terrible and his platform cost him some votes (even though it was admirable). I don't think Fillon getting to 23-24% or so in round 1 and beating Le Pen in round 2 is far-fetched at all if he had run a good campaign or if he aced the debates like he did in the right-wing primaries. He was close to qualifying to round 2 irl anyway, but he probably wouldn't have beaten Macron (even in this TL).

IMHO, I guess another reason why Fillon lost in real life is the abolition of community policing between 2007 and 2012 by the Fillon government, which diminished Fillon's national security credibility in a time of terrorist threat after 2 terrorist attacks in Paris and another one in Nice.