1988 Primaries

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Metzenbaum!

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Remember that at this point, Gore was basically a Southern conservative.  He opposed federal funding for abortion, opposed gun control, supported school prayer, opposed LGBT rights (and said he'd refuse to accept any donations from gay rights groups), etc.  Metzenbaum may've had a rough first term, but at least he's fighting the good fight.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Remember that at this point, Gore was basically a Southern conservative.  He opposed federal funding for abortion, opposed gun control, supported school prayer, opposed LGBT rights (and said he'd refuse to accept any donations from gay rights groups), etc.  Metzenbaum may've had a rough first term, but at least he's fighting the good fight.

That's real life though. Couldn't things be different in this TL?

In theory sure, but it doesn't seem like anything has happened that would cause them to be different.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Even Buchanan could take control of the smouldering wreck of the 2000 Reform party so I think it's realistic for the reincarnation of the Worker's party to be much different than its pre-LaRouche state. In this scenario Perot's money and recognition could easily let him win their nomination in a bid to revive the party, even if he isn't a good fit for them.

As for the primaries: I voted for the incumbent president.

Edit: Now that I see the results, I'm hoping for a Metzenbaum vs. Paul showdown.

Reform Party was fledgling party lost without Perot and vulnerable to nearly any figure it could get.


The Worker's Party was a party that was all but doomed the moment Wallace was nominated in '64, and had RFK not turned out incompetent, '68 would've been it.

But RFK gave 'em a chance,...and that left them with two chances. One victim a split left of doom, and one left to the same artificial turf that IRL '76 gave for Dems in the South with Carter. And even then, even with DA being the party of RFK the Useless and Taft's low ratings....it still wasn't enough.




As for Gore, he's probably huge on education and environmental reform and technological advances. And if anything like real life still, he will probably shift leftwards...especially if given a leftist running mate such as  former Sen. Paul Tsongas or one of the last California governors (Jerry Brown or Tom Bradley, the latter of whom probably defeated Deukmeijian just because of climate.).

All of these factors make a slightly rightward trend here forgivable

Why would a left-leaning runningmate make him flip-flop on most social issues?  Also Brown is still in his weird anti-tax conservative phase and Tsongas really isn't all that liberal IIRC.  Tom Bradley lost because of racism more than anything else.  If anything, I could see Gore picking a liberal runningmate in an attempt to appease the left which would likely regard him with considerable suspicion.