walter mondale returns 20 years later!

[WalterMitty]

let's go back in time....

let's assume that the democrats dont turn paul wellstone's funeral into a political rally and walter mondale beats norm coleman to win the senate seat in 2002.

the democrat presidential primary in 2004 is crowded and no candidate gets enough delegates to win the nomination.

after 20 ballots at the convention, party leaders turn to senator walter mondale and ask him to place in name into the balloting.

walter mondale becomes the elder statesman unity pick for the democrats. 

for his vp, mondale chooses nc senator john edwards.

how would a mondale/edwards ticket fared against bush/cheney in 04?

my guess:



bush/cheney: 56%, 342 EVs
mondale/edwards: 43%, 196 EVs

[Lincoln Republican]

Being kind to Mondale/Edwards



Bush/Cheney             345
Mondale/Edwards      193

[Speed of Sound]

Being kind to Mondale/Edwards



Bush/Cheney             345
Mondale/Edwards      193

thats being really kind.

[jokerman]

lol

[ilikeverin]

Somebody set up us the bomb

[Lincoln Republican]

Being realistic with the Mondale/Edwards ticket



Bush/Cheney              525
Mondale/Edwards         13

The Paul Wellstone "memorial" which turned into a blatant campaign rally for Mondale was a new low in American politics.

The memorial was fine, and the memorial should definitely have been held, but the use of this memorial to promote Mondale's candidacy was revolting.

[J. J.]

Mondale would have done better than 1984, but not that much better.  Add NY, MA, VT, RI, and possibly CA, CN, OR,and WA, but that's about it.

[jokerman]

[King]

[Inverted Things]

Being realistic with the Mondale/Edwards ticket



Bush/Cheney              525
Mondale/Edwards         13

The Paul Wellstone "memorial" which turned into a blatant campaign rally for Mondale was a new low in American politics.

The memorial was fine, and the memorial should definitely have been held, but the use of this memorial to promote Mondale's candidacy was revolting.

The only shameful thing about the memorial was the democrats apologizing. What did people realistically expect? Paul Wellstone was a passionate man, and they talked about how passionate he was and how his legacy would live on. What they said basically amounted to "Let's win this one for Paul."

[MasterJedi]

Mondale couldn't really hope to win, he'd probably be a sacrificial lamb.

[skybridge]

What's the point in having a hypothetical match-up that produces the same president as in reality?

[MasterJedi]

What's the point in having a hypothetical match-up that produces the same president as in reality?

Giving Bush a bigger margin of victory!

[dazzleman]

I think Mondale would have done better than in 1984.  How much better I can't say.

The country is much more polarized now than then, and Bush certainly could not have won the type of support that Reagan did.

I think Mondale would have done somewhat worse than Kerry, but there are certain states like New York, Massachusetts, etc. that would vote for a dead man on the Democratic ticket and Mondale would win these states.

He's too liberal, but then so was Kerry.  He's also too old, which Kerry wasn't.  I'd say Mondale would win Minnesota, much of the northeast, maybe California and Washington, and that's about it.

[Ben.]

Firstly it just wouldn’t happen, one of the primary candidates would win out or Hillary or Gore would be the unity candidate, anyway…


Polarisation wins Mondale states he’d never hope to win on his own. It would probably be a fairly genteel race so perhaps no “Zell on Earth” at the RNC… but who knows

     

Bush/ Cheney (REP) – 300 EV, 51% PV.
Mondale/ Edwards (DEM) – 238 EV, 47% PV.


Just for fun…

Gore vs Bush 2004… this time its presidential!

 

Gore/ Edwards* (DEM) – 272 EV, 49%**
Bush/ Cheney (REP) – 266 EV, 49%   

*Almost any winning candidate in the climate that prevailed back in the early summer of 2004 would probably have picked Edwards, Gephardt probably would have, Kerry did, Clark might have gone for someone more experienced same with Dean but both would have given him serious consideration.
**Very close as it was but I reckon that Gore would have enjoyed far more broad based support (as he did in 2000) than Kerry did in reality, though the country would have been more polarised than in 2000 as it was last fall.