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What if George H. W. Bush managed to narrowly beat Clinton in 1992?

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (20491)
3 replies | jump to latest

https://www.quora.com/What-if-George-H-W-Bush-managed-to-narrowly-beat-Clinton-in-1992/answer/Jon-Mixon-1

The United States would have been at war in Somalia - People forget that George H.W. Bush had a penchant for using military force instead of diplomacy. He had already sent troops into Somalia and it’s a virtual certainty that the United States would have found itself in a small scale conflict with at least Mohammad Farah Aidid, the then-leader of the largest militia faction.

Bush would have taken the credit/blame for NAFTA - People also forget that Bush was seeking fast track powers to pass NAFTA and received before he lost the election. The current “blame game” that occurred with people blaming the Democrats for the negative effects of NAFTA would be transferred to Bush instead.

The United States would have been far more proactive in the Balkans War - Again George Bush was more than ready to use military force and it’s a virtual certainty that he would have done so in the former Yugoslavia which may have lead to any number of unforeseen problems.

Bill Clinton would have never been POTUS - It’s doubtful that the Democrats would again gone with Clinton had he lost and they would have run someone else in 1996. After what would have been 16 years of GOP domination of the presidency, almost any Democrat could have run and won against the Republicans. That may have been John Edwards, Dick Gephardt, or even Al Gore.

A number of people who were major political players in our iteration of time would have never become factors - Newt Gingrich, George W. Bush, Grover Norquist, Sarah Palin, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and even Barack Obama would have not become what they did. The right wing backlash to Clinton’s election and purported “liberalism” wouldn’t have allowed any of them to become prominent enough to become the major players that they have been.

Basically things would be so different from the way that they are now that’s it’s difficult to imagine how things would be now.

[–] charliekelly (1018) 5 years ago

What if, when I flushed a giant log, it spun in the other direction?

[–] Redsfan001 (6218) 5 years ago

In his latest biography, Bush stated that when he was deciding on who would be his running mate for 1992, he received a call from Donald Trump. Mr.Trump offered to 'throw his hat in the ring' for VP.

George HW Bush described the call as 'bizarre'.

[–] exithereplease (3553) 5 years ago

I thought about this a lot recently, because it's actually likely considering Ross Perot pulling the numbers (states) he did where Bush won big in 88 and seeing his numbers against Dole in 96.

I think Clinton would have run again, blaming Perot and a weak field, ie... 2000 (Bill Bradley) and 2004 (Dean, Kerry).

I think Bill would have won against 16 years of Republican dominance and against Quayle (a likely but easy to beat candidate in 96).

Clinton was the only the star of the Democratic field for about a decade. And there's nobody possible who could have defeated either his ego or himself.

Then (in all likelihood) VP Quayle would have been challenged by the likes of Dole or Kemp, who could have emerged as the possible nominee. Had they done that (won the Rep. nomination) it would have put ill will toward the brand and this in effect hurt the parties chances.

Clinton would more than likely have chosen another a VP pick (not Gore), possibly Bradley or someone in a swing state circa 1996 and won the election.

Gore's name would have been wiped away from the collective consciousness of Americans.

W. would have probably gotten the nomination at some point an so too Obama. It would have been interesting to see the two debating against each other.

Odds are on Obama.

Which would in turn make Trump (irrelevant at that point) to old to run.

What a decade?

Possible scenarios include:

9/11 NEVER happening.

That would be it of course. That's the bullet point.

...The rest of history falls into place or out of place for that matter.