A very different twenty-first century, the elections of 2000-2016

[Thunderbird is the word]

2000:

McCain/Engler 318
Gore/Lieberman 220

Bush's attacks on the McCain camp backfire during the South Carolina primary and McCain wins big victories in Catholic heavy states during Super Tuesday. News of Bush's DUI arrest also surfaces, sinking his support with the religious right who he had been counting on. Following McCain becoming the presumptive nominee he quickly amassed a comfortable lead in the polls over Al Gore, the selection of Joe Lieberman as his VP turned out to be a disaster on multiple fronts as Lieberman was often quick to praise his friend John McCain which led many to suspect that he was a mole, secretly favoring McCain and he also alienated progressives. Taking advantage of the apparent lack of difference between the two parties was Ralph Nader who campaigned heavily in both swing states and solid blue states and helped to tip states like Oregon and Minnesota to McCain, he attracted significant labor support in the Iron Range, taking advantage of Gore's relative unpopularity with labor. McCain's selection of popular Michigan governor John Engler as his running mate also helped him in the Midwest. Nader and the Green Party won close to 5% of the national vote and with McCain having won a clear majority of the popular vote could not be accused of being spoilers and were in a strengthened position nationally.

[Thunderbird is the word]

2004:

McCain/Engler 357
Edwards/Wellstone 181

The first year of McCain's presidency was marked with difficulty, as he alienated both his own party's base and the Democrats with his attempts to maintain a balanced budget. He refused to either cut taxes or use the surplus for increased domestic spending. As a result his approval ratings were lagging on the morning of September 11, 2001 where he was in Chicago scheduled to give a talk when news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center hit. Immediately he was evacuated and eventually returned to DC. With this he attempted to get the nation on a war footing. He called for an expansion in Americorps and a massive increase in the military budget, as he sent close to 200,000 US troops into Afghanistsn. Perhaps most stunningly McCain in 2002 announced his opposition to the Don't Ask Don't Tell Policy reasoning that if the nation was at war all should serve, this further alienated the religious right but McCain revealed that he had changed his mind upon hearing that Mark Bingham, one of the heroes of Flight 93 had been gay and a supporter of his. Even more shockingly shortly after McCain signed the DADT repeal his close friend Lindsay Graham revealed that he was gay and that he was resigning as a US senator to be decommissioned as a military officer.

The Taliban was overthrown and Osama Bin Laden was found dead in early 2003 leading to McCain's approval ratings skyrocketing, surprisingly in the northeast where he had approved funding for the rebuilding,of the World Trade Center and full recovery money. Many Democrats declined to run and the campaign turned out to be focused largely on domestic issues with Senator John Edwards (D)-North Carolina running a largely populist campaign. In order to appease the Greens he picked Senator Paul Wellstone (D)-Minnesota as his running mate who shared many of his views. Edwards relative popularity in the south combined with many religious right voters staying home or voting for the constitution party may have helped to tip North Carolina in Edwards favor.