2012: Guiliani defeated in primary

[DownWithTheLeft]

In 2008 Rudy Guiliani, seen as the ultimate uniter, win an impressive 350+ EV victory Hillary Clinton.  Guiliani spends the begining of his term cleaning up Iraq, securing the homeland, and lowering taxes.  Then on January 3, 2011, Justice John Paul Stevens dies.  Conservatives feel this is Guiliani's chance to live up to his promises of nominating strict constitutionists.  Later that week, Guiliani makes a grave mistake as he nominates liberal Republican Alberto Gonzalez to the post.  From this point on Guiliani begins a campaign of social liberalism.  Many including Vice President Bill Owens are angry by this idea.  Conservative activists are incredibly angry by his shift in policy and look for a candidate to take him on.  Soon after conservative representative Mike Pence announces that he will challenge Guiliani in the primary.  It seems like at first Pence will gain little traction but little by little he is gaining in the polls.  On the Democratic side it looks to be a three horse between moderate governors Brad Henry and Kathleen Sebelius and 2008 runner-up Barack Obama.  Pence stuns the nation and grabs the Republican nomination while Henry and Sebelius split moderates allowing Obama to grab the nomination.  Pence manages to court VP Bill Owens to be on his ticket and Obama chooses Sherrod Brown as his running mate.  Moderates are angered by this decision and look to form a middle ground party.  For the time being there results are not that succesful and they figures that are not incredibly well-known.  The newly formed Unity Party nominates Fmr. Rep. Chris Shays with Jim Jeffords as his running mate.  The party makes some inroads and the results wind up like this:

Pence/Owens 296 41%
Obama/Brown 226 37%
Shays/Jeffords 17 20%

Pence wins w/Shays surprisingly winning 3 states

[Reaganfan]

Interesting.

[DownWithTheLeft]

The Pence presidency gets off on the right foot and they seem to be appealing to most part of America as his approval is near 70%.  Pence starts off with an agenda of rooting out corruption and improving the military which is lauded from both sides.  Then in early 2010 Pence begins to show why he was loved by the conservative base.  He pushes congress to pass the Flag Burning Amendment and also revisit the FMA.  Many moderate Republicans are irked by this but play along.  As Guiliani was harmed by picking a liberal for the SCOTUS, Pence looks as if he will face a similar problem as he appoints Michael Luttig to the SCOTUS and says that this should finally be enough to overturn Roe v. Wade.  This outrages many Republicans and Democrats alike.  They keep quiet but things continue to get worse for them.  Pence vetoes a bill that would allow for a guest worker program and instead issues an executive order to have all illegal immigrants deported.  This raises enough ire that many Republicans in congress defect to the Unity Party and they now have 4 members (Coleman, Collins, Snowe, and Smith) in the senate and 11 in the House.  The thing that really makes the difference is the fact that in order to try and help unite the country, 2 Democrats (Ben Nelson and Joe Lieberman) join the Unity Party as well.  It appears as if Pence could be headed for defeat in 2016 as his approval is at 45%.  The 2016 election cycle begins and Pence will go unchallenged in the Republican Party.  The Democrats will have a dogfight between NY Governor Elliot Spitzer and the more liberal Senator Russ Feingold.  The interesting though is the Unity Party nomination, which people have decided will go to a former Democrat with a Republican as the VP.  They have gained ballot access in all 50 states and there primary winds up not being interesting as it has been decided that Ben Nelson will be there candidate, and Fmr. Bush Speechwriter Karen Hughes will the VP.  Feingold narrowly defeats Spitzer, who then defects to the Unity Party, and Feingold chooses Fmr. Gov. Deval Patrick as his running mate.  Polls show it to be anyone's race come election day, but the country as looking for independence and the end of two party dominance and the following result unfolds:

Nelson/Hughes 291 39%
Pence/Owens 200 38%
Feingold/Patrick 47 21%

After the election, almost all Democrats defect to the Unity Party and Democrats are demoted to 3rd party status.  The Republicans are hurt by the loss but will keep carrying on.  What will happen?

[AndrewTX]

Very intersting.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I seem to be getting better at writing these things, so here it goes:

Nelson assumes the presidency in 2017 and says he will continue to work with the Unity Party leaders to establish a moderate platform that the majority of Americans can live with.  Polls show that about 40% of the country is registered with Unity, 20% Republican, 9% Dem, 20% Indy and 1% other.  The Unity Party is closing in on 60 seats in the senate.  The Democratic party has decided enough is enough and merge with the Unity Party giving them almost complete and utter dominance.  But in December 2017, President Nelson is diagnosed with cancer and decides to step down leaving Karen Hughes as the first female president.  Hughes tries to bring the Unity Party to the right which many find objectionable and make their platform similar to what the Democrats were.  The Unity Party looks like it might be on the outs when Hughes annouces in 2018, that she is a Republican again and will not seek another term.  Hughes nows look to make a more conservative nation that what she was elected for and her approvals are very low.  The Republicans though say Hughes is not very representive of them and many break away to the newly formed conservative party.  The party is extremely conservative, even to the right of Pence.  So in 2020, three parties will go for the presidency, although the conservative party is certainly comparable to what the Unity Party was in 2008.  There nomination goes to CO Governor Tom Tancredo with his running mate to be activist David Horowitz.  The Republican party goes with a ticket of Sen. Lindsey Graham and Fmr. Gov. Rick Perry.  The Unity Party shows its new leftist streak and nominates Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse with Gov. Rush Holt as his running mate.  The election pans out like this:

Whitehouse/Holt         501    41%
Graham/Perry               37     32%
Tancredo/Horowitz        0      25%

Tancredo does much better than expected and kills Republicans, Tancredo finishes second in a lot of states

[DownWithTheLeft]

The leftist streak maybe wasn't it was cracked up to be and Whitehouse finds his approvals at about 40% after the first month.  The Unity Party has become so far to the left that many are labeling it a socialist organization and people are leaving the party left and right.  Whitehouse continues to try to have his policies implemented but now with the Senate having 52 Republicans and 48 Unity Members it is almost impossible considering the policies are comparable to socialism.  The Unity Party holds an emergency convention to try and save the party.  The results are Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed coming out as the leader, a far-left policy, and a change in name to the Liberal Party.  The Republican Party is on the upswing again and the awakening of the election has caused almost the Conservative Party members to come back.  It looks as if the Republican Party will cruise to the presidency in 2024 because they gain 8 seats in the Senate giving the first 60 seat majority in quite some time.  After the midterms, President Whitehouse from the Whitehouse announces he will not seek another term.  It appears that Republican Gov. Mike Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania will have a clear path to the presidency slowed only by NJ Gov. Chris Christie.  Then in 2023, the entire west coast is annihilated off the coast by an earthquake.  Fitzpatrick says this is a "good thing" because those were leftist states.  His comments force him to bow out and Christie will be the nominee.  For the Liberals it will be CO Gov. Ken Salazar.  Christie chooses Fmr. QB and now Gov. Tom Brady of Massachusetts as his running mate.  Salazar, the moderate chooses a very liberal person, Rep. Gregory Meeks of NY as his running mate.  The results:

Chrisite/Brady: 289
Salazar/Meeks: 176

[Soaring Eagle]

Did Global Warming make the sea level rise, thus sinking the west coast?

[DownWithTheLeft]

Did Global Warming make the sea level rise, thus sinking the west coast?

No earthquake, somebody didn't read the story

[Gabu]

That was an awfully precise earthquake to exactly knock off the geographical area of three states to the exclusion of everything surrounding them.

[Soaring Eagle]

Did Global Warming make the sea level rise, thus sinking the west coast?

No earthquake, somebody didn't read the story

Ah, I missed it. Now I see it. Interesting story.

[DownWithTheLeft]

That was an awfully precise earthquake to exactly knock off the geographical area of three states to the exclusion of everything surrounding them.

States like Nevada and Idaho were affected, just not wiped out and I don't want to change EV numbers.

[Joe Republic]

I don't want to change EV numbers.

By this point in the storyline, the numbers would have been changed not once but twice due to the decennial census.

[DownWithTheLeft]

I don't want to change EV numbers.

By this point in the storyline, the numbers would have been changed not once but twice due to the decennial census.

Yeah, I know but the margins of victory have been huge so it doesn't matter

[Hash]

That must an awful strong earthquake compounded with a extra-huge-giga tsunami to wipe out 3 states and all the US Pacific coast. I doubt even a 10.0 earthquake would cause such a big disaster. Or even a large tsunami.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

That must an awful strong earthquake compounded with a extra-huge-giga tsunami to wipe out 3 states and all the US Pacific coast. I doubt even a 10.0 earthquake would cause such a big disaster. Or even a large tsunami.

Even a 9.5 earthquake only moved the ground 5-7 feet.
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/seg/hazard/slideset/45/45_slides.shtml

I doubt even a 15.0 earthquake could submerge Mount Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48.

[Hash]

And, what are the likely chances of a huge earthquake like 25.0 or something crazy like that or even a huge-ultra-giga-hyper tsunami happening in the lower 48?

[DownWithTheLeft]

And, what are the likely chances of a huge earthquake like 25.0 or something crazy like that or even a huge-ultra-giga-hyper tsunami happening in the lower 48?

The states weren't necessarily removed from existence, but they were uninhabitable

[Hash]

Look at Aceh right now after a huge tsunami? It's still inhabitable. Even a huge 10 earthquake, which is quite unlikely, won't render much land inhabitable.