By a Fluke of the Gods: Cox Defeats Harding

[MasterJedi]

Great update, though I know it won't happen I'm hoping we can get President Tommy Thompson!

[Robespierre's Jaw]

Another excellent update as I would expect from a man of your calibre .

Shame you couldn't include the 2000 Presidential Primaries and the following Presidential Election, as it seems like an exciting race to succeed President Reggie Jackson in the White House. I have a feeling that Governor Pataki of New York will face off against Governor Hillary Rodham of Illinois with Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney running as a third party candidate, similar to Malcolm Little in 1984.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-2000
Event Description: All fear over the Y2K bug are erased as the new millennium comes in and out without serious, widespread computer failures. President Jackson, who had created a task force to deal with the upcoming “crisis”, is forced to admit the great mistake to Congress in his State of the Union Address in two weeks.

Event Date: 1-09-2000
Event Description: The Democratic Primary takes a negative turn as Senator Dan Quayle unleashes a $200,000 ad campaign against Senator Gore, Governor Rodham and Governor Webb. The attacks range from Gore being, “a leftist on the environment,” to Rodham, “working with far-left progressives,” and Webb being tied to abuse of prisoners in Falujah during the Iraq War. While all three candidates respond to these attacks, Quayle refuses to stop running the advertisements and begins to gain in the polls in Iowa.

Event Date: 1-20-2000
Event Description: President Jackson sings the American Banking Act of 2000, introduced by Senator Jodi Rell (Republican of Connecticut). This bill gives America’s three largest banks needed monetary stimulation while also loaning Chinese and Russian banks more than $800 million to help revive their failing banking systems. This action will help stabilize world banks and end the slide into a major banking crisis, though Democrats will attack the bill as unneeded and, as Governor Rodham tells a crowd in Sioux City, Iowa, “America playing banker to the world while we are running in the red.”

Event Date: 1-24-2000
Event Description: The Iowa Caucus, the first primary challenge, is held today, with Governor Rodham and Vice-President Wellstone coming out on top in their respective contests. On the Republican side, Vice-President Wellstone’s odd alliance between Iowa City university liberals, urban voters from Des Moines and rural farmers helps him narrowly overcome a strong challenge from Senator George Bush, who had the backing of banks and small town dwellers. Governor George Pataki finishes a surprisingly strong third place, as he had little appeal to Iowan voters. Senator Joseph Biden finishes in fourth place with less than 3% of the vote, and drops out of the race for president while endorsing Governor Webb, a fellow Russo-Chinese War veteran. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney did not contest the Iowa Caucus, as she is spending time in New Hampshire and South Carolina. On the Democratic side, Governor Rodham’s local connections with Eastern Iowa give her a narrow win over Governor Thompson, who takes a surprisingly strong second place finish. Governor Webb finishes third with backing from veterans groups, followed by Governor Cox, Senator Quayle and, in last place, Senator Gore, who had seriously contested the state. Quayle drops out and endorses Governor Rodham, but Gore vows to stay in the fight.

Event Date: 1-29-2000
Event Description: Former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jack Kemp begin a goodwill tour around the globe. “We are undertaking this mission of behalf of President Jackson,” President Kemp tells the press, “We travel as election inspectors, aid workers and, in the American tradition, tourists!”

Event Date: 2-01-2000
Event Description: The brutal fight for victory in New Hampshire comes to a head today, as Governor Pataki and Governor Cox come out as the winners. Pataki’s appeal to the state’s history as a moderate Republican state gives him a big victory over his nearest rival, Vice-President Wellstone, who had been courting the progressive vote in major New Hampshire cities. Finishing third is Senator Bush, who won the primary in 1992. Bush drops out of the race, offering his endorsement to Governor Pataki, whom he calls, “The best man for the White House.” Governor Cox, the victor on the Democratic side, touted his tax and budgets slashing record as governor of the Golden State, giving him a narrow victory over Governor Rodham, who he was able to paint as a capitulator on tax hikes. Governor Webb takes a strong third place finish in a state where his only base is veterans, leaving Governor Thompson and Senator Gore in the dust. Neither man drops out of the race, both vowing to keep up the fight. 

Event Date: 2-05-2000
Event Description: Delaware, the First State, casts its ballots for president in its primary. Governors Pataki and Cox are victors once again, and for similar reasons. Governor Webb, who had hoped his position as a nearby governor would help him in Delaware, takes second to Cox, with Governor Rodham coming in third.   

Event Date: 2-11-2000
Event Description: President Jackson and the world watch as Moonbase Omega lands on the Sea of Tranquility, becoming the first laboratory to sit on a galactic form. The first scientists are three men and three women who are American, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, Egyptian and Australian. “Let no man tell you peace is not possible,” President Jackson tells the world from the Oval Office that night, “For we have found unity, honor and peace amongst the stars.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 2-17-2000
Event Description: The Russian Duma begins debate on six articles of impeachment against President Boris Yeltsin, most of them for utter incompetence and scandal. “It is time that Russia washes its hands of this incompetent, blotted and drunken man!” National Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky booms from the speaking platform in the Duma, “Impeach and imprison Yeltsin!” No Russian president since the corrupt Nikita Khrushchev has been impeached, leading most Russians to believe that these hearings are far more political then Nationalists are letting on.

Event Date: 2-19-2000
Event Description: The critical South Carolina Primary comes in for Governor Webb and Vice-President Wellstone. Webb’s support from Senators Thurmond and Fritz Hollings gave him a needed boost, and led to his huge victory over his nearest rival, Governor Rodham. Senator Gore, being defeated in a Southern state, drops out of the race tonight, endorsing Governor Webb. On the Republican side, Vice-President Wellstone’s support from the African-American community is able to not just offset a massive ad campaign by Governor Pataki, but keep Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney under 6% of the vote.

Event Date: 2-20-2000
Event Description: Polling done by Gallup International shows that in the upcoming Chinese Presidential Election, Corporatist candidate Hu Jintao leads the field, though within the margin of error against incumbent Nationalist President Chen Shui-bian. It is appearing more and more likely that the world’s most populous nation may embrace a corporate style like the isle of Japan.

Event Date: 2-22-2000
Event Description: The Arizona and Michigan Primaries are held today. On the Republican side, Vice-President Wellstone wins Michigan while Governor Pataki takes Arizona. Pataki’s strong opposition to federal urban programs appealed to the growing cities of Arizona, who generally fear government interaction in everyday city planning. On the Democratic front, Governor Cox wins neighboring Arizona, though former Vice-President John McCain had endorsed Governor Webb in early February. In Michigan, the Motor State rejects neighboring Governor Tommy Thompson to support Governor Rodham, another Great Lakes governor. This defeat is a tough one for Thompson, who has enjoyed the endorsement of Governor John Engler (Democrat of Michigan) and had spent more than $200,000 in Michigan alone, and he ends his campaign for the presidency, extending his endorsement to Governor Cox, who he calls, “The man who knows money and can save a sinking economy.”

Event Date: 2-24-2000
Event Description: In Seattle, Washington, a factory which is building a new form of hydrogen powered car is blown up by the prototypes, leaving all 120 workers either dead or severely injured. This is the worst factory disaster in the United States since the Triangle Shirt Waist tragedy in 1911. This disaster leaves many Americans uneasy about purchasing a car with alternative fuels, especially experimental ones.

Event Date: 2-26-2000
Event Description: Speaking at a memorial service for those Seattle factory workers killed in the hydrogen explosion, Vice-President Wellstone makes a major gaffe. “While the deaths of these workers are tragic,” the vice-president ends his eulogy with, “A great tragedy would be to stop the research of alternative fuels. To do that would say that these men and women died in vain in the battle against foreign oil and pollution.” Governor Pataki immediately attacks Wellstone not just for, “A callous campaign stop at a funeral,” but also for pitching his ideas on alternative fuels in front of families who had lost their relatives because of such research. “It is sickening that the Vice-President of the United States would do such a thing,” Governor Pataki tells news pundit Bill O’Reilly on the top rated “O’Reilly Factor.” 

Event Date: 2-27-2000
Event Description: The Puerto Rico Primary gives victories to Governor Rodham and Vice-President Wellstone, as they were the only candidates to compete for the primary victory.

Event Date: 2-29-2000
Event Description: After weeks of campaigning, the Virginia and Washington Primaries are held, with governors coming off as the big winners. On the Republican side, Governor Pataki wins both states, with Washington coming in for him after Vice-President Wellstone’s comments on February 26th, 2000, were successfully spun as inappropriate. Virginia comes in for Pataki, as Vice-President Wellstone was seen as too much of a radical for the Old Dominion. Governor Rodham breaks a losing streak in the west by winning the Washington Primary, defeating Governor Cox by a paper thin margin. Governor Webb is, of course, the big winner in his home state of Virginia. “There is still no favorite on either side,” Robert Novak writes, “The year 2000 may see two conventions with no nominee. It’s a wet dream for a political junkie.”

Event Date: 3-03-2000
Event Description: At a Republican Debate in San Francisco, California, Vice-President Wellstone is able to regain traction by attacking Governor Pataki for helping kill a same-sex marriage bill in New York State. “Why did he do this?” Wellstone asks the crowd, “It is because Governor Pataki is not a true progressive, he is a practical politician who knew that doing the right thing would cost him votes for president.” “That’s a lie, Paul,” Pataki snaps back, and then explains some legal jargon which doesn’t win the crowd over to his side of the argument. “You see?” Wellstone wryly asks the crowd “Was all that mumbo jumbo authentic or politician? I trust you and the rest of America to be the judge?” Later that night, the American Homosexual, Bi-Sexual and Tran-Sexual Rights League endorse Paul Wellstone for President and begin a massive get out the vote effort in California.

Event Date: 3-07-2000
Event Description: Super Tuesday has arrived, with no one candidate delivering a knock out punch in either party. The states of California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont cast their primary ballots, with mixed results. On the Republican side, Governor Pataki wins big in his home state of New York, Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts, where Senator Romney ran his campaign. Pataki also takes Vermont, but by a much closer margin over the far more progressive Vice-President Wellstone. Wellstone wins California, Maryland, Missouri, Rhode Island and Ohio, taking the lead in delegates but not knocking Pataki out of the race. With the backing of Atlanta and the black community, Congresswoman McKinney wins the Georgia Primary, but in doing so bankrupts her fledgling campaign. She ends her bid for office, and endorses, “My good friend and friend to progressives, Vice-President Paul Wellstone.” On the Democratic side, Governor Rodham wins the prizes of Ohio, Missouri, New York and Maryland, all by wide margins. Governor Webb wins Georgia and Rhode Island, but hopes to do better in the upcoming Southern Tuesday Primaries. Governor Cox pulls ahead in delegate strength by winning big in his home state of California and taking all the New England states with the exception of Rhode Island.

Event Date: 3-08-2000
Event Description: Following his big wins in Ohio and California, Vice-President Wellstone announces in Boulder, Colorado, that his presidency will, “Be the one remembered for helping the poor more than any other.” Wellstone unveils his plan for a “Great Society.” This includes free clinics in every major city in America, free care for the elderly, expansion of the Kerry College Act to more Americans, complete universal health care, recognition of homosexual marriage and a permanent Senate committee on civil rights. While the leftwing crowd in Boulder cheers the Great Society, Governor Pataki rails against it in Salt Lake City, Utah, calling it, “A great pipe dream for society.” Democrats ridicule Wellstone for his plan, with Governor Rodham referring to him as, “Comrade Paulnov,” in a speech in Provo, Utah.

Event Date: 3-10-2000
Event Description: Paul Wellstone’s dramatic Great Society speech wins him victories in both of today’s primaries in Colorado and Utah. Young liberal idealists’ turn out for Wellstone, giving him a 68-32% victory over Pataki in Utah and a 59-41% win in Colorado. Pataki, still boasting a large number of delegates, refuses to end his bid for the White House. Governor Webb wins the Colorado Primary with the endorsement of Governor Bill Owens (Democrat of Colorado) boosting his chances. Governor Cox, whose fiscal sense appeals to the Mormon voting base, wins the Utah Primary by a wide margin.

Event Date: 3-14-2000
Event Description: Another big day for primaries as the states of Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas cast their respective ballots. Vice-President Wellstone, with the support of poverty stricken whites, blacks and Latinos, wins big in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. Governor Pataki, working with wealthy bankers and business leaders, wins the more affluent states of Florida and Tennessee, keeping him close to Wellstone in the delegate race. Governor Webb wins big today, as he expected to. The Virginia governor sweeps all six states, with only Florida being contested against Governor Rodham. “The choice of the South has been clearly made,” Governor Webb declares in his victory address, “And as the South goes, so goers the Democratic Party.” 
             
Event Date: 3-20-2000
Event Description: The U.S. Supreme Court rules the government lacks authority to regulate tobacco as an addictive drug, ending President Jackson’s many anti-smoking programs. The tobacco issue has been reopened for the 2000 presidential election.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-21-2000
Event Description: Governor Rodham easily wins the Illinois Primary, as it has been her home state her entire life. Vice-President Wellstone narrowly carries the Land of Lincoln, with Governor Pataki taking 49% of the vote to his 51%.

Event Date: 3-25-2000
Event Description: Hu Jintao is elected President of China in a major upset, giving the corporatist philosophy another Asian nation. The ongoing banking and economic crisis in China led many Chinese voters to look for a new alternative, and Jintao’s corporatists were it. “Today China begins the long march away from socialism and incompetence,” Jintao tells his cheering crowds, “It will be a difficult path to march over, but I know it can be done.”

Event Date: 3-26-2000
Event Description: The 72nd Academy Awards, hosted by Billy Crystal are held at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The surprise winner of Best Film is “Mr. Putin’s Russia”, defeating “American Beauty” and other more favored films. Also in Russia today, President Yeltsin narrowly escapes impeachment.

Event Date: 4-04-2000
Event Description: The Wisconsin and Pennsylvania Primaries are held, with divided winners on both sides. Governor Rodham wins neighboring Wisconsin by appealing to farmer’s with the promise of maintaining their subsides, something Governor Cox has vowed to end. In Pennsylvania, a three way race ends with victory for Governor Webb, who appealed to steel workers in Pittsburgh due to his own blue collar, working class roots. Vice-President Wellstone wins the over the “radicals” in Wisconsin, but fails to win Pennsylvania due to Governor Pataki’s local appeal and support from Philadelphia businessmen. President Jackson is especially embarrassed by this defeat, as Pennsylvania is his home state.

Event Date: 4-05-2000
Event Description: Hu Jintao is inaugurated as President of China, beginning, as Ben Stein opines on Forbes on Fox, “A regime of brutal efficiency.” While keeping democracy in tact in China, President Jintao introduces a corporate council made up of China’s most important businessmen and economists. President Jackson, while not a fan of the corporate philosophy, confines to Treasury Secretary Scranton, “If that little guy can get that nation working right then he deserves a Nobel Prize.”

Event Date: 4-22-2000
Event Description: The Cuba Crisis begins over a little boy. Cárdenas, Cuba, Mayor Juan Miguel Gonzalez’s son Elian, while going to a boy’s camp in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, is abducted at Joseph P. Kennedy, Junior, International Airport by radical left winged Cuban Liberation Front (Frente cubana de Liberación). The group opposes the oppressive rule President Pedro Luis Diaz Lanz and his allies, like Mayor González. The abduction of the young boy, however, is seen as the lowest the group has gone. President Jackson calls for the National Guard to begin a hunt along the borders of the United States to find the child and bring him home to safety.

Event Date: 4-25-2000
Event Description: While attending a town hall in Asheville, North Carolina, Vice-President Paul Wellstone is asked by a high school geography teacher, “Mr. Wellstone, what should be done about the Gonzales kidnapping and ongoing trouble in Cuba?” “I have to say that I can sympathize some with the anti-Lanz factions on the island,” Wellstone tells the teacher, and that is all Rush Limbaugh and other leading conservatives need to begin a campaign tying Wellstone to far-left socialists in Cuba. “How can the Republican Party be on courser to nominate a man who claims to agree with terrorists?” Limbaugh asks his listeners, “Terrorists who kidnapped an eight year old boy of all things.” Wellstone begins a major damage control effort by outlining how he went on to attack the kidnapping and the right-winged regime in Cuba, but many in the public have already made up their minds about what Wellstone meant.

Event Date: 4-29-2000
Event Description: Governor Howard Dean (Republican of Vermont), a strong progressive and Wellstone supporter, sings the Marriage Equality Act, legalizing homosexual marriage in the Green Mountain State. This first in the nation ruling blows open the issue of gay marriage in the 2000 Election. “I applaud this decision,” Vice-President Wellstone tells a crowd in Gary, Indiana, “It is a decision for needed equality, how could anyone oppose such an act?” “Marriage is NOT a right,” Governor Rodham declares at a Democratic debate in Raleigh, North Carolina, “It is a license, like a driver’s license. No one is entitled to one of those, and thank God for that.” Both of these positions are supported in a nation which is almost completely divided on homosexual rights.

Event Date: 5-02-2000
Event Description: The Washington, D.C., Indiana and North Carolina Primaries are held today, with Vice-President Wellstone being punished for his much maligned “Cuba Comments.” Governor Pataki wins both Indiana and North Carolina, despite the heavy African-American populations in both states. “There is starting a major ‘Wellstone can’t win’ movement in the Republican primaries,” columnist Eleanor Clift will later comment on the McLaughlin Group, “This is why Pataki won states he should have lost.” Wellstone wins Washington, D.C., but that was expected. However, he still leads in delegate count. The divided Democrat Party stays that way as Governor Rodham wins Indiana and Governor Webb takes North Carolina and the nation’s capitol.

Event Date: 5-06-2000
Event Description: Elian Gonzales is found by Cuban police in a Santiago, Cuba, hotel room completely unharmed. Lax Cuban coast guards allowed the wanted rebels into their nation, showing the incompetence of the current government to the world. The rebels who had kidnapped him intended to hold him for ransom in the hotel, but were forced to abandon their mission when President Jackson threatened classification of the Cuban Liberation Front as a terrorist group. “Tonight justice came through in Cuba,” President Jackson tells the nation from the Oval Office, “However; we must stay vigilant in the defense of the isle of Cuba.”

Event Date: 5-09-2000
Event Description: The Nebraska and West Virginia Primaries are held today, with Governors Pataki and Webb winning both states by comfortable margins. Vice-President Wellstone knew that neither state was friendly towards him, but had hoped a large turnout of working class citizens in the Mountain State could put him over the top.

Event Date: 5-13-2000
Event Description: President Jackson signs the Seattle Memorial Act, introduced by Senator Patty Murray (Republican of Washington). This act requires all laboratories which work with explosive compounds to adapt strict rules which are to create safety standards for all prototypes being experimented on and used. “I can only hope that strict requirements for labs can stop another Seattle tragedy,” President Jackson tells the press as he signs the bill.

Event Date: 5-16-2000
Event Description: The Oregon Primary, one which most felt would be useless as it comes so late, proves to be crucial to Governor Christopher Cox’s campaign, as he wins it and ends a nasty losing streak. Governor Rodham, who had won neighboring Washington, had spent a large sum on money in the state, but in the end it proved to be fruitless. On the Republican side, this progressive state comes in for Vice-President Wellstone. Governor John Kitzhaber (Republican of Oregon) is seen as potential Republican Vice-Presidential candidate foe either Wellstone or Pataki.

Event Date: 5-18-2000
Event Description: Secretary of State Cohen receives another foreign policy success as Israel, Lebanon and Egypt sign a “Friendship Agreement”, ending tensions between the three nations over fishing rights. “It would be terrible if the world was blown up over fish,” Cohen quips on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno a week later.

Event Date: 5-20-2000
Event Description: President Jackson calls for the nation’s educators to embrace a new national curriculum for civic education. “The Tree of Knowledge,” written by the minds at UC Berkeley, urges civics to be taught with, of all things, sex education. It claims that issues like condom use, sexual promiscuity, AIDS and abstinence education vs. other alternatives are, “Social and governmental issues far more than health ones.” “This curriculum will help combat our nation’s growing crisis of out of wedlock birth, the spread of STDs and the manipulation of sex by the mass media,” President Jackson tells the National Education Association (NEA) Convention in Washington, D.C., “It talks about how these issues are political as well as personal.” “Thanks Dr. Reggie,” Governor Cox sarcastically tells a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, “Now why don’t you go back to collecting baseball cards in Phillie and leave doctoring to actual doctors?” Jay Leno has a different view on the matter, “Hey, who every thought that kids who like politics were also sex experts?”

Event Date: 5-23-2000
Event Description: The Arkansas, Idaho and Kentucky Primaries cast their ballots, with Governor Webb winning Arkansas and Kentucky and Governor Cox winning Idaho, Governor Rodham, once again, is shut out. However, she currently leads in both delegates and fund raising, still making her the front-runner. Vice-President Wellstone wins Arkansas and Idaho but is oddly defeated in Kentucky, where Governor Pataki had not even been to in weeks. This victory is once again attributed to the “Wellstone can’t win” movement.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 6-03-2000
Event Description: The final primaries are held in Alabama, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Minnesota, North Dakota, Nevada and South Dakota. This final batch of contests does much to define the Republican race, as Vice-President Wellstone, despite controversies and stumbles, wins the Alabama, Montana, New Mexico, Minnesota and South Dakota Primaries, making him the solid front-runner in the race. Governor Pataki, while winning New Jersey, North Dakota and Nevada, sees the writing on the wall and endorses Wellstone that night. “I want a divided party to become united once again,” Governor Pataki tells his supporters that night in Atlantic City, New Jersey, “We need a man in the White House to continue the legacy of President Reginald Jackson, and Paul Wellstone is that man!” The Democrats are not so united, not by half. Governor Rodham wins Minnesota only, showing a stall in her candidacy. Governor Webb wins big tonight, taking Alabama, North and South Dakota as well as New Mexico. With the endorsement of Governor Bret Schundler (Democrat of New Jersey) and other leading fiscal crusaders, Governor Cox wins New Jersey and Montana by wide margins. “The Democrats have the perfect opponent,” Bill Kristol writes in the National Review, “They just need a candidate to oppose him.”

Event Date: 6-08-2000
Event Description: The President’s Manor in Havana, Cuba, is bombed, killing several government officials, but not President de Lanz. The president was at his vacation home in the Florida Key’s, a fact unbeknownst to most of the nation. The unrest in Cuba is getting more violent ever passing day.

Event Date: 6-14-2000
Event Description: Chinese President Jintao begins a campaign to rewrite all Chinese history text books and edit out any praise of socialist governments, like those of Deng Xiaoping or Chou Enlai. This policy is attacked by some as fascist, but the Chinese, sick of socialist incompetence, embrace the policy.

Event Date: 6-28-2000
Event Description: After weeks of interrogation from government officials, Elian Gonzalez is permanently returned to his father, Mayor Juan Miguel Gonzalez. The government wanted to make sure that the leftists had not “brainwashed” to boy, and they wanted any secrets that may have been learned from the kidnapping experience. The Cuban regime had its priorities, and spying is one of the highest.

Event Date: 7-02-2000
Event Description: Conservative Vincente Fox is elected President of Mexico, ousting the current left-winged government from power. President-elect Fox vows to fight illegal immigration and drug running, as well as Mexico’s friendly relations with the Cuban Liberation Front.

Event Date: 7-10-2000
Event Description: President Jackson declares that the world needs a “War on Poverty” at the G-8 summit in Tokyo, Japan. “It is not enough to say that we are willing to send our armies to fight problems,” Jackson tells the gathered dignitaries, “We need to also send grain, medical aid and education abroad to fight world poverty.” Jackson challenges the world community to make a vow to “cut poverty in half” by 2010.

Event Date: 7-22-2000
Event Description: President Jackson signs Nicky’s Law, introduced by Senator John Kerry (Republican of Massachusetts). This legislation, named in memorial of murdered Nicky Walters, a six-year old girl murdered by a pedophile in Boston, gives parents the right to know whether a convicted paedophile was living in their area. “Knowledge can save lives,” Kerry had told the press, and the president agrees with this statement. “We can not live in a nation,” President Jackson tells the press as he signs the law, “Where parents and law enforcement officers are unaware of who lives in their neighborhoods and cities.” 

Event Date: 7-28-2000
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with no nominee apparent. Governors Rodham, Cox and Webb all stand an equal chance of winning the nomination, setting up a high noon showdown at the First Union Center. The first day of the convention is a high tension one with all three candidates being nominated in speeches met with booing, cheering and the occasional outburst of anger from the speaker. This is shown during former Vice-President John McCain’s nomination speech for Governor Webb. During the speech, angry Rodham supporters try to shout down McCain, who responds, “My friends, this is a free country.”

Event Date: 7-29-2000
Event Description: “Today the greatest show on Earth begins,” CBS’s Dan Rather declares, “A divided convention vote. Its like a joust between three huge rams with iron helmets.” While no one can figure out what Rather meant by this, balloting still begins. The first ballot puts Governor Rodham in first place with Webb and Cox coming in second and third respectively. This was expected, as Rodham does lead in delegates but is still more than 130 delegates short of the nomination. After five more ballots with similar results, the convention recesses for lunch. “We have to do something about this,” Democratic National Chair Jim Gilmore tells a meeting of DNC officials, “I just wish one of those three governors would just drop out.” This seems very unlikely, with the exception of one being blackmailed out of the race. “That won’t work,” Senator Robert Byrd tells Gilmore, “All three have kept their noses clean. It seems like there is nothing that can be done to end this stalemate.” By the end of the day, however, delegates begin to abandon Governor Cox as it appears more and more likely that he will be unable to win the nomination. “I’m not dropping out,” Cox tells the press that night, “I can still take this nomination, and I refuse to let down my supporters by dropping out when there is still a chance for a Cox presidency.” “We’ve already had a Cox presidency,” Governor Webb comments, “We all know how that turned out.”

Event Date: 7-30-2000
Event Description: Former President Jack Kemp, having recently returned from his world tour to attend the Democratic Convention, addresses the convention, urging the nomination of Governor James Webb. “Governor Webb has served our nation with more heart and dedication than any public servant I have ever known,” President Kemp tells the convention, “As a solider, as military governor of Falujah, as a naval officer, as Secretary of the Navy, as Governor of Virginia for two terms and, most importantly, as a family man. He is the best man for the most job in the world, and he should be the man to lead the country in the 21st Century.” The speech goes over huge at the convention, cementing the nomination for Governor Webb. That night, Governor James Webb of Virginia is nominated for President of the United States on the Eighth Ballot. “We stand at a crossroads, ladies and gentlemen,” Governor Webb tells the convention in his acceptance address, “We can either follow the path of limited government as our founder’s wanted, or go down the path of government control over our lives. I am convinced that our nation can not afford a president who wants the former path. Mr. Wellstone is a man of integrity, but he also is a man who sees government as the means to end the problem, not the problem itself. We can not allow that man to enter the White House, especially after the last eight years of government expansion in both our domestic affairs and our foreign policy.” After giving a very well received address which united a divided party behind the principles of limited government and a humble foreign policy, Governor Webb meets with Governors Cox and Rodham, and extends the offer of running-mate to both of them. Neither accepts, with Governor Rodham telling him, “I didn’t come here to run for vice-president,” but both put out alternatives. Governor Rodham tells him to name her long-time ally Congressman Ted Strickland (Democrat of Ohio) for Vice-President, while Governor Cox tells Webb to name Governor Schundler as his running-mate. After meeting with both men, Governor Webb decides to name neither man as his running-mate. His choice is Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (Democrat of Texas), a long-time Rodham supporter who is seen as the best choice to appease any women who are let down by the defeat of Rodham. The Webb-Hutchinson Ticket is seen by most pundits as a return to Southern control of the Democratic Party.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-10-2000
Event Description: Chinese banks adopt a form of investor’s insurance, which is based off of the Japanese program. This news begins to improve the economy, though the United States is still caught in an economic slowdown caused by the unsteadiness of world markets for the last three years.

Event Date: 8-14-2000
Event Description: The Republican National Convention opens in Los Angeles, California, with Vice-President Paul Wellstone being nominated on the First Ballot. Knowing that he needs a hard-boiled war figure to offset Governor Webb’s candidacy, Vice-President Wellstone names Senator John Kerry as his running-mate. Kerry, who had been injured during the Russo-Chinese War, gives an acceptance address stressing Wellstone’s dedication to the poor and down trod. “Vice-President Wellstone has declared that he will see poverty as Public Enemy Number One,” Kerry tells the convention, “He refuses to see the wealthiest nation in the world have people who live in starvation conditions.” Wellstone’s own speech is much he same, with the exception of massive praise for President Jackson, whom he calls, “The greatest president since Herbert Hoover.” The Republican Convention goes over well, but is seen as boring compared to the drama filled Democratic Convention. The Gallup Poll shows Governor Webb leading Vice-President Wellstone by a 54-44% margin after the convention.

Event Date: 8-20-2000
Event Description: Former President Robert F. Kennedy is found hung in his cell, a suicide which his Knights of the Round Table had orchestrated. In constant pain due to his Bright’s Disease, Kennedy refused to live out such a wretched existence. In a note he has his close associate, Bob Kelly, a convicted murderer, read to the press, Kennedy states the following: “Everyone out there, I am sorry for what I have done in life. I caused a great deal of pain to my family, my country and myself, all of which I apologize for. However, you must understand that everything I did was for my country. I had convinced myself that some laws needed to be broken so that the country could be safe, and I still believe that. I apologize for the pain I caused but I do not apologize for what I did. God, in his wisdom, has decided to punish me in his own way, and I refuse to put up with that as well. I now will leave the world, and for that I have little to say. The world is not enough, my friends, for any one man. The world could never be enough for me. I had to control the world, and for a few brief moments, I did.”

Event Date: 8-21-2000
Event Description: Congress convenes in an emergency session to decide what is to be done about the recent death of President Robert Francis Kennedy. The question is should a president who was sentenced to time in prison and then committed suicide be allowed to lie in state at the Capitol Rotunda? “Of course he should!” Senator Thurmond blares, “He was a president after all, and in my opinion, the one with the most balls.” “How crude, Mr. Thurmond,” Senator Jack Reed (Republican of Rhode Island) responds, “No convicted criminal, who broke spying laws of all things, should be allowed to lie in the honor of the rotunda.” In the end, President Jackson intervenes by urging the Congress to allow President Kennedy to lie in state. “We must show respect for the office he held and his family,” President Jackson tells the Congress in a message read by Speaker of the House Tom Foley, “No man’s death should ever be used as a political football.”

Event Date: 8-30-2000
Event Description: The casket of former President Robert Francis Kennedy lies in the Capitol Rotunda, with more than two million people nationwide filing past to gaze at the casket of the only president who did time in prison and took his own life. “Why are so many people eager to see this man’s coffin?” Robert Novak writes, “I see it as history’s vindication. Some men’s actions change the world, but other’s simply change the act of the play. This is what Robert Kennedy did. He gave us a character who introduced new characters, and they would be the ones who would define the future. Though without the tragic character of Robert Kennedy, these players could never have taken the lead.”

Event Date: 9-03-2000
Event Description: Governor Webb declares in at a campaign rally in Peoria, Illinois, that was president, “I will confront the growing crisis of socialism in South and Central America.” He outlines how his “humble foreign policy” will shun nation building, but encourage opposition to left winged leaders like Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and Nicaragua’s Daniel Oretega, who was elected to his old presidential post yesterday. “The Jackson Administration is losing the game in Latin America,” Webb declares, “We must either win that game, or lose our position as a world power.”

Event Date: 9-17-2000
Event Description: The United States and Mexico begins a policy of guest worker’s in both nations, as outlined by the Immigration Reform Act of 1998. Presidents Fox and Jackson declare today to be the beginning, “Of a new relationship between the United States and Mexico.” While both major party nominees for president support this policy, Vice-President Wellstone questions how Mexican guest workers may be treated by their American employers. “I fear that a new form of wage slavery could be started by this action,” Wellstone tells the press as he boards his campaign bus in Columbus, Ohio. This comment is spun by the Webb Campaign as an attack on both bipartisan immigration reforms and American capitalism. “If Mr. Wellstone sees our business leaders as slave drivers,” Governor Webb tells a meeting of the Department of Commerce in Wilmington, Delaware, “Then he should go to a country that doesn’t have them. I recommend Venezuela.”

Event Date: 9-22-2000
Event Description: President Jackson, while attending a world leader’s luncheon at the Sydney Olympic Games, is asked by a reporter if he agrees with his own vice-president’s comments on the guest worker program. Jackson had hoped to escape these questions by traveling abroad, so he simply responds, “All I can say is that Paul needs to read up a little more on the policy. If he does that he should do just fine the next time he discusses immigration.” This comment is taken out of context by the reporter, who uses it to claim that President Jackson believes that his own vice-president does not understand American immigration policy. The next week is spent by Jackson and Wellstone trying to do damage control, slowing down the pace of the campaign once again.

Event Date: 10-03-2000
Event Description: The first Presidential debate of the election is held at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. Moderated by Jim Lehrer of PBS, the debate focuses on domestic issues. Vice-President Wellstone uses the debate to pitch his Great Society program. “The Great Society will be a place where the people of our country have both a full stomach and a full life,” Wellstone orates. “And an empty wallet,” Governor Webb interjects, causing even the Vice-President to laugh. “Some people would rather see a poor person with a full life than a rich man with a full wallet,” Wellstone responds. “That’s okay,” Webb shoots back, “Under the current administration we have neither.” The zinger reminds voters of the economic hard times and the higher taxes under the latter years of the Jackson Administration, giving Webb a clear victory in the debate. The Gallup Poll shows that Governor Webb now leads Wellstone by a 56-43% margin.

Event Date: 10-05-2000
Event Description: Former Yugoslavian and Serbian leader Slobodan Milošević is executed by lethal injection in Serbia. The war criminal’s closest aids are given life sentences, but “The Butcher of Bosnia” is not given this option. “Now take him away history,” Secretary of State Cohen comments, “Let him trouble only historians now.”

Event Date: 10-12-2000
Event Description: The U.S.S. Cole sails unharmed today, as it has for many months. American relations with Yemen have been close since that nation aided the U.S. against Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Event Date: 10-17-2000
Event Description: Desperate to gain traction in the campaign, Vice-President Wellstone goes on the attack at the town hall styled debate held at the University of Missouri in St. Louis. “Governor Webb is hungry for Robert Kennedy like espionage,” Wellstone warns the nation, “He has openly said he will mingle in elections in Latin America. How can we trust him when he talks about a ‘humble foreign policy?’ We can not.” “Mr. Wellstone,” Webb responds, “That attack is a complete lie, and you know it. I will not use the CIA, or the military as President Jackson has done, to overthrow legitimate governments. As president I will voice support for pro-American candidates in Latin America, but never use force to change the political scene.” Wellstone’s attacks seem to be working, as Gallup now shows that Webb leads by a 54-46% margin, the closest margin yet in the race.

Event Date: 10-25-2000
Event Description: Governor Webb unleashes an ad barrage in across the nation, all accusing Vice-President Wellstone of being a big spending liberal idealist. These advertisements attack Wellstone’s comments at the funeral for the Seattle hydrogen scientists, his comments about Elian Gonzales, his “slavery” statements as well as his Great Society program. The attacks are very effective, though Wellstone tries to respond in kind by attacking Webb as a militarist, an isolationist and a man who would cut taxes only to build a massive federal deficit.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-07-2000
Event Description: Governor James “Jim” Webb of Virginia is elected President of the United States after one of the bitterest and most negative presidential races in history. He defeats Vice-President Paul Wellstone by a wide margin after successfully painting the Veep as a big spending liberal elitist.

James Webb/Kay Bailey Hutchinson (D): 339 EV; 56.4% of the PV
Paul Wellstone/John Kerry (R): 199 EV; 43.3% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, Progressive Reform, etc.): 0 EV; 0.3% of the PV

The Democratic Party gains control of the House of Representatives for the first time since 1987 while winning two more seats in the U.S. Senate. “Today is a day that should be remembered for all time,” Governor Webb declares in his victory address, “It was the day that America chose freedom over government and did it with a massive and monumental mandate!”

Event Date: 11-11-2000
Event Description: Wanting to escape a nation he feels has rejected most of his legacy, President Jackson begins a trip through Southeast Asia. He will become the first president to visit Vietnam and oversee the first fair and free elections in Thailand in more than forty years. “President Jackson is just biding time,” Vice-President Wellstone tells his wife, “I don’t blame him either. He’s done all he can and he views that as not enough.”

Event Date: 11-23-2000
Event Description: Breaking with tradition, President Jackson and President-elect Jim Webb have dinner at the White House with their families. Also I attendance is Vice-President Wellstone, who has a good laugh with President-elect Webb over the campaign, helping to heal some of the national wounds still left by the vicious campaign.

Event Date: 12-20-2000
Event Description: President Reginald Martinez Jackson delivers his farewell address to the nation from the Oval Office. “I see a nation which was given to me a fine condition and is returned in a fine condition,” President Jackson tells the nation, “For the last eight years we have fought tyranny, terrorism and injustice, and the United States has come out victorious. We are still the leaders of the world, and now are leaders in space research. Tonight, the scientists aboard the Moonbase Omega are watching this address and thanking this nation for their own chance to make history. We did make history, and for that I am forever grateful. Thank you, America, for all you have done for me. I was just a poor boy from Philadelphia, destined to be a street punk, but this nation gave me a chance to be a preacher, a mayor, a governor and, my greatest honor, President of the United States. For all this, I am eternally grateful.”         

[Хahar 🤔]

“Today the greatest show on Earth begins,” CBS’s Dan Rather declares, “A divided convention vote. Its like a joust between three huge rams with iron helmets.” While no one can figure out what Rather meant by this, balloting still begins.

As always, great work.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Truly amazing   Good to see Jim Webb as President.

[MasterJedi]

I knew it, no President Thompson.

But at least Webb defeated Wellstone!

[PBrunsel]

The Presidency of James Webb

Event Date: 1-03-2001
Event Description: The 107th Congress convenes with the Democratic Party taking power on the Hill. Senate Minority Leader Don Nickles (Democrat of Oklahoma) becomes the new Majority Leader, while Senator Bob Dole decides to not seek the position of minority leader. Dole, who plans on retiring in 2004, extends his support for the position of Senate Minority Leader to Senator Rudolph Giuliani (Republican of New York), who was reelected by a twenty-point margin over conservative Democratic Congressman Rick Lazio last year. Senator Giuliani wins the post over a strong challenge from Senator Tom Harkin (Republican of Iowa), who told the Associated Press that, “The Republican Party has been run by Eastern intellectuals for too long.” In the House of Representatives, Congressman J.D. Hayworth (Democrat of Arizona) becomes Speaker of the House. On the Republican side, Congressman Tom Foley had declined to run for reelection in 2000, leaving the position of House Minority Leader wide open. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Republican of Ohio) runs a quixotic bid for, “The Wellstone branch of the Republican Party.” The two candidates who are the front-runners for the position are Congressman Stenny Hoyer (Republican of Maryland) and Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Republican of California). In the end, Congressman Hoyer wins the position, keeping the Republican Congressional leadership on the Eastern Sea Board.

Event Date: 1-19-2001
Event Description: In his final act as President of the United States, President Reginald Jackson declares that he will not exercise the power of presidential pardon, surprising political pundits. “I have not pardoned anyone my entire presidency,” President Jackson tells the press, “I will not start now. Pardoning anyone at the last second would be a massive miscarriage of justice.”

Event Date: 1-20-2001
Event Description: James Henry Webb, Junior, is inaugurated as President of the United States. “Where principle is involved, be deaf to expediency,” President Webb tells the nation in his Inaugural Address, “The moral thing to do is rarely the easiest thing to do, and sometimes it is not the popular one either, but it is always the American thing to do.” President Webb and President Jackson shake hands as the outgoing statesman returns to the City of Brotherly Love, back to the church he worked for after the Russo-Chinese War. “I have gone very far in life,” former President Jackson tells a local paper, “During that time I never forgot where I came from or where I would return.”

Event Date: 1-25-2001
Event Description: President Webb’s new cabinet is confirmed. Vice-President Kay Bailey Hutchinson, elected with President Webb, will play a strong role in decision making, especially in economic policy. Secretary of State Daniel Patrick Moynihan is given his old job back, though he is 74-years old. “I need a foreign policy expert close to me at all times,” President Webb explains to the press, “I can’t think of a better man for the job. Former Senator Sam Nunn (Democrat of Georgia) is made Secretary of Defense, an appointment applauded by both sides of the aisle. One that is not so applauded is the appointment of Democratic National Chairman James Gilmore to the position of Attorney General. President Webb made this decision to keep the Virginia Democratic Party united and to appease the strict constructionists of his own party. The position of Treasury Secretary is filled by New Jersey Governor Bret Schundler, a supply-side economics advocate supported by fiscal conservatives in both parties.

Event Date: 2-06-2001
Event Description: The conservative choice for Prime Minister of Israel, General Ariel Sharon, wins the election in a campaign promising to root out corruption in the Israeli military and state departments.

Event Date: 2-12-2001
Event Description: Senator Orrin Hatch (Democrat of Utah) introduces the Expanded School Choice Act of 2001, giving voucher options to students of every socio-economic background. This bill creates a national firestorm over both school vouchers and the separation of church and state. African-American leaders oppose the bill because, in the words of Congressman Charles Rangel, “Expanding vouchers to groups that do not need them will only suck needed funds away from minorities in failing schools that do need them.” Congressman Robert Wexler (Republican of Florida), a former ACLU attorney, warns that this bill, “Will give federal funding to religious schools, destroying the wall of separation between church and state.” President Webb voices his support for the bill, as does most of the Democratic Congress. The bill will pass and be signed by President Webb, though the ACLU will sue the government to have it repealed.

Event Date: 2-18-2001
Event Description: The Richard Nixon Presidential Library releases “The Black Papers”, the most secret of all Nixon files. These files reveal that Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman had ordered the Plumbers to do many illegal activities to stop leaks to the press, all of which had been denied for more than thirty years. Amongst the illegal activities was the murder of Porter Goss, a case finally solved. However, prosecutors do not file a legal case against any former Nixon aid because they see these acts as too dated and controversial to be given a fair trial.

Event Date: 2-21-2001
Event Description: The Japanese-American War Museum opens in Washington, D.C., with the remaining veterans of the war, only about 500 men, attending the opening ceremonies. “The battle against imperialism ended when America defeated the Japanese,” President Webb tells the crowd at the dedication ceremony, “It was then that the world saw that America would not stand idly by as one nation robbed resources and lives from another.” This comment bewilders many historians, as the United States did nothing when the Nazi Army was overrunning Europe from 1939-1941. President Webb does not explain his comment, and it is forgotten by most Americans but Jewish Heritage leaders continue to persist. After all, had the United States have intervened in World War II, there would be many more Jews worldwide today.

Event Date: 2-27-2001
Event Description: The first spacecraft of the African Space Agency enters orbit: the Toba, meaning “River” in Swahili. “Africa now enters the realm of space,” President Webb proudly declares at a meeting at the United Nations, “It is welcomed to the inner circle of nations who converse amongst the stars.” This achievement is seen as the greatest achievement in Africa in many decades, as it took unity amongst many nations to launch the Toba space craft. 

Event Date: 3-05-2001
Event Description: Former Congressman Richard Cheney (Republican of Wyoming) is awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his fight to hold public officials accountable for taking money from big oil. “It takes an oil man to see what big oil can do to a public official,” President Webb tells the press as Cheney is given the highest award for an American civilian.

Event Date: 3-09-2001
Event Description: President Webb names Senator Dan Quayle (Democrat of Indiana), a former rival for the presidency, to head up a Senate committee investigating waste in the military and public education.

Event Date: 3-12-2001
Event Description: The Quayle Commission begins, with Pentagon officials becoming the first to testify before the Hoosier Senator. “We must have no whitewash at the Pentagon,” Quayle tells the press. The next five months will be filled with close critiques of military spending with the goal of decreasing it for the 2002-2003 budgets. President Webb, a military hero, tells the nation in an address from the Oval Office, “As a career military man, I know how often the military budget is misused.”

Event Date: 3-20-2001
Event Description: In a speech to the Better Business Bureau, Secretary of the Treasury Bret Schundler declares that the Kemp and Jackson tax cuts will become permanent under President Webb’s first budget. “It is imperative that business is given the room to grow,” Secretary Schundler states, “These tax cuts give that needed growth.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-01-2001
Event Description: A U.S. Navy EP-3E signals reconnaissance aircraft is intercepted by two Chinese fighter jets over international waters, about 70 miles off the Chinese island of Hainan. President Hu Jintao accuses the United States of spying, “To see the precise strength of our nation.” President Webb denies this is the case, and sends a formal apology to the Chinese government. While some conservative Democrats attack this move by the president, President Webb tells Secretary of State Moynihan, “We don’t need another war with China.”

Event Date: 4-05-2001
Event Description: In a move applauded by both parties, President Webb names former Secretary of State William Cohen as Ambassador to Cuba, a very troubled island at this time. “I know that you alone can help end the violence in Cuba,” President Webb tells Cohen as he leaves to Havana to present his credentials.

Event Date: 4-18-2001
Event Description: President Webb signs the Cuban Freedom Act, written by Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart (Democrat of Florida). This bill sends $25 million in military and humanitarian aid to Cuba, while demanding human rights reforms from the government of President Pedro Diaz Lanz.

Event Date: 4-29-2001
Event Description: In a bombastic speech from the President’s Mansion in Caracas, Venezuela, leftist President Hugo Chavez blasts the United States as, “The capitalist giant who wraps dictators in the stars and stripes.” Chavez decries the Cuban Freedom Act as, “A joke to freedom lovers the world over. The right-winged regime of President Diaz Lanz is almost as big a joke as the presidency of Mr. Webb.” President Webb does not respond to Chavez, but begins to work with the opposition leaders in Venezuela to replace the red leader with a pro-American president.

Event Date: 5-01-2001
Event Description: On May Day, a communist holiday, the streets of Gibara, Cuba, are overrun by leftist guerillas. The pro-Lanz governor of the city is killed by a Molotov cocktail and the police headquarters is set ablaze before the Cuban National Guard can restore orders in the streets.

Event Date: 5-05-2001
Event Description: The Virginia Republican State Convention nominates Mark Warner for the second time for Governor of Virginia. In his acceptance address, Warner mocks the tax system of Virginia, which has been supported by newly inaugurated Governor John Hager. “Virginia’s tax system needs to be fixed. The time to act is now,” Warner, a businessman for decades, declares, “Do not do anymore studies on the matter, Governor Hager, just remake the system.” This is the first time in the history of the Republican Party a candidate for any office has ran to the right of a Democrat on tax reform.

Event Date: 5-15-2001
Event Description: In what many foreign policy analysts see as a clear change to the right in world politics, conservative Silvio Berlusconi and the Italian House of the Liberties coalition win general elections in Italy. Berlusconi ousts incompetent leftist Giuliano Amato, who President Reginald Jackson had called, “My closest friend in Europe.”

Event Date: 5-28-2001
Event Description: “Rocky VI” is released to American theatres, and it was a film that many felt would be over hyped and underperformed. On both accounts this feeling wrong. Sylvester Stallone, now 55-years old, returns to the screen as Rocky Balboa, who once again is training a new boxer, a Chinese immigrant named Chou “Chester” Senn, portrayed by Kung-Fu star Chet Lee. Balboa is also involved in another fight, the race for Mayor of Philadelphia. Following the murder of his priest, Father Michael Carmine, by gang violence, Balboa enters the Democratic Primary for Mayor of the City of Brotherly Love. The move intertwines both boxing and politics in a masterful way. The addition of Morgan Freeman to play the Republican candidate for Mayor, Councilman Walter Lane, ads to the acting prestige of the film, and also gives the movie a “villain” who is not a boxer. In the end Balboa is defeated for the office of mayor, but Chester Senn wins the welter weight boxing championship and Rocky opens up the Father Michael Carmine Youth Center in his troubled Philadelphia neighborhood. Former President Reginald Jackson, a former mayor of Philadelphia and priest, makes a special appearance at the end of the film to dedicate the youth center.

Event Date: 6-03-2001
Event Description: Senate Majority leader Nickles announces that the budget for the next fiscal year will include steep cuts for educational spending. “We can’t buy our way to education success,” Senator Nickles tells the press, “Billions can’t make people learn to read and value the worth of education.” Senator Jim Jeffords (Republican of Virginia) declares he will filibuster any attempts to cut educational spending. “Our schools seem to be the number one target of this new administration,” Senator Jeffords tells the press, “I’ll be damned if they are destroyed by Webb and his allies.”

Event Date: 6-11-2001
Event Description: Author Timothy McVeigh and radio host Alex Jones begin their nightly radio broadcast “Radio Free America.” Mocking Franklin Roosevelt’s Radio Free Europe name, this radio show focuses on anti-government conspiracies as well as talking about government “cover-ups” ranging from the assassination of Stuart Symington to the current interventions in Cuba.

Event Date: 6-20-2001
Event Description: Pakistani Prime Minister Pervez Musharraf takes complete control of the government of Pakistan by declaring himself President of Pakistan. This makes him both the first and second most powerful man in the country. General Musharraf has been a close friend of the United States, so President Webb strategically does not attack this move for ultimate power. “We’ve gone from idealism to propping up dictators,” former Congressman Malcolm Little tells Amnesty International, “And here I was attacking the better man for the last eight years.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-05-2001
Event Description: Secretary of State Daniel Patrick Moynihan oversees the historic Treaty of Understanding between long time enemies Russia and China. The agreement promises a pact of mutual peace, free trade and an end to espionage between the two nations. This is President Boris Yeltsin’s first major victory in a long time, and it is widely supported by the world community, though Russian nationalists attack the treaty, “With the devil.”

Event Date: 7-15-2001
Event Description: President Webb signs the Portman-Kyl Monetary Act, introduced by Congressman Robert Portman (Democrat of Ohio) and Senator John Kyl (Democrat of Arizona), sustaining the gold standard for another ten years.

Event Date: 7-30-2001
Event Description: The Stock Market makes a major rally today, brought about by wise economic moves from the United States and the agreement for free trade between Russia and China. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finishes above 5,000-points today, an historic margin.

Event Date: 8-01-2001
Event Description: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, a very conservative Democrat, has a monument of the Ten Commandments installed in the Rotunda of the Judiciary Building. The state of Alabama, as conservative and religious today as it was in the 1800s, will hear some complaints about the monument, but in the end it will stand.

Event Date: 8-05-2001
Event Description: The leader Cuban Liberation Front, Marxist student José Ramón Machado Ventura, meets with his top advisors in Caracas, Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez is lending the leftist group aid and comfort. The leftists decide that something must be done to stop American involvement in Cuba. A plan is hatched, one which will astound students of both Criminalistics and history.

Event Date: 8-09-2001
Event Description: President Webb signs the Adult Stem Cell Research Act of 2001, introduced by liberal Republican Senator Russ Feingold. This bill expands research into lifesaving adult stem cell research by tripling the money spent to utilize the resource. In addition, the bill offers scholarships for students interested in studying scientific research in college. “This bill is one made of the hopes and dreams of the American people,” President Webb tells the press as he signs the bill, “This act will open up closed doors and save lives.”

Event Date: 8-25-2001
Event Description: Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Republican of Ohio) introduces the Marriage Equality Act, legalizing same-sex marriage in the United States. The bill is not treated seriously by the Democratic controlled Congress, but the bill begins a national debate on the issue of gay marriage. “This is what I was aiming for,” Kucinich tells the press, “The best way to make positive change is to encourage debate.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-08-2001
Event Description: In a special election in Texas’s 13th Congressional district, former Congressman Ron Paul, the Democratic nominee, is easily elected to another term in Congress. “The return of ‘Dr. No’ to congress,” Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners, “Is a welcomed return.”

Event Date: 9-11-2001
Event Description: While vacationing in the Florida Key’s, former President Jack Kemp and former First Lady Joanne Kemp are attacked on their yacht by twenty-three armed men who’s boat flies the flag of the “Red Cuba.” “Somos el Frente cubana de Liberación,” one of the masked men yell as they tie up the former First Couple. “IN your English language,” the ringleader of the group tells the Kemps, “We are the Cuban Liberation Front, and we have taken this capitalist vessel for our organization.” The left-winged terrorist group intends to hold the former President and his wife for a ransom: the United States severs all ties with the right-winged Cuban regime. At the White House, President Webb is informed of the kidnapping of President Kemp and the ransom. “Americans will not capitulate to terrorists,” President Webb tells National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, “We need to responds to this immediately.” Webb, a former Navy man, orders that the United States Navy begin an operation to free President Kemp and capture the terrorists.

Event Date: 9-12-2001
Event Description: With the deadline for the ransom just 24-hours away, Operation Liberty Bell begins. President Kemp’s vessel, with secret service tracking devices aboard it, is tracked to a small island just 15-miles north of the isle of Cuba. A silenced Marine helicopter and three swift boats, holding fifty special operations troops, encircle the yacht and begin the operation. At 3:21 a.m., the battle to save the Kemps begins. The next twenty minutes will be remembered as a blur to President Kemp, but in his memoirs published in 2006, he will write; “I was sure that I would be killed by these mad men who had killed my protection, tied my wife up and beat me with a rifle butt. I was making my peace with the Lord when early in the morning I began to hear some commotion on deck. ‘Those guys must be fighting over something,’ I thought to myself. Then, out of nowhere, the commanding terrorist ran down the steps and untied Joanne and me, and told us to, ‘Go away.’ I would later learn that the marines who had stormed the boat had allowed him to escape to save the life of my wife and I. This was going against orders, but the marines wanted to make sure that their old commander-in-chief would stay alive.”

Event Date: 9-13-2001
Event Description: Word of the Kemp Kidnapping has spread the world round, with media giants rushing for interviews with the Kemps. President Webb himself flies to Miami, Florida, where the Kemps are staying at a military base, to visit them and ask them about their captivity. “The Cuban Liberation Front must be destroyed,” President Webb tells the press as he leaves his meeting with the Kemps, “This act of barbarism and cowardice must not go unanswered.”

Event Date: 9-15-2001
Event Description: President Webb issues, “The Webb Doctrine,” declaring that any nation who aids leftist rebels in Cuba will be, “Considered enemies of the United States.” Immediately nations throughout Central America swear their allegiance to the United States and the incumbent government of Cuba. The Kemp Kidnapping seems to have backfired on the Cuban rebels.

Event Date: 9-22-2001
Event Description: The office of Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart is sent a bomb by socialist sympathizers in Venezuela. While the bomb is discovered by the U.S. Postal Service before it arrives, this raises suspicion from the Webb Administration that Venezuela is actively supporting the Cuban Liberation Front.

Event Date: 10-10-2001
Event Description: In an anti-left wing frenzy following the Kemp Kidnapping and the Webb Doctrine, Congress passes the New Loyalty Act, introduced by Congressman Tom Tancredo (Democrat of Colorado). This act outlaws the Communist Party of the United States, all socialist parties and forces all newspapers and government employees to, “Disavow socialist leanings.” President Webb vetoes the bill, saying that Congress “Has gone overboard in its want to protect the nation.” Congress will not override the veto, as many see that the president is right.

Event Date: 10-20-2001
Event Description: President Webb signs the Latin American Defense Act, introduced by Senator Chuck Hagel (Republican of Nebraska). This bill sends military and humanitarian aid to nations in Central and South America fighting economic recession and leftist uprisings. While some in Congress oppose the bill for intervening in the affairs of other nations, President Webb restates an old position, “If capitalism loses in Latin America, then the U.S. will lose the entire game.”

Event Date: 10-28-2001
Event Description: Senator Mitt Romney (Republican of Massachusetts) declares his candidacy for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002. “I have experience in the U.S. Senate which can help the Bay State in many ways,” Senator Romney declares as he enters the race, “More importantly, I have the business sense to revive the economy of our great state and usher in a new ‘Massachusetts Miracle.’” Many political pundits see Romney’s run for governor as a stepping stone for a run for president in 2004.

Event Description: 11-05-2001
Event Description: Chinese President Hu Jintao pulls China out of the World Trade Organization, declaring that China “Will no longer be dictated to by lesser economic powers.” This is yet another step in the way of Japan, whose corporate philosophy disavows entry into world trade agreements. China, like Japan, will continue all individual trade treaties, keeping the economy in its good shape.

Event Date: 11-06-2001
Event Description: The Republican Party wins both governor races up for grabs today. In Virginia, straight talking businessman Mark Warner narrowly defeats incumbent Governor John Hager, allowed to run for reelection due to his assumption of the office due to the resignation of now President Jim Webb. In New Jersey, State Senate President Richard Codey, the Republican nominee, defeats Acting Governor Donald DiFrancesco by a wide margin. In the New York City Mayoral election, Congressman John F. Kennedy, Junior, the Republican nominee, is defeated by incumbent Mayor Susan Molinari. “The Kennedy name still is tarnished by scandal,” Juan Williams of NPR opines, “One can only wonder if the name will ever be electable again.”

Event Date: 12-01-2001
Event Description: Cuban President Pedro Diaz Lanz declares police action against the city of Bayamo, a strong hold for the Cuban Liberation Front. The next three weeks are a mêlée of horror, distraction and arrests throughout the city. “This is the type of government President Webb supports,” left-winged activist William Aires tells a meeting of Amnesty International in Chicago, Illinois, “A government that burns one of its’ own cities and arrests civilians. President Webb is a coddler of dictators.”

Event Date: 12-29-2001 
Event Description: President Webb meets with President Lanz at the White House to discuss the ongoing crisis in Cuba. “It’s under control,” Lanz tells Webb, “All I need do is break a few more strongholds and the rebels will fold.” “You better keep it under your hat this time,” Web advises the Cuba leader, “The press turns very quickly on right-winged governments who hurt their people. Might I add they turn on them far faster then they do on left-winged ones that do far worse.” President Webb will declare on national television that night that President Lanz “Has agreed to human rights and civic concessions for his people.” While Lanz did agree to this, he also agreed to continue his brutal repression of the Cuban Liberation Front.   

[Хahar 🤔]

Another superb update.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Excellent update

[MasterJedi]

Here's to hoping we can get rid of Chavez in the next update!

[Хahar 🤔]

Here's to hoping we can get rid of Chavez in the next update!

Well, we tried IRL.

Why do you hate freedom?

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-03-2002
Event Description: The Second Cuban Civil War begins today as leftist rebels attack a military installation at Niquero, Cuba. President Lanz declares to the National Assembly in Havana, “Police action is now required to restore order to Southern Cuba and to stop the spread of anarchy.” Immediately, President Webb issues his support of the Cuban government in their, “Strives to restore sanity to troubled areas of their nation.”

Event Date: 1-12-2002
Event Description: Governor Hillary Rodham (Democrat of Illinois) announces that she will not seek the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in 2002. This announcement assures that Senator Richard Durbin (Republican of Illinois) will be easily reelected in November. Governor Rodham, who is term limited, has been biding her time to leave office since she was defeated in the Democratic presidential primary in 2000, ad far as anyone knows, she is going into political oblivion.

Event Date: 1-20-2002
Event Description: President Webb signs the Basic Education First Act, introduced by Congressman Tom Osborne (Democrat of Nebraska), a former high school teacher and college football coach. This program encourages school districts to teach the importance of Phonics in reading and basic problem solving in mathematics. While districts are not forced to accept these standards, those who do are given more federal funding as an incentive to teach the basics in elementary to high school.

Event Date: 1-23-2002
Event Description: Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl blows wide open a scandal looming in Alaska for many months. “Senator Stevens, VECO and a home make over,” the article blares. Pearl reveals that Senator Theodore “Ted” Stevens (Democrat of Alaska) has been taking bribes of cash and home improvements from VECO Corporation, a major Alaskan oil company. Senator Stevens, up for reelection this November, declares that the story is, “A pack of lies taller then Mount McKinley,” but evidence will pile up against “Uncle Ted.” Several Democratic challengers will pop up over the next several weeks, with one, State Representative Sean Parnell, showing the greatest strength in toppling the corrupt giant.

Event Date: 2-08-2002
Event Description: The 2002 Winter Olympics open in Salt Lake City, Utah. Senator Mitt Romney, who had led the 2000 Millennial Celebrations, opens the convention with a speech celebrating the history of the city and the hope for peace in the new 21st Century. “Let us hope and pray that from these honored games the eyes of the world will see that the era of war, mistrust and terror are over,” Senator Romney tells the world. The address is very well received, with MSNBC’s Christopher Matthews opining, “Romney looked like a president.”

Event Date: 2-12-2002
Event Description: The Cuban Liberation Front robs the Cuban National Bank in the city of Las Tunas, a middle sized Cuban town with many wealthy entrepreneurs presiding there. This attack on a hub of capitalism in Cuba is reciprocated two days later by the Casino Worker’s Union in Havana being disintegrated by Presidential decree.

Event Date: 2-15-2002
Event Description: President Webb infuriates environmental groups by approving of three new Nuclear Power Plants in Colorado, Wyoming and Nevada. “We can’t allow a weapon of war to power our cities,” Senator Russ Feingold (Republican of Wisconsin) argued when the decision was debated in Congress, “Nuclear power is very dangerous and expensive, and thus should be met with caution.”

Event Date: 2-21-2002
Event Description: The Cuban city of Banes, which is harboring leftist rebels, is attacked by the Cuban air force, leveling the town square and killing more than 200 people. These types of attacks are what are turning world opinion against both President Pedro Diaz Lanz and American aid of the regime.

Event Date: 3-01-2002
Event Description: The Odyssey, the Mars rover sent to find a suitable place for a manned space vessel to land, returns pictures of a perfect area for landing on the Red Planet in 2005. “Today we have come one step closer to landing an American on another planet in God’s universe,” President Webb tells the American Aeronautics League Convention in Washington, D.C., “Soon American astronauts will see the planet Mars from up close.”

Event Date: 3-09-2002
Event Description: President Jackson welcomes former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez at the White House. Perez is a leading anti-Chavez figure in Venezuela as well as a close ally of President Jack Kemp, the last Democrat to hold the White House before President Webb. The two discuss a need for change in Venezuela, but little else. “The meeting was very cordial,” Press Secretary Tony Snow tells the press that day, “As well as one outlining the president’s positions on Central and South America, but little else.”

Event Date: 3-10-2002
Event Description: In a clear sign that President Webb has allies in South America, Colombia elects a conservative, anti-socialist legislature today. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had tried to intervene on behalf on left-winged candidates, but his meddling turned off many voters to the socialist cause.

Event Date: 3-16-2002
Event Description: Attorney General Jim Gilmore begins the prosecution of the Cuban rebels who participated in the Kemp Kidnapping of September 11-13th, 2001. “They will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Attorney General Gilmore tells the press, “Justice will be served in the fullest.”

Event Date: 3-25-2002
Event Description: President Webb signs a revamped version of the Interstate Highway Act. Introduced by Senator Alphonse D’Amato (Democrat of New York), this bill begins both a renovation of America’s interstate roads as well as creating a Congressional committee to study the practicality of interstate rail transportation as an alternative to driving. “We need to take on our nation’s addiction to driving,” Senator D’Amato declares, “While I support the rights of Americans to drive and transport themselves the way they like, I also realize that there are possible alternatives.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-01-2002
Event Description: In Reicito, Venezuela, General Angel Vivas Perdomo meets with former President Carlos Andres Perez, fresh from his visit to the White House. The two men discuss a military coup against President Hugo Chavez. “The man is hated by the military,” General Perdomo assures President Perez, “While you are still supported by the ranks.” “Could we really purge our nation of that Red devil once and for all?” Perez asks the general. “Certainly,” the general responds, “I can assure you that Mr. Webb will not try to stop us.”

Event Date: 4-06-2002
Event Description Undersecretary of State Otto Reich meets with Venezuelan businessman Pedro Carmona at the Watergate Hotel. The two men discuss whether the Webb Administration will support a military coup against President Chavez. “We won’t give you weapons I’m sure,” Reich tells Carmona, “But we won’t oppose any move against Chavez. I can also assure you that we will recognize any pro-American government.” With this assurance, Carmona phones President Perez and General Perdomo and tells them, “This is going to be a cake walk.”

Event Date: 4-11-2002
Event Description: While speaking against American involvement in Cuba, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is shot three times by an army sniper. The bullets hit his neck, forehead and right-ear, killing the president instantly. Immediately, General Angel Perdomo takes the stage at the speech, declaring, “A new Venezuela has come!” The next twelve hours are a blur in Caracas, with former President Carlos Perez taking the oath of office to become President of Venezuela once again and the creation of a military state until the chaos can be sorted out. The new military junta is led by President Perez and General Perdomo, and is immediately recognized by Cuban President Pedro Lanz.

Event Date: 4-12-2002
Event Description: The world reacts in amazement, disdain and celebration over the assassination of Hugo Chavez and the installation of a junta in Venezuela. “Thanks are to the almighty!” Senator Jesse Helms celebrates, “The evil of socialism has been expunged from yet another nation. May glorious Americanism be spread the world over!” Senator Helms’ joyous response to the news is matched by Congressman Charles Rangel’s own skeptic view of the situation. “I would hope that President Webb and the Democrats had nothing to do with overthrowing a foreign power,” Congressman Rangel tells the New York Times, “But then again, this is the party of Bobby Kennedy.” President Webb immediately issues recognition of the new Venezuelan government, despite massive outcry against this move by leftists around the globe.

Event Date: 4-20-2002
Event Description: Former President Carlos Perez is sworn in as President of Venezuela once again, this time under a new constitution protecting the rights of free trade, capital enterprise as well as forming strong foreign ties to the United States. General Angel Perdomo is made Defense Minister and immediately begins working with Secretary of State Moynihan to form a mutual protection alliance with the United States.

Event Date: 4-21-2002
Event Description: Socialist President Lionel Jospin is reelected over Michèle Alliot-Marie, the leader of the Rally for the Republic Party. President Jospin, despite several confrontations with European neighbors, is respected by the French people for his refusal to join the European Union. The Rally for the Republic Party is seen as the pro-European Union Party by French voters, increasing appeal to President Jospin.

Event Date: 4-30-2002
Event Description: In a rushed election, Venezuelan voters approve of the new government and constitution in a referendum. Though many in the world community look at the lopsided 88-12% vote as crooked, President Webb endorses this victory as, “The mandate of the people for change.”

Event Date: 5-01-2002
Event Description: The socialist holiday of May Day is marked by left-wing terror in Venezuela and Cuba. “Chavistas”, as they are called by the new right-winged regime, take to the streets in protest against the Perez Administration. These protests evolve into a riot when three policemen are killed by a bomb hurled into a crowd near the town square. While no one is sure who threw the bomb, the military blames the leftist protesters and begins smashing heads together. In Cuba, the capital of Havana is racked by mortar fire from the Cuban Liberation Front. The National Library, the Hall of the Republic and the President’s Mansion are damaged by the attacks. In both nations the military quells the uprisings, but the incidents of May Day 2002 show the Webb Administration one thing: the revolution is not over in the Americas.

Event Date: 5-05-2002
Event Description: Senator Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination for Governor of Massachusetts, defeating State Treasurer Shannon O’Brien by a 52-48% margin, far closer then the pundits expected. O’Brien was able to paint Romney as an opportunist who was seeking the Governor’s Mansion as a stepping stone for the White House, which led to the close result. The Democratic candidate, former State Senator Paul Celucci, is seen as a sacrificial lamb in a state which has not elected a Democratic governor since 1978.

Event Date: 5-14-2002
Event Description: Former Vice-President President Jimmy Carter arrives in Cuba for a 5-day visit with President Pedro Diaz Lanz. Baseball Commissioner and former Senator Fidel Castro travels with the former Vice-President. During the tour of the war torn island, the Cuban Liberation Front will try to intercept the convoy with the American dignitaries, but fail.

Event Date: 5-20-2002
Event Description: Former Senator Mike Gravel (Republican of Alaska) announces his candidacy for President of the United States. “Why is the United States messing around in the affairs of nations in the Americas?” Gravel asks supporters in his announcement address, “This is not what our founder’s wanted. We do not need more right-winged pet dictators, as we already have enough in the Middle East. We do not need them in our own hemisphere.”

Event Date: 6-06-2002
Event Description: President Webb signs an executive order ending all economic sanctions against Venezuela, which had been established in the year 2000. Immediately oil companies and banking firms begin opening up shop in the South American nation. “Free trade and capitalism is returning to our nation,” President Perez tells his people in a televised address, “Soon our struggling economy will once again be the pearl of South America.”

Event Date: 6-15-2002
Event Description: Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham (Democrat of California) introduces the Small Business Liability Relief Act, which will pass both houses of Congress and be signed into law by President Webb. The bill provides funds for workman’s compensation and legal defense for small businesses that have belligerent workers who file lawsuits against them. While unions are outraged by the legal defense fund, small businessmen begin a strong shift to the Democratic Party.

Event Date: 6-24-2002
Event Description: In a surprise raid on the city of Santiago, Cuba, six of the top eight leaders of the Cuban Liberation Front are killed by the Cuban military. Despite this success, the leader of the CLF, José Ramón Machado Ventura, is still alive and continuing to find support for his revolution.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-01-2002
Event Description: A referendum by the African Union to disband is voted down. “For the first time in decades Africa is a continent with a glimmer of hope,” President Webb tells the African Union soon after this decision, “It is heartening to see that the nations of Africa see this hope as I do.”

Event Date: 7-08-2002
Event Description: France once again votes against joining the European Union, making it one of three mainland Europe nations which have not joined the ever growing EU. President Lionel Jospin has proven to be a strong bulwark against the pressures of the European community.

Event Date: 7-12-2002
Event Description: Governor Tom Vilsack (Republican of Iowa) becomes the second governor in the country to sign a form of statewide health care into effect. Much like Badger Care in Wisconsin, HawkCare in Iowa will insure all children from infancy to the age of twelve, giving needed early health check ups to thousands of poor Iowan families. Other states are expected to follow suit, including Illinois, which is governed by the archconservative Governor Hillary Rodham. “Just because I’m conservative doesn’t mean I’m heartless,” she tells the press as she begins pushing for an Illinois child health care bill.

Event Date: 7-14-2002
Event Description: President Lionel Jospin narrowly escapes an assassination while attending a Bastille Day celebration in Paris. On this most celebrated day for the left, right-wing assassin Maxime Brunerie fires three shots from a Parisian hotel, one of which wounds Minister of the Interior Paul Quiles. President Webb, sensing that the far-left worldwide may try to tie his White House to the assassination attempt, goes on world television that night and tells the world, “Tonight I stand with France and President Jospin as they stand against terror and madness. Bastille Day is a day that French citizens and Americans treasure as victory over such horrors, and that is why we condemn the cowardly acts in Paris today.”

Event Date: 7-26-2002
Event Description: President Webb tells telecommunication giant WorldCom that he will not issue a bail out for the failing company. “The government can not get in the business of bailing out failing private industries,” President Webb tells the press, “As soon as we do that then capitalism no longer exists in America.” WorldCom will file Chapter 11 bankruptcy before breaking up into smaller companies in January 2003.

Event Date: 8-02-2002
Event Description: Governor Christopher Cox is given a victory in California as Attorney General Dan Lungren wins the Democratic nomination for Governor of California, defeating businessman William “Bill” Simon among others. On the Republican side, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan defeats former Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis, State Controller Cruz Bustamante and Congressman Sam Farr to oppose Lungren in November. The race in California will be expensive and negative, leaving many Californians apathetic towards the race.

Event Date: 8-10-2002
Event Description: In its first show of real unity, the European Union begins disaster relief for those affected by the disastrous and destructive Central European Floods.

Event Date: 8-19-2002
Event Description: President Pedro Diaz Lanz is assassinated by a car bomber as his motorcade rides through Guantanamo, Cuba. The assassin, 22-year old Ciro Gutierrez, masqueraded as an American solider at Guantanamo Naval Base, giving him the time and equipment needed to perform this perfect attack, The blast which claimed the life of the Cuban president kills three American servicemen, leading to an outcry from Capitol hill against the, as Congressman Tom Tancredo puts it, “The cold blooded murder of our servicemen and American allies.” The new Cuban President, Infante Segrera, calls on the United States to, “Avenge our fallen leader and your fallen soldiers.”

Event Date: 8-21-2002
Event Description: Debate begins in the U.S. House of Representatives over issuing force against the Cuban Liberation Front. While many in Congress agree that something should be done to avenge the attacks, Congressman Chet Edwards (Republican of Texas) argues that military intervention may be the worse way to avenge the deaths. “A unilateral invasion of Cuba would kill far more men and women then the three heroes at Guantanamo Bay would have wanted,” Congressman Edwards argues, “All an invasion will achieve in doing is starting a costly quagmire on an island of no strategic interest to us and angering the world community while doing it. The U.S. military is not a tool for revenge, and should never be used unless all measures of peace have failed.” Congressman Edwards’ argument turns several minds against a strike against leftists in Cuba, but not nearly enough. The resolution passes by an overwhelming margin in the House of Representatives, with the Senate following suit three days later.

Event Date: 9-01-2002
Event Description: The first American forces, commanded by General Tommy Franks, land at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There mission is clear: Destroy the Cuban Liberation Front. On the world stage, protests are held in Germany, France and the United Kingdom against the intervention and even former President Reginald Jackson comments that the Webb Administration “Is embracing cowboy tactics in Cuba.”

Event Date: 9-04-2002
Event Description: American infantry attack CLF rebels outside of the city of Baracca, Cuba, which has an active worker’s rights community. The CLF commander, left-wing rebel for all causes Luis Posada Carriles, has his outnumbered force dig in trenches around the city, forcing some 2,500 American troops to fight from a far distance, allowing an orderly escape of Carriles and fifteen close associates. While the American press calls this a major victory due to the number of rebels killed and captured, a major player for the leftists is still free.

Event Date: 9-11-2002
Event Description: The one year anniversary of the Kemp Kidnappings is marked by American forces taking and then raising a CLF encampment outside of Moa, Cuba. Slowly, yet surely, the Cuban Liberation Army is moving north to more unfriendly territory nearer the capital city of Havana.

Event Date: 9-20-2002
Event Description: In the United States, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, a perennial leftist favorite, introduces a motion to censure President James Webb for, “Unconstitutionally and immorally waging war against an ally.” This motion receives support from the World Worker’s Congress, the Green Party and other socialist and social-democratic organizations around the world, but not very much in the U.S. Congress. “The little elf from Ohio wants to show us he’s important again,” Speaker of the House J.D. Hayworth mockingly tells his Congressional comrades, “But once again, he fails. Perhaps he should stop being a Congressman and become a dentist?”

Event Date: 9-24-2002
Event Description: In the increasingly negative race for U.S. Senate in the state of Minnesota, incumbent Senator James Oberstar (Republican of Minnesota), elected in 1996 after Senator Wellstone was made the running-mate of President Jackson, is attacked by his Democratic opponent, Congressman Gil Gutknecht, as “Che Oberstar” in a mailing. Senator Oberstar, who had voted against using force in Cuba in September, is portrayed in a military beret and in front of a red flag, just like infamous communist revolutionary Che Guevara. “This is a childish, stupid campaign stunt,” Senator Oberstar tells Congressman Gutknecht on a debate on Meet the Press, “And I think you should apologize for it.” “No,” Gutknecht responds, “You should apologize for not supporting our troops and letting terrorist attacks against them go unpunished.” It is these types of ad hominem assaults which keep Senator Oberstar narrowly ahead in all the polls.

Event Date: 9-30-2002
Event Description: The Cuban military massacres thirty unarmed union factory workers in Havana, leading to labor protests around the world. “It is time for President Webb to get out of bed with the thugs in the Cuban government cabal!” former Secretary of Commerce Ralph Nader declares at a Pro-Union Labor rally in Washington, D.C., “It is time for the united labor movement to oppose those who stand with Cuba’s right-winged regime.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-05-2002
Event Description: President Webb and Cuban President Emiliano Infante meet in Panama City, Florida. The two men discuss humanitarian reforms on the island nation, all of which President Infante agrees with. Infante, born a poor son of a fisherman, is not the cold hearted killer that men like Fulgencio Batista and Pedro Diaz Lanz were, but far more of family man and a progressive leader for the lawless and cruel Cuban nation. He aggress to order the military to end attacks on union ran factories, legalizes all forms of organized labor on the island and begins preparations for a new constitutional convention in Havana. These changes will prove to be sufficient in not only improving the world’s opinion of the Cuban government, but they also begin to turn more Cubans away from the CFL.

Event Date: 10-14-2002
Event Description: “A Song for My Sister” opens in theatres. This dramatic film tells the story of John Campbell Harrison, a fictional resident of the Town of Clear Lake, Minnesota. His life is marked by one tragedy, the death of his older sister Clara, portrayed by Ellen Page. As a 23-year old, Harrison, portrayed by Toby Maguire, is drafted to fight in the Russo-Chinese War and experiences head trauma when his swift boat is blown up by Chinese bombers. This head trauma causes Harrison to continually fail in civilian life due to the fact that it causes him to see his long dead sister, who sings the old Scottish ballad “Barbara Allen”, the song that she was murmuring as she died more than twenty years ago. This film is critically acclaimed, and brings up the issue of posttraumatic stress disorder’s affects on soldiers returning from the battlefields of the world.

Event Date: 10-26-2002
Event Description: Cuban Liberation Front leader José Ramón Machado Ventura is killed in a firefight with American Marines outside of the city of Las Turas. The fifteen hour firefight with Cuban revolutionaries leaves twenty-nine American soldiers dead, as well as an additional ten severely wounded. Despite these numbers, the figurehead of the Cuban Liberation Front is now dead, leaving the revolutionary body in disarray.

Event Date: 10-31-2002
Event Description: In a last ditch attempt to hurl back advancing American forces, the CLF’s last powerful leader, Luis Posada Carriles, begins a three day campaign of terrorism throughout central Cuba. This assault will be destructive, but it will also be contained and put down by joint Cuban and American troops.

Event Date: 11-05-2002
Event Description: With the economy finally working its way out of a nasty recession from 2000-2001 and American forces completing their task in Cuba, President Webb is awarded an unusual mandate: the incumbent party gains seats in Congressional midterm elections. The Democratic Party picks up four Senate seats, South Dakota, Missouri, New Jersey and Nevada, though Senator Oberstar is reelected in Minnesota by a 52-45% margin. Governor Norm Coleman, a Republican, is reelected by a 67-31% margin over State Senator Joe Gimsey, the Democratic sacrificial lamb. Governor Coleman is seen as a front-runner for the Republican nomination for president in 2004. In California, Mayor Richard Riordan defeats Attorney General Dan Lungren by a very narrow margin of less than 12,000-votes. Lungren, now a twice defeated candidate for governor, chooses to bow out of the race respectfully, telling his supporters, “The state has been left in capable hands with Mayor Riordan.” In Massachusetts, Senator Mitt Romney is elected governor by a 59-41% margin, cementing him as the leading Republican for the 2004 presidential nomination. Of note in a race for U.S. House, Congressman Chet Edwards, a rare Southern Republican, is defeated for reelection by Democratic State Representative Arlene Wohlgemuth. Congressman Edwards’ refusal to support force against Cuba turned out to be his undoing, but Edwards shows no sign of regret at his decision. “I did what I felt was right,” Edwards tells his supporters as he concedes the race, “I knew that you would want nothing less.”   

Event Date: 11-11-2002
Event Description: The Cuban Liberation Front is rendered devoid of leaders when U.S. marines capture Luis Posada Carriles in the small fishing town of San Carlos, Cuba. Carriles will be tried for treason in Havana, Cuba, and found guilty along with many other revolutionaries. This major victory ends most intensive fighting in Cuba, thus ending the Cuban Civil War.

Event Date: 11-20-2002
Event Description: General Tommy Franks meets with President Webb at the White House. The two men discuss withdrawal of U.S. forces from the island of Cuba, as the civil war seems to have come to an end. “We’ve accomplished our objective, Mr. President,” General Franks tells President Webb, “It is time for us to go.” The president agrees to begin withdrawal of the 25,000 U.S. troops stationed in Cuba.

Event Date: 12-05-2002
Event Description: Senator John Kerry (Republican of Massachusetts), reelected last November with more than eighty percent of the vote, declares his candidacy for the 2004 Republican presidential nomination. “President Webb promised a humble foreign policy and balanced budgets,” Senator Kerry states in his announcement address from the Joseph Kennedy, Junior, Presidential Library in Boston, “However he gave us government deficits, foreign coups and invasions of our own allies. President Webb has been a miserable failure, and we need to admit this and look for a better man for the Oval Office. I hope to be that better man.” Kerry’s combative announcement appeals to partisan Republicans, but is looked upon as a bitter address by independents.

Event Date: 12-19-2002
Event Description: The first installments of American troops arrive home from Cuba. All will be home by March 2003, helping bolster President Webb’s popularity. The president’s popularity has led many prominent Republicans to already announce that they will not seek the White House in 2004. Former Vice-President Paul Wellstone, former Secretary of Defense Colin Powell, Senator Evan Bayh (Republican of Indiana), Senator Mike DeWine (Republican of Ohio), Governor Judd Gregg (Republican of New Hampshire) and House Minority Leader Stenny Hoyer (Republican of Maryland) have all announced that they will not seek the White House in 2004. 

[HappyWarrior]

I hope that a Marylander(You mentioned Franchot earlier) can be on the Republican ticket in 2004, even if its not at the top.

[Хahar 🤔]

The world is going downhill again.