President Sarah Palin

[Anthony]

Here is my vision of what a Palin presidency would look like...

On December 5th, 2012, nearly a month after the 2012 presidential election, the Ohio Supreme Court declared the Republican nominee, former Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska, the winner of the state of Ohio, giving her just enough votes to become President of the United States. Many Americans, including some conservatives, were shocked over the results of the election. Even with the unemployment rate hovering at around 9%, several pundits were predicting that incumbent President Barack Obama would be able to win a narrow victory over the former governor. However, Palin was able to convince voters that the actual unemployment rate was actually at around 16%, and that Obama broke a promise to keep unemployment from rising above 8%. Palin was able to win literally just enough electoral votes to win the presidential election, becoming the second Republican president in a row to be elected president without winning the popular vote.

On January 20th, 2013, many Americans gathered at the nation's capital to witness the inauguration of America's first female president. First, at about 11:30am, Vice President-elect Scott Brown was sworn in as the 48th Vice President of the United States. And at approximately 12:00pm, President-elect Palin was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. During her inaugural address, Palin refused to use a teleprompter, and instead chose to use notes she had written on her arms. In her speech, she called for an end to American socialism, a return to the common-sense conservative values that Palin said this nation was founded upon, and included a total of 16 references to former President Ronald Reagan.

During her first days in office, Palin signed executive orders banning funding for abortions and stem-cell research. She also deployed an additional 45,000 troops to Afghanistan, sent military aid to Israel, and ordered additional military actions in countries such as Yemen and Pakistan. Shorty after taking office, Palin sent a $3 trillion tax cut proposal to Congress. The tax cut, which was mainly designed to benefit the wealthy, narrowly passed Congress with little Democratic support. Democratic leaders in Congress, such as House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, criticized Republicans for using the budget reconciliation process to pass the tax cut through the Senate, despite repeatedly criticizing Democrats in the past for trying to use it to pass former President Obama's health care overhaul, which never passed Congress.

Palin also was able to persuade Congress to pass one of the most conservative federal budgets in American history using the reconciliation process. The budget included deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid, additional tax cuts for the rich, the largest increase in military spending in history, and cut all funding that was related to President Obama's stimulus package or the TARP program. Though Palin's budget passed Congress, it proved to be significantly unpopular with the American public, causing Palin's popularity, along with support for much of Palin's agenda, to fall significantly.

I'll update this later on with more information. Stay tuned...

[Bo]

I think that a Palin wins in 2016 TL would be more realistic. She needs a little time to rehabilitate her image. Otherwise, good job.

[Max Electric]

I dislike/fear Sarah Palin as much as the next guy, but is there any chance this TL is going to be anything other than "WORST PRESIDENT EVER!!!1!"?

That said, I'm intrigued... go on.

[Bo]

send military aid to Isreal

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Communists For McCain]

I dislike/fear Sarah Palin as much as the next guy, but is there any chance this TL is going to be anything other than "WORST PRESIDENT EVER!!!1!"?

That said, I'm intrigued... go on.

Read my "End of Freedom" timeline, Palin would have nothing on President William H. Murray.

[Sewer]

I dislike/fear Sarah Palin as much as the next guy, but is there any chance this TL is going to be anything other than "WORST PRESIDENT EVER!!!1!"?

That said, I'm intrigued... go on.

Read my "End of Freedom" timeline, Palin would have nothing on President William H. Murray.

Or President William Dudley Pelley in my "soon" to be timeline.

[Anthony]

After successfully persuading Congress to pass her budget, despite her declining approval numbers, President Palin asked Congress to move swiftly on passing two important pieces of her agenda: privatizing Social Security and turning Medicare into a voucher program. This would lead to the beginning of a long and vigorous debate. The Democrats were determined to do whatever they could to stop the President's "extremist" agenda from passing Congress, and accused Palin of trying to destroy two of the most popular government programs in America. Meanwhile, the Republicans were hoping to avoid making the same mistakes they made in the mid-2000s, when President George W. Bush failed to privatize Social Security. However, many Americans were deeply skeptical of Palin's proposals. Many public opinion polls suggested that most Americans were happy with the way Social Security and Medicare worked, and did not believe that they needed to be reformed. In Congress, several moderate Republicans joined the Democrats in opposing President Palin's agenda. Although Palin's Medicare voucher program failed to pass the House of Representatives, her Social Security overhaul was able to narrowly pass the House. But shortly after that, Social Security reform died in the Senate as some Republicans joined a Democratic-led filibuster.

In November 2013, the U.S. economy started to fall into a recession, as a result of the draconian spending cuts included in the federal budget that passed earlier in the year. Although President Palin tried to argue that the recession was her predecessor's fault, many Americans began to blame Palin for removing the stimulus and TARP programs designed to help the economy, as they started to realize that those programs had helped the economy, and removing them led to another recession. Throughout 2014, the recession continued, and Palin's popularity continued to fall. As the recession worsened, unemployment surpassed the post-World War II high of 10.8% later in the year, and peaked at 12.4% early in 2015. The stock market plummeted, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling to around 6500. Also, the federal deficit surpassed $2 trillion, as a result of Palin's massive tax cuts. Voters started to believe that Palin was incompetent and out of touch. Some voters were even starting to wish that Barack Obama was still president.

In the 2014 midterm elections, the Republicans lost a total of 36 seats in the House of Representatives, giving the Democrats control over the House. Also, the Republicans lost 5 Senate seats, including the Senate seat of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. This resulted in the Senate being split 50-50. Palin's approval ratings had bottomed out at 34% in December 2014, and the polls showed Palin was trailing all of her potential rivals in the 2016 presidential election. Though most economists believed that the recession was almost over, Palin was still being blamed for the bad economy, and her reelection looked very unlikely at the time. However, what the President's political opponents did not know, was that she and the Republicans had a secret plan to win the next presidential election...

LOL I bet that this TL is gonna be very controversial among conservatives and libertarians...

[Bo]

Just for reference, libertarians hate Palin.

[Anthony]

Just for reference, libertarians hate Palin.

But what they hate even more are people who believe removing the stimulus and TARP programs would lead to a recession.

[Bo]

Just for reference, libertarians hate Palin.

But what they hate even more are people who believe removing the stimulus and TARP programs would lead to a recession.

I don't think it's a competition for libertarians, though. They hate both Palin and those kinds of people you just mentioned.

[Anthony]

In January 2015, President Palin addressed the newly elected Congress during the State of the Union address. In her speech, Palin proposed a freeze on all income and business taxes in an attempt to stimulate the stagnant economy. Although the recession eventually ended in May 2015, many Americans were still struggling. The Republicans argued Palin's new tax proposal would create jobs and boost economic growth, while the Democrats warned that it would increase the deficit and the national debt, which Palin had promised to reduce during her presidential campaign. Speaker of the House Steny Hoyer proposed an economic stimulus package similar to the one enacted by President Obama, claiming that removing the original stimulus caused the economy to fall back into recession, proving that the stimulus helped the economy. However, many Congressmen from both parties were still skeptical of more government spending, and instead backed Palin's proposal.

Shortly after her State of the Union address, Palin addressed the nation once again, revealing that Iran had finished developing an extremely dangerous nuclear weapon that the Iranians want to use on America. Shortly after her announcement, Congress quickly approved a declaration of war on Iran at the President's urging. Under President Palin's orders, the U.S. military, dropped multiple bombs on Tehran, the capital of Iran. This eventually led to the capture of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as well as the dismantling of Iran's nuclear weapons, however, it also resulted in the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians.

Though most Americans were previously skeptical of a possible invasion of Iran, especially after the Iraq War which ended three years ago, Palin's popularity increased significantly to 73% following the beginning of the war. This turnaround did not last, however. As the war with Iran dragged on, and American casualties mounted, Palin's approval ratings began to fall back toward the low to mid 40s, and support for the war began to decline slightly, though a majority of Americans still supported the war at the time. And as the war continued, President Palin began to set her sights on other countries which she percieved to be a threat to America...

[Bo]

How come Palin didn't bomb Iran before they got nukes? I thought she was a superhawk.

[Anthony]

Stay tuned, and you'll find out. The reason she invades Iran is actually a very important part of this TL...

[Bo]

Stay tuned, and you'll find out. The reason she invades Iran is actually a very important part of this TL...

Kind of like the reason Bush invaded Iraq was to get reelected? Well, other than that, great TL.

[Anthony]

That's a good guess, but not quite...

[Anthony]

Across the world, citizens in many different countries gathered to protest the Iran War and the foreign policy of the Palin Administration. Many foreign leaders, including many leaders of countries that were traditionally America's allies, criticized the U.S. invasion of Iran, and over time, they began to abandon the United States. However, that did not stop President Palin from continuing her controversial escalation of the War of Terrorism. In her 2016 State of the Union address, Palin praised the troops for the job they were doing in Iran, and called the war a major success. She also charged additional countries, such as Syria and North Korea, with supporting terrorist organization and developing nuclear weapons that had the potential to kill several Americans.

As the year went by, the President sent tens of thousands of troops to Syria to investigate the possible nuclear threat, and to search for terrorists. Palin also sent additional troops to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen, and dropped bombs on several areas that she claimed were filled with terrorists. Although a narrow majority of Americans still approved of Palin's overall performance as president, skepticism for Palin's foreign policy agenda grew over the course of the year, which made some Republicans worried that it could potentially threaten Palin's reelection prospects this year. Palin's opponents within the Democratic Party began to question Palin's motives for escalating the War on Terrorism to a level that they claim makes George W. Bush look like a pacifist.

In the 2016 presidential campaign, the Democrats nominated Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York and Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina for president and vice president respectively. Meanwhile, President Palin and Vice President Brown were renominated by the Republicans without having to deal with a serious primary challenge. Governor Cuomo criticized the President for invading various countries, such as Iran, for the purpose of fighting terrorism. He also cricized Palin for her spending cuts which led to the 2013-2015 recession, and forbreaking her promise to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington with her increased military spending and massive tax cuts. Palin defended her foreign policy, calling her actions neccessary to keeping America safe and eliminating global terrorism. She also claimed that her recent proposal to freeze income and business taxes helped reduce unemployment slightly, though the unemployment rate was still at around 10%. Palin also tapped into voters' fear of terrorism, and said Cuomo was weak on the issue of terrorism and that having him as commander-in-chief during a time of war would be risky.

Although polls indicated that this would be a tight race, showing Cuomo leading Palin by just 2 points with just 44% of the vote, Palin's political strategy paid off, and on election day, Palin easily defeated Cuomo by a much larger margin than previously expected. However, Palin's reelection did not neccessarily mean that Palin was destined to be successful during her second term. In fact, Palin's political woes were just beginning...

[ag]

Judging by her relationships w/ the Alaska state legislature and her propensity for getting involved in spicy scandals, I can hardly see her being president for any extended period of time and not antagonizing even the Republicans in Congress to an extent that would make most of her presidency one big televised congressional investigation. It would have been very, very ugly continuous sequence of scandals. Her capacity of passing anything big through Congress 6 moths past becoming president would have become negligible. Consequently, I don't really think it would have been very different from a David Patterson presidency )

[Cassius Dio]

Very entertaining TL. One more reason for me never to support Palin lol.

[RosettaStoned]

BUMP.

[Judäischen Volksfront]

Gravedigging...

[CathKhan]

Interesante. I beg to differ, however.

[InsaneTrollLogic]

If 2017 looks like this, who knows what 2027 will look like.