2008: A More Competitive Primary

[Kingpoleon]

POD: John Kerry chooses Howard Dean to rally the base.

2004 looks like this:

279 - 259


Sen. Hillary Clinton(NY)
Sen. Barack Obama(IL)
Sen. Evan Bayh(IN)
Sen. Howard Dean(VT):
Howard Dean: 60.6%
Brian Dubie: 38.2%

Fmr. Gov. Bill Richardson(NM)
Gov. Deval Patrick(MA):

2006: Deval Patrick - 56.1%
/Marty Walsh - 46.9%
Jane Swift - 33.9%
/Gabriel Gomez - 45.3%
Joseph DeNucci - 9.6%
/Daniel Grabuskis - 7.7%


Secretary: Tim Murray - 53.0%
Attorney General: Niki Tsongas - 52.1%
Treasurer: Charlie Baker - 49.9%
Auditor: Scott Brown - 49.6%

Dean focuses with a laser eye on New Hampshire. Patrick sends surrogates to New Hampshire and makes occasional visits but focuses on South Carolina. Bayh uses a magnifying glass on Iowa to rally support. The two front-runners split between places.

What do you think happens?

In my opinion:

Obama, Clinton, and Richardson mostly run against each other. They fail to win any states. At the convention, Dean comes in a bit behind Patrick. Bayh slowly chips away at their support. Finally, having received 48.6% of the vote, Dean releases his delegates. Bayh wins and picks Dean as his Vice President. In the end, the following cabinet occurs:

President: Birch Bayh(D-IN)
Vice President: Howard Dean(D-VT)

Secretary of State: Bill Richardson(D-NM)
    National Security Advisor: Joe Biden(D-DE)
Secretary of the Treasury: Jon Corzine(D-NJ)
    Chairman of the Federal Reserve: Andrew Cuomo(D-NY)
Attorney General: Deval Patrick(D-MA)[2009-2015]

Patrick, meanwhile, is appointed to the Supreme Court in 2015 after Chief Justice Roberts has a heart attack and resigns.

The Supreme Court after Hodges v. Obergefell, 2015:

Chief Justice: Deval Patrick(MA), Bayh

Associate Justice: Antonin Scalia, Reagan
Associate Justice: Anthony Kennedy, Reagan
Associate Justice: Clarence Thomas, H. W. Bush
Associate Justice: Ruth Ginsberg, Clinton
Associate Justice: Stephen Breyer, Clinton
Associate Justice: Samuel Alito, W. Bush
Associate Justice: Andrew Cuomo, Bayh
Associate Justice: Kamala Harris, Bayh

[tmthforu94]

Birch Bayh was 80 years old in 2008. I think you mean Evan...

[bagelman]

After not just a more competitive '08 primary but also a more competitive general election, President Evan Bayh serves for four years before being defeated by Mitt Romney in 2012. At this point we'd be speculating on Obama's run in '16 against incumbent President Mitt Romney.

[rpryor03]

Birch Bayh was 80 years old in 2008. I think you mean Evan...

His legal first name is Birch.

Birch Evans Bayh, III

[Kingpoleon]

Birch Bayh was 80 years old in 2008. I think you mean Evan...

His legal first name is Birch.

Birch Evans Bayh, III

Correct. As his formal name, I merely used it in the Cabinet.

Could someone explain why Bayh is a worse GE candidate than Obama?

[WVdemocrat]

Birch Bayh was 80 years old in 2008. I think you mean Evan...

His legal first name is Birch.

Birch Evans Bayh, III

Correct. As his formal name, I merely used it in the Cabinet.

Could someone explain why Bayh is a worse GE candidate than Obama?

He is a moderate hero. People wanted change in 2008.

[bagelman]

Birch Bayh was 80 years old in 2008. I think you mean Evan...

His legal first name is Birch.

Birch Evans Bayh, III

Correct. As his formal name, I merely used it in the Cabinet.

Could someone explain why Bayh is a worse GE candidate than Obama?

From Wikipedia:

On February 15, 2010, Bayh announced he would not seek reelection to the Senate in 2010. After leaving the Senate, he became a partner with the law and lobbying firm McGuireWoods in the firm's Washington, D.C., office,[1] and also became a senior adviser with Apollo Global Management. He was hired as a Fox News contributor in March 2011.[2] In June 2011 he became a messaging adviser for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.[3] On October 27, 2011, it was announced that Berry Plastics Corp. appointed Bayh to its board of directors.[4] Bayh also serves on the board of directors of Marathon Petroleum, the 2011 spin-off from Marathon Oil.

Is that the kind of person that would make a good president? A good campaigner? A good anything? This guy is part of the problem of corruption and lobbying in the government and things would only get worse with him as POTUS. I think it would be bad enough that people would look back towards the GOP, who naturally would be party against cronyism in Washington come 2012.

[Kingpoleon]

Birch Bayh was 80 years old in 2008. I think you mean Evan...

His legal first name is Birch.

Birch Evans Bayh, III

Correct. As his formal name, I merely used it in the Cabinet.

Could someone explain why Bayh is a worse GE candidate than Obama?

From Wikipedia:

On February 15, 2010, Bayh announced he would not seek reelection to the Senate in 2010. After leaving the Senate, he became a partner with the law and lobbying firm McGuireWoods in the firm's Washington, D.C., office,[1] and also became a senior adviser with Apollo Global Management. He was hired as a Fox News contributor in March 2011.[2] In June 2011 he became a messaging adviser for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.[3] On October 27, 2011, it was announced that Berry Plastics Corp. appointed Bayh to its board of directors.[4] Bayh also serves on the board of directors of Marathon Petroleum, the 2011 spin-off from Marathon Oil.

Is that the kind of person that would make a good president? A good campaigner? A good anything? This guy is part of the problem of corruption and lobbying in the government and things would only get worse with him as POTUS. I think it would be bad enough that people would look back towards the GOP, who naturally would be party against cronyism in Washington come 2012.

... Because he would later be a lobbyist, he'd be easily convinced?

Your Governor served at Lehman Brothers, but you like him.