Alternate 2000 Election

[No more McShame]

After splitting the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John S. McCain square off in the crucial South Carolina primary.  The campaign was getting nasty with accusations of McCain abandoning his fellow Vietnam veterans.  The February 15, 2000 debate in Columbia, South Carolina was far from a love-fest.  Moderator Larry King of CNN asked about the negative advertising.  McCain shocked the live audience and the nation when he said this, “Well, let me tell you what happened. There was an ad run against me. We ran a counter-ad in New Hampshire. Governor Bush took the ad down. But let me tell you what really went over the line. Governor Bush had an event and he paid for it, and stood next to a spokesman for a fringe veterans group. That fringe veteran said that John McCain had abandoned the veterans. Now, I can forgive that, the governor can not be held responsible for everything someone says, but when I have e-mails between this same group and the governor’s chief political consultant, Karl Rove in my hand (holds up papers) that describe the current campaign on my character then I must come to the conclusion that the governor himself is behind these baseless attacks.” 

Bush is stunned and muttered something about having no personal knowledge about the campaign.  McCain responded by saying, “If that’s true Governor Bush, then how do you expect to lead this country in these important times if you can’t even lead your own campaign?”  Bush is completely taken off-guard and can really say nothing more about the issue.  A poll released on February 17 shows that McCain has taken a narrow lead in the state over Bush with the turnaround due to the large veteran population in South Carolina.  Bush is unable to recover by February 19 as John McCain emerges from the South Carolina primary with 50% of the vote to Bush’s 45% with Alan Keyes gaining the remaining 5%.  This victory coupled with easy victories three days later in McCain’s native Arizona and in Michigan give McCain a large momentum boost going into the March 7 super Tuesday event with 12 primaries scheduled.

When Governor Bush woke up on March 8 he knew that his hopes to join John Quincy Adams as the only son of a President to become President himself were dashed for the 2000 election.  McCain won 9 out of the 12 Super Tuesday primaries with Bush edging McCain in Missouri & Ohio and his only easy win in Georgia.  Maryland was the only close McCain state with favored son, Keyes gaining nearly 8 percent of the vote there.  Because both Texas and Florida had their primaries in a week, Bush decided to hold on to see if he could regain any momentum.

The weekend gave Bush some momentum when he held down McCain’s margin of victory in Colorado and edged McCain in Utah.  The Wyoming caucus handed Bush a solid win and the governor thought he was in business again.  However, March 14 saw the end of the Bush campaign as his brother’s political machine in Florida wasn’t able to stop a narrow McCain victory.  McCain won easily in Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee with Bush only winning his native Texas.  Bush called a press conference on March 15 to withdrawl from the race and endorse Senator John McCain for President of the United States.

Final primary map


McCain (green)
Bush (blue)

STAY TUNED FOR MORE[/size]

[Ben Meyers]

Extremely interesting, wish it happened. 

[No more McShame]

Thank you for your interest Ben.  I don't know about wish.  There are some areas where I like McCain better and some where I like Bush better.  Do stay tuned because I'll have to update y'all on the Democrats and of course the general election campaign.  I plan on taking this until at least through the 2008 elections.  I do hope you stay tuned.

[The Duke]

Nicee work so far.

[No more McShame]

Thank you.   I will try to update tonight.

[No more McShame]

Meanwhile, in the Democratic primaries, Vice President Al Gore easily handled a challenge from New Jersey Senator Bill Bradley.  By early March it was obvious the match-up was going to be a battle of two former Senate colleagues, McCain vs. Gore.  CNN released their first poll of the match-up on March 20.  There was good news for the McCain camp, he lead 53% - 42%.  McCain was quoted as saying, “There’s a long ways to go, but right now the American people seem to be saying that they want new leadership in Washington.”  Campaign finance reform was quickly shaping up to be the first major issue of the campaign.  On March 27, Gore unveiled his support for the plan that McCain and Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold have been pushing in Congress.  Gore also added a publicly financed component that would take effect for the 2008 election.  McCain countered by pointing out that Gore was still raising “soft money” for the Democratic Party and criticized the “Democracy Endowment” and Gore’s past suspicious fund-raising in the 1996 election.  As expected, the race began to tighten up.  An April 3 CNN poll showed that Gore cut McCain’s lead by nearly half to 51%-45%. 

On April 22, Americans were shocked to see images from an early-morning raid by federal agents to reunite Cuban refugee Elian Gonzales with his father so they could return to Cuba.  Several months before, Gonzales floated ashore in Cuba, his mother dead trying to escape Fidel Castro’s regime there.  Since then, Gonzales has been a political football forcing Gore to publicly disagree with his boss, President Bill Clinton.  McCain was very critical of Clinton and Attorney General Janet Reno over this move.  He also criticized Gore’s handling of the issue.  “Vice President Gore said he opposed this action, but for the Vice President words do not carry over to action.  Is this the kind of leadership you want in the White House.”  Shortly after the raid, a Florida State University poll showed McCain with a 53%-43% lead over Gore in the critical state of Florida where emotions ran so high over this issue.

Social Security also emerged as a key campaign issue.  Gore tried to convince people on the campaign trail that McCain’s ideas for private accounts in social security would endanger the program.  McCain countered that the program was endangered anyway and drastic measures were necessary to shore up the New Deal program.  McCain proposed using the budget surplus to fund these private accounts.

As spring turned into summer, the conventions were right around the corner.  With polling in the race remaining steady, the next big question was: who are Gore and McCain going to pick as their Vice-Presidential candidates?  With the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia just around the corner.  McCain’s focus was on former rival Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, Ohio Rep. John Kasich, New York Gov. George Pataki, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson,   Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watt, and New Jersey Gov. Christine Whitman.  Speculation around Hagel was diffused when McCain chose him to lead the search for the Vice Presidential candidate.  Hagel and McCain both agreed that adding with so many talented governors, one of them should be his running mate.  This eliminated Kasich, Fred Thompson, and Watt.  The list was eventually narrowed down to Ridge and Bush.  Because of his better personal relationship and his leadership of a key swing state McCain chose Ridge to be his running mate.

This decision was met with praise from the media and howls from the pro-life faction of the party.  Presumed Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanon took a swipe by saying, “I always suspected that John McCain’s pro-life credentials were not genuine.  This is proof in point right here.”  The campaign is just about to hit full swing with the conventions and Gore’s pick for Vice President!

STAY TUNED FOR MORE!

[Ben Meyers]

Superb job.  Extremely interesting.

[Kevin]

keep it up i really like this!

[No more McShame]

I'll try to come up with an update this weekend.  Fantasy election is pretty much taking all of my forum time at this moment.  I appreciate your interest.

[A18]

What a nightmare! Hopefully Gore would crush him.