The Presidency of America's Maverick

[Roll Roons]

People often underestimate how much this primary could have affected state trends moving forward.

I think in this timeline, Al Gore should do a lot better in states like WV, MO, AR & TN without Karl Rove's culture war and W's "compassionate conservatism" rhetoric. However, at the same time McCain should be able to win by doing better in states like MN, MI, PA, NM, OR, VT & WA with his maverick image.

Something like this wouldn't surprise me:

McCain wins 279-259, with MO, MN & AR being the closest states. McCain probably wins the popular vote by around the same that Gore did IRL

Imo McCain would pick a Midwesterner and Gore would pick someone other than Lieberman in this TL

Yeah, I think McCain was a better fit than Bush for the Northeast, Midwest and Pacific Northwest, while being worse fit for Southern evangelicals. In terms of Senate races, I would also expect Republicans to hold MI and WA and gain NJ.

[Roll Roons]

Curious to see who McCain selects as his running mate. I would hope for Richard Lugar or Colin Powell.

Obviously he won't pick Cheney. If he wants to boost his standing with religious conservatives, maybe Santorum, Ashcroft, Brownback, Sessions, Huckabee or Bush himself? If he wants to double down on the moderate maverick image, probably Powell, DeWine, Whitman, Pataki, Ridge, Snowe, or even Weld.

[Roll Roons]

Safe R New Hampshire?


How did NJ and DE vote IRL?  I know NJ was 52-46 in 2004, and DE was lean-bush during the 2000 campaign..

Gore won Jersey by 15 and Delaware by 13. Though McCain is a much better fit for both than Bush. ITTL, Gore should still be favored in both, but the Republican Senate candidate in New Jersey that year was really great and only lost by three despite being outspent a ton by Corzine. McCain keeping it in single digits could very well get him over the finish line...

[Roll Roons]

How about New York? Do Hillary and Rudy still run?

[Roll Roons]

How's the Senate looking? Let's go Bob Franks!!!

[Roll Roons]

Graham and Quinn’s seats are probably safe R for the special elections.

Graham's is definitely safe R. Quinn's district was actually quite Democratic, but he was very popular and had a lot of crossover appeal. I think that one would have a good chance of flipping in a special.

Also I wonder if McCain will pick any Democrats for his cabinet.

[Roll Roons]

Two Republican Senators from New Jersey! You love to see it.

[Roll Roons]

Did the CA recall happen?

[Roll Roons]

Changes from OTL in Class I:
Going into 2006, Republicans hold MI (Abraham), NJ (Franks), WA (Gorton) and Democrats hold MT (Schweitzer). I forget if anything different happened with MO and VT.