Happy Little Accidents

[OBD]

Coming Soon...

[erſatz-york]

Coming Soon...

[CookieDamage]

[President of the great nation of 🏳️‍⚧️]

Coming Soon...

[OBD]

2000 Election Coverage
12:10 AM

Anchor 1: Hello, and welcome back to our coverage of the 2000 Election! We have just called Washington State for Al Gore. This makes the electoral tally 237 to 246, with Bush leading by 9.

Anchor 2: Let's look at the states still outstanding; Oregon, New Mexico, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Florida.  Gore is currently leading in Florida, Wisconsin and Iowa, Bush is leading in Oregon and New Mexico. If Gore can hold his lead in Florida, and win Wisconsin, he will become the 43rd President of the United States. He can also win by taking Iowa, then winning either Oregon or New Mexico. So, would you say Gore is favored at this point?

Anchor 1: For sure, yes. But Bush and his campaign team still feel confident about this election, we are hearing.

Anchor 2: Wait! We have a major call to make, in the Florida Senate Race. Bob Ross, the famous television artist, has defeated Congressman Bill McCollum narrowly. Here are the numbers.

2000 Florida Senate Election
Bob Ross 49.01% [DEMOCRATIC GAIN]
Bill McCollum 48.22%

Anchor 1: With this win, the Democrats are guaranteed at least 50 senate seats, and will have the majority if Gore also wins.

Anchor 2: But wow! Senator Bob Ross! I don't think any of us saw THAT one coming.

Anchor 1: Well, after his show was ended during that lymphoma scare during 1994 (Author's note: Bob Ross is falsely diagnosed in this TL, and doesn't actually have lymphoma, thus he is alive in 2000), he decided to turn towards politics. And thanks to his popularity and name recognition in Florida, his home state, he was able to defeat Bill Nelson in the primary, then McCollum in the general, as we saw today.

Anchor 2: We're now taking a short break. Stay tuned. 

[Jaguar4life]

I see it’s kinda like My TL. Mr High Socks in the White House

[OBD]

2000 Election Coverage
2:00 AM

Anchor 1: Hello, viewers. At this time, we can make several major projections. First and foremost: Al Gore has won Florida. This is a major win for him, as it brings him within 8 electoral votes of the presidency. Remember, we projected Florida for him earlier tonight - I mean yesterday - but Bush came close enough for us to withdraw it.

Anchor 2: I guess this means the major networks are vindicated, somewhat. We also have one more, less important, projection. George W. Bush will win New Mexico. Despite New Mexico's move left in recent years, Bush will keep the state redblue tonight.

Anchor 1: The electoral vote count is now 262 for Gore to 251 for Bush. Bush must win all three states outstanding to win today. Al Gore needs to win just Wisconsin. For your information, Gore is currently holding razor-thin leads in all three states.

Anchor 2: If Bush wins Wisconsin, which is possible at this point, an electoral college tie is possible if Iowa and Oregon don't vote for the same candidate.

Anchor 1: We will now take a short break. Stay tuned for more.

[OBD]

2000 Election Coverage
3:00 AM

Anchor 1: Hello, viewers. At this time, we have a major, major two projections. First, we project Iowa will go to Al Gore, meaning Bush will, at most, be able to tie Gore. And secondly, Wisconsin will go to George Bush, which keeps his hopes alive.

Anchor 2: Now, it all hinges on Oregon. If Al Gore wins, he wins outright. But if Bush wins, the election will be thrown to the House, where he is likely to win due to the Republicans likely holding the majority.

Anchor 1: For your information, Gore is holding a razor-thin lead in Oregon right now, and we may not be able to call the state for a while.

Anchor 2: At this point, I say Oregon goes to Gore and he wins the presidency, but ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE, I guess.

[OBD]

2000 Election Coverage
Final Results

Vice President Al GORE (D-TN) / Senator Joe LIEBERMAN (D-CT) 48.5% 276 EVs
Governor George W. BUSH (R-TX / Fmr. Def. Sec. Dick CHENEY (R-NE)
Next up: Prologue Part II: 2004 election results

[OBD]

The Al Gore presidency was largely seen as a failure. The first two years were highlighted by the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol and a nuclear weapons deal with Russia, but also the lack of any significant legislation being passed, due to the Republican house blocking the President's every move. When Republicans seized the Senate in the 2002 midterms, the problem was compounded. While Gore managed to block a bill banning late-term abortions, he ultimately failed to advance the liberal agenda.

Advancing from the Republican field came Rudy Giuliani and John Kasich of Ohio. Highly favored from the start due to the unpopularity of President Gore and the fact that the Democrats had controlled the White House for 12 years, they never trailed and won in a landslide victory.

END OF PROLOGUE

[OBD]

Sometime in Late October, 2007

Senator Ross relaxed at his home in New Smyrna Beach, after a long week in the Senate. He read over a recent poll by CBS, of the 2008 Democratic primaries. It appeared Senator Clinton was leading against Senator Obama and Senator Edwards, by a huge margin.

He was also looking over a recent approval poll. President Giuliani had 49% approval and 44% disapproval, solid numbers. Evidently, it would be tough for a Democrat to unseat Giuliani, considering the rarity of one-termers and the fact that the previous president, Gore, was a one-termer.

Suddenly, his phone rang. He picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi Bob. It's me, Mike."

"Oh hi! It's good to hear from you. How's Arkansas been treating you?"

"Pretty well, actually. And you?"

"It's a tiring job, and to be honest I miss painting happy little trees. But, I'm doing fine, and I'll probably run for re-election one or two more times."

"Hmm, speaking of elections...have you seen the theoretical polls between Giuliani and the potential Democratic candidates?"

"No, not yet. Tell me more."

"It's not looking great. Hillary is down by 6 points, John is down by 7. Obama is our best hope, but he's still down by 4 points."

"Huh. What do you think we should do about this."

"I know the perfect solution. You should run."

"Wait. What?"

"You're a good candidate. You have name recognition, and some Senate experience under your belt. You can also appeal to the South well, since your political positions align pretty well with states like Arkansas. If you pick an ideal running mate, you could probably even win a state like Tennessee."

"Hold up. Before I even pick a running mate, I need to get through the primary as a moderate. Is that even possible?"

"Yeah. I conducted some informal polling in Iowa, and you're within 3 points of Clinton. If you enter now, you can make that up easily with your charm and name recognition."

"Hmm, I'm intrigued. I'll think about this."
 

[OBD]

Iowa Caucus: Preview
In a heated Democratic race, four candidates will face off in a very contentious caucus, as well as a few other minor candidates. The current frontrunner is Barack Obama, who is leading narrowly over two other senators; Hillary Clinton of New York and Bob Ross of Florida. John Edwards of North Carolina trails in fourth, and other candidates have no more than 5% of the vote each.

Poll
Barack Obama 24%
Hillary Clinton 21%
Bob Ross 21%
John Edwards 16%
Bill Richardson 5%
Joe Biden 4%
Christopher Dodd 2%
Dennis Kucinich 1%
Others 6%

Overall, Iowa seems to be favorable territory for Obama, whose home state, Illinois, is just next door. However, beware of an upset from either Clinton or Ross. Ultimately, since Iowa divides it's delegates proportionally, and the race is within about 5 points, a win is probably more of a moral one than a numerical one.

[Duke of York]

President Bob Ross? What an amazing idea. He'd have such wisdom and would fill the world with happy little trees, treat all wildlife like friends and make the world a happy place. Count me in! Perhaps he paints in his spare time in the White House. I believe Eisenhower did.