The Hobbes Legacy

[George W. Hobbes]

After the stunning re-election of President George W. Bush in 2004 over his hapless and heavily outspent Democratic challenger John Kerry, by a margin of four percent in the popular vote and eighteen in the electoral college (Bush carried Wisconsin and held his victory coalition), the face of the Republican Party drastically changed.  

In 2006, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California announced he would not seek a second term of office.  In the Republican primary that followed, State Senator Leonard Hobbes upset the pundits to secure a easy victory over his major opponent: Tom McClintock.  In the general election against Cruz Bustamante, Hobbes won handily, securing a massive number of votes from the conservative Orange, San Diego, and Los Angeles Counties.

In the mid-terms, President Bush managed to keep a hold on both houses of Congress, but the Democrats made slight gains.

As governor, Hobbes surprised insiders and outsiders alike through a ruthless use of the referendum and initiative.  A massive Medical reform package became the pinnacle of his administration, where the populist governor earned himself a steady fifty-five to sixty-five percent showing in most polls.

In late 2007, grassroots Republicans, dissatisfied with the  GOP hopefuls (Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) and Governor Bill Owens (R-CO)) launched a massive draft Hobbes movement.

Bowing to public opinion, Hobbes threw his hat in the ring Boxing Day, 2007.

Hobbes, a self-stylied progressive conservative, was an interesting choice to galvanize the Republicans.  Vehemently pro-life (and by that meaning anti-death penalty as well), he proposed a streamlined federal adoption service and government-funded pre-natal care aimed to stop lower-class abortions occuring because of jobs or other responsibilities.

Included in his proposed package was a toughening of Brady enforcement, a national gun registry, gun licenses and three-day waiting periods.  Coupled with his support for Instant Run-off Voting and a national referendum and initiative, as well as stricter enviromental standards; conservative forces quickly racheted their swords against him.

Undaunted, Hobbes continued to push his programs in the cornfields of Iowa and the sleepy hamlets of New Hampshire.  Eliminating tax loopholes and forming a single progressive income tax earned him support from good-government types, while his support of proposals to build submersible carriers (plans freshly dusted off from the Department of Defense) and increase Research and Development for the military earned him smiling support from even the most conservate hawks.

When the Iowa precinct caucuses met, Hobbes astounded the pundits with a runaway victory, scoring forty-two percent of the aggregate vote.  

From there, he ravaged through New Hampshire and managed to defeat an "anybody-but-Hobbes" movement from Senator Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) on Super Tuesday.

The Democrats, meanwhile, found themselves surprised to come to a quick and orderly consensus on their nominee.  After easily defeating challengers Nancy Pelosi and Howard Dean, Senator John Edwards (D-NC) took the nomination.

At the RNC convention in Chicago, Governor Hobbes followed Reagan's precedent by going to the convention himself to announce his nominee: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

On the leftward side, Senator Edwards stumped the telepunditry when he selected former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson over Hillary Clinton (D-NY).  Clinton concillatory, but obviously forced, nominating speech for Richardson was a sign that all was not well within the Democratic Party.

Pushing ideas from all over the spectrum, but generally keeping to the right, Hobbes/Rice enjoyed an early bounce in the polls.  

Governor Hobbes announced that he intended to make human rights an integral part of his foreign policy, and declared he would recognize Taiwan and end most-favored nation status with the PRC unless they "clean up their act".

Included in Hobbes' foreign policy push was a call for a new international organization of democracies dedicated to using economic and political muscle to encourage the spread of the light of liberty across the globe.  Monikered the League of Democracy, the proposed organization would have free trade with all of its members and limited free trade for "associated" nations that were making moves towards reform.  Using force to eliminate dictators was naturally an option as well.

Hobbes gained massive popularity from his populist rhetoric, and coupled with White House support for his campaign bringing in the fund-raising buck, he took a narrow lead over Edwards in the polls.

On Election Day, Governor Hobbes won a substantial victory, 334 electoral votes to Edwards' 204.



To come: The Hobbes Administration and the 2012 election.

[JohnFKennedy]

Hmm, you wouldn't happen to be this "Senator Leonard Hobbes" would you?

[JohnFKennedy]

By the way, Edwards would do well in places like PA and OH as he has great appeal there and in Wisconsin.

[George W. Hobbes]

I assumed that with my more leftist approach to a few social issues, I'd be able to pull in the Rockefeller Republicans in Pennsylvania and moderate Republicans from Ohio.

[JohnFKennedy]

I assumed that with my more leftist approach to a few social issues, I'd be able to pull in the Rockefeller Republicans in Pennsylvania and moderate Republicans from Ohio.

Hmm, I think your pro-life stance would hurt you quite a bit though, in California most definitely.......

[George W. Hobbes]

True enough, but then again I'm a popular govenor from California.  I think it'd be difficult for me to lose my home state with the apporval ratings I gave myself. lol

[ilikeverin]

You seem to have some decent stances... although I'd vote for Edwards

[George W. Hobbes]

January 20, 2009 was the passing of the torch from the neo-conservatives represented by President George W. Bush to the progressive Republicanism espoused by President Leonard Hobbes.

In his inaugeral address President Hobbes vowed "To bring an age of renewal, to the North, to the South, to the East, and to West."  Hobbes also highlighted his proposed pre-natal care package and the League of Democracy.

Hobbes' Cabinet was a unique blend of the insider and outsider.  An interesting, and rather surprising, choice was the return of Colin L. Powell to the position of Secretary of State.  After the 2004 re-election of President Bush, Powell had declined another term as secretary and had been replaced by Condi Rice.

At Treasury, Hobbes stayed the course and kept John Snow, despite rumors that tax reformist Steve Forbes would get the spot.

Perhaps the most interesting decision in the Hobbes Cabinet was the appointment of a noted Patriot opponent for Homeland Security.  It was an early sign to legislators that President Hobbes wanted Patriot revamped, constitutionally legal, and less vague.

"Under the current wording, you could practically charge a protest group with terrorism," one White House official remarked.

Indeed, rewording Patriot and eliminating the library card search and more invasive provisions was one of the President's first legislative triumphs.  

On March 2, President Hobbes signed into law the Patriot Act of 2009.  "Now," Hobbes said to aides after the bill had officially became law, "We play hardball."

In his first Oval Office address on July 4, 2009; President Hobbes announced "that the time has come to end the anachronisms of the past.  We will step into our future a renewed and rejuvenated republic, strong and sure in the eyes of the world."

A few minutes later, Hobbes dropped his bombshell.  He was asking that Congress rewrite the tax code and deliver the bill to the White House before 2010.

"It's time that the citizens of this country can pay their taxes with fifth-grade math."

Most of the D.C. commitariat was certain that the new President had shot himself in the foot.  Congress was already balking at the daunting prospect, which would undoubtedly be remembered by the voters during the upcoming midterm elections.

Recognizing this, Hobbes went on a whirlwind cross-country tour promoting his call for tax reform.  Snagging headlines left and right and demanding "the special-interest groups release their control on the Potomac and return the power to the people"; Hobbes successfully turned the tide of public opinion.

On December 30, 2009; which much fanfare, the Senate approved the House version of the Omnibus Tax Reform Act.  The new bill set up a single progressive national income tax, closed all but the charity and the earned income and child credit loopholes, effective for the fiscal year of 2011.  

President Leonard Hobbes signed the act into law on January 1, 2010.

Following the Omnibus Tax Reform Act's passage, a CNN/Time poll displayed the President's approval rating at fifty-eight percent.

[George W. Hobbes]

Nontheless, President Hobbes found far less support in the world for his proposed League of Democracy.  To most nations, it smells quite rank of a Bush-style foreign policy.  In the end, the Hobbes Administration put the proposal on the backburner after being rebuffed by most of Europe, including the United Kingdom.

Coupled with this was the response of the Chinese to the official recognition of the Republic of China on Taiwan and the severing of most-favored nation trading status in early 2010.  The Chinese attempted a trade war with the U.S., shutting down all trade with America.

Hobbes determined to stay the course.  He passed a stronger Taiwan Relations Act through the GOP Congress in early April, and warned President Hu that America would not hesitate to protect her friends.

The shutdown of U.S.-China trade had a dreadful impact on the economic recovery of 2010, and mass protests broke out against the policy by manufacturing companies.

In his second Oval Office address, on May 8, 2009; the President appealed to the American people to support his policy.  Reminding America of the Tianaman Square massacre, Hobbes remarked "Men like Li Peng would not be tolerated as President by the American people, and no other nation should have to be held in tyranny that we, as a free people, would refuse to live under."

Despite the President's steadfast tenacity, his support began to erode across the country.

[George W. Hobbes]

As spring faded into summer of the controverisal year of 2010, President Hobbes' approval ratings continued to bottom out.  In late June, Gallup polling gave the President an approval number of thirty-six.  Looking ahead to the Congressional elections, a generic ballot gave fifty-four to the Democrats and forty-three to the Republicans, the remainder supporting either third-parties or undecided.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped below 10,000 for the first time since the early 2000's, as several manufacturing firms declared bankruptcy in June and July.

In China, however, the effect was even worse.  Millions of Chinese were thrown out of work without the strong financial prescence of the American dollar flowing into the People's Republic.  And skillful diplomatic manuevering by Secretary of State Colin Powell averted the Europeans from cashing in on China in exchange for an end to all trade barriers between the United States and the European Union.

Rural China soon felt the effects from the urban depression, as farmers quickly became unable to sell their products to market.  The so-called "fifth generation" of Chinese leaders, now in their thirties and forties, began limited protests.

On July 18, a protest of some six hundred younger, pro-democratic Chinese supporters ran afoul of the tempers of a Beijing police chief, who had just learned his brother's wife had died of starvation on a rural farm.

Determined to show America who was boss, the police chief orders his forces to run in and destroyed the protest, using both billyclubs and bullets.

Normally, this wouldn't have been as much trouble as it was, but an already-on-edge Chinese population rioted in full force in Beijing.  From there, civil disorder spread to the other urban areas.  President Hu was forced to send in the People's Liberation Army, under the orders to spare no dissenter.

Unfortunately, a few CNN cameras got in the way and broadcast the slaughter to the world.

Although a few liberal Democratic groups claimed that President Hobbes was responsible for the unrest, they were quickly vilified by mainstream popular opinion.  Approval for the boycott of Chinese products increased to nearly fifty percent, and President Hobbes again reassured the Taiwanese the U.S. would stand by and support them.

With world public opinion turning against China, and the governmental infrastructure burning in the cities, President Hu was forced to resign by the PRC Politburo.  The remaining members struck a deal for increased democracy and the recognition of human rights and religious freedom with the major political leaders of the fifth generation.

Although it was a Politburo member who became China's Acting President pending elections in the winter of 2011, the new President also gave full recognition to the Republic of China on Taiwan as a legitimate nation-state, and also replaced many Hu supporters in the Politburo with members of the fifth generation.

President Leonard Hobbes had achieved victory in his first foreign policy crisis.

[Reaganfan]

Oh no. Can President Hobbes be re-elected?

[George W. Hobbes]

Depends on how the economic fallout of the China-America trade showdown sprinkles down by 2012.  He's going to be generally popular for "winning" with the PRC, but the midterms are close and the economy is on a downswing.

[George W. Hobbes]

With the President's polling numbers creeping over the fifty percent mark for the first time in months, the Hobbes Administration was able to finally give a sigh of relief.  Although the economy was still on the downswing, the Treasury Department announced that the Omnibus Tax Reform Act had managed to bring in even more net income because of the closure of the multiple exceptions written into the tax code.

Coupled with a new free-trade agreement with the new People's Republic of China, the U.S. economy began to slowly struggle back from the America-China trade shutdown.

Even so, by the end of that historic summer of 2010, manufacturing jobs lost in the crisis weren't returning, and polls showed the Democratic Party making strong leaps in the Midwestern states of Ohio and Michigan, both critical segments of the Hobbes victory coalition in 2008.

Hobbes spent the majority of October campaigning for Republican candidates for governors, congressmen, and senators; but it was painfully obvious that the Democrats were going to gain at least one, if not both houses of Congress.

In the end, they got both.  The 53-47 Republican majority in the Senate turned into a 52-48 Democratic showing, while the House went from a seventeen-seat GOP majority to a twenty-four seat margin for the Democrats.

The defeats were twin blows to the Hobbes Administration, and aides quickly began putting together a package for the 2011 legislative session.

In his third State of the Union address, President Hobbes highlighted the victory of liberty and democracy in China, the pending economic recovery, and stated his "steadfast belief that we can, no matter what partisan label we ascribe to, come together for the renewal and reconstruction of this grand old republic."

Several pieces of enviromental legislation, including offering tax credits for "green" purchases and companies to individuals and corporate entities alike, were the first bits doled out and quickly endorsed by the Congress.

Finally passed was the so-called "Polar Bear Protection Act", which was expanded to insure that no part of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge would be opened for petroleum drilling.

As the session dragged on, a little-known Congressman from Wyoming was given the responsibility of presenting one of the most crucial elements of the Hobbes package to the U.S. House of Representatives.

The price tag for the bill was an annum of $5 billion, to be offset by the elimination of the previous year's allotment of $26.48 billion in pork barrell spending, as well the cutting of the underused B-1 bomber.

The bill was to provide government-funded pre-natal care to the lower, and to a certain extent, middle-classes.  Also included was a small amount of money to provide for work leave, or other nessecities.

The purpose was to cut down on the nearly 2,800 "American women [who] end a pregnancy due specifically to interference with work, school or other responsibilities." (http://www.thebirthsite.com)  Or the inability to afford proper pre-natal care.

The Congressman also noted the bill would help eliminate the so-called "million-dollar babies" birthed by lower-class mothers who could not afford pre-natal care and thus end up running up a massive hospital tab that the mother cannot ever pay.

In a speech at Emory University the day the bill was submitted to the House Labor & Health Committee, President Hobbes intoned that "This bill may cost us a lot of money.  But that is no matter.  If this bill saves a single human life, then we will have achieved our gains."  (Apologises to Christian Bullitt for stealing that line.)

Once more, the eyes of America were on the Hobbes White House.

[George W. Hobbes]

Eventually, Republican conservatives struck a deal with the President to preserve the B-1 bomber, and assorted backroom talks with House Democrats assured that the bill would get on the floor.

A surprising number of Democrats came out in support of the President's pre-natal care legislation, as government-funded healthcare was right up the left-wing's alley.  Pro-life, yet moderate, Republicans also signed on in support of the bill.

President Hobbes signed the Pre-Natal Care Act with great fanfare, as the bill had been a keystone for his 2008 Presidential campaign.

The next legislative battle was over gun-control.  Hobbes pressed for a national gun registry and gun licenses in the spring of 2011, and managed to swing a majority of both houses of Congress (along with significant Democratic support) to pass the Second Amendment Safety Act on November 19.

Just four days later, New York Senator Hillary Clinton announced that she would be seeking the 2012 Democratic Presidential nomination.  Clinton quickly lead a field that included the usual governors, congressmen and senators.

By Iowa, however, it was apparant to the news media that the real race was between Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Clinton.  Nelson's surprising upset in the caucuses (39%-36%) earned him the endorsement of John Edwards, who until then had remained quiet about the '12 Democratic field.

Clinton came back with a 46-40 victory in New Hampshire, and from there positioned herself to a narrow 48-47 win in the Delaware primary.  In South Carolina and Tennessee, Nelson eked out his victories, and found himself unable to score a win outside of the South and conservative Midwest.

When Super Tuesday came, Senator Clinton only lost Georgia and, ironically, Arkansas.

At the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, Senator Clinton announced the choice of Senator Nelson as her running mate.

In the run-up to the Republican convention in Chicago, polling showed President Hobbes narrowly in the lead, 42 percent to 38 percent with the remainder undecided.

[George W. Hobbes]

The election of 2012 will undoubtedly go down in history as one of the most memorable races in American history.  The progressive conservative President of the United States squared off against the hard leftist former First Lady and sitting senior Senator of New York.

Although nominally the race would have been decided in favor of the Republicans, especially a more centrist nominee like President Hobbes, the China showdown had hurt the Rust Belt economy immensely and polling showed Hobbes losing the pivotal states of Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

The conservative West and South were behind the President, although Florida remained in the gray because of the continual stumping of Democratic Vice-Presidential nominee Bill Nelson.  

The President was declared the narrow winner of the three Presidential debates that year, although polls claimed that Vice-President Condeleezza Rice failed to defeat Senator Nelson in the vice-presidential debate.



In the end, Hobbes managed to cobble together a 302 to 236 electoral vote victory with a 1.3 million popular vote margin.

Exit polling explained the rather bizarre results of the 2012 election.  The President's narrow win in his home state of California was attributed to the jumping of moderate Democrats to his campaign, while liberal Republicans swung Oregon to Hobbes.  

Washington State, although close on election night, tetered into Clinton's column.  Likewise, the Midwest, which was hit hardest by the Chinese shutdown went entirely to the Senator.

Hobbes' enviromental push won over moderate Democrats in Maine, and New Hampshire centrists decided that the President was a better choice than the liberal Hillary Clinton.

Florida was closely contested in 2012, but in the end the Clinton/Nelson ticket carried the day.  Mainly this was due to Bill Nelson, although Clinton picked up quite a bit more support in Florida than had been expected.

Regardless, President Leonard Hobbes had recieved a mandate and the key to the White House for another four years.

[Reaganfan]

Cool.

[George W. Hobbes]

Sworn in to a second term on January 20, 2013, President Hobbes was still faced with some significant worries.  The prolonged economic fallout from the China trade shutdown still hadn't perked up, and if he didn't act soon, Midwestern discontent against his Administration would turn nasty.

With this in mind, Hobbes worked with Democratic leaders to pass a job retraining bill and grudgingly accepted legislation increasing unemployment compensation for those affected by the shutdown.

Advised to begin taking the initiative instead of responding to the Democratic Congress (now thirty seats in the House and 54-46 in the Senate), that March the President announced his plan to finally bring "that elusive target of victory to the War on Drugs."

Hobbes' plan called for all drugusers to be given six months of cleaning up disadvantaged areas in their local community as a first offensive, followed up with coerced drug rehab and for a second offense doubling the street sweeping and mandating random drug testing for the next twenty-five years of the offender's life was unveiled to generally mixed reviews.

As expected, the ACLU went nuts, boldly announcing that the President's proposed battle plan was a gross violation of the Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment.  In a press conference following the ACLU's denunciation, the President responded with a classic response: "Saying street sweeping is cruel and unusual is like saying a schoolkid shouldn't be allowed to pray over his own lunch.  Oh, wait, that's right.  The ACLU supports that too."

Support for the plan soared, especially amongst conservative groups, who had watched in horror as referendums to legalize marijuana had come within razor-thin margins in Massachusetts, Vermont, and Nevada in recent years.  "Finally, we have a chance to turn to the drug war argument back our way," went one memo from the American Conservative Union to its core supporters.

On August 15, the President signed the New Battle Plan for the War on Drugs Act, commonly referred to as the New Battle Plan, to much acclaim.  The next day, the Labor Department announced that unemployment had slipped a percentage point nationally, and was improving in the Midwest.  With job retraining finally enacted, the Labor Department's announcement opined that "within five years we will see higher employment in the Midwest than before the shutdown." 

[George W. Hobbes]

By the 2014 mid-terms, President Hobbes was riding at a comfortable fifty-two percent approval rating, the New Battle Plan was apparantly working well enough (and even if it wasn't, the inner cities were getting a good scrubbing up, and some predicted the New Battle Plan could at least contribute to strong economic revitalization), and the economy was continuing its upswing.

Hobbes was rewarded in the mid-terms as his party picked up three Senate seats, and narrowed the House lead of the Democrats to two.  When conservative Democrats were factored in, pundits generally admitted that Hobbes could do whatever he pleased in the House, it was only the Senate were his plans could be stonewalled.

Ever mindful of the future, Hobbes began to consider what he should do to aid the Republican cause in the 2016 elections.  Barbara Bush, George W.'s daughter, had moved out to Michigan and picked up a Senate seat there, and some were saying she had the potentional to win the White House.  Vice-President Rice wasn't interesting in running for President.  Ohio Governor Ken Blackwell seemed a solid choice for many, and could further reach out to the black community.

Unfortunately, Hobbes' musings about the future were stifled after U.S. oil platforms in Louisiana were seized by terrorists from the Syrian based Allah's Hand terrorist group and destroyed with three half a megaton nuclear explosions. 

The President quickly sprang into action, moving to NEACP for his own safety while moving Vice-President Rice to an undisclosed location.  Hurried telecommunications with homeland security and energy advisors made matters worse.  Syria had been actively bankrolling the Allah's Hand group for years, and the oil areas were completely unreachable for at least thirty-five years.

Communications with the Syrians proved more ineffective, with the government refusing to turn over the terrorists responsible, let alone Allah's Hand leader Umar al-Moudi.

The next day, the President addressed a joint session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war against Syria.  "We're not going to let the terrorists kick us around.  We're not going to divert our attention into another Iraq.  We're going to destroy Syria.  We're going to destroy Allah's Hand.  Period."

Congress voted overwhelming to declare war, despite a few holdouts from members like Bernie Sanders and Senator Howard Dean.

[George W. Hobbes]

The war against Syria was concluded within ten weeks, although around the third week the term "quagmire" was banded around quite a bit by armchair generals on the televised news networks.  The Syrian government finally collasped when U.S. and NATO forces entered Damascus, to a surprising amount of rejoicing.

Mindful of the backlash of the difficult Iraqi reconstruction, Hobbes made certain to work as much as possible with NATO on the rebuilding of Syria into a "peaceful, democratic state."

Following the destruction of Syria, the President ordered surgical strikes and commando raids into Beirut, parts of Iran, and a daring raid in Saudi Arabia to ferret out and destroy Allah's Hand members and camps.

"I want these terrrorists dead or alive," Hobbes declared at a weekly press conference in February, 2015, "And I don't care how we do it."

[George W. Hobbes]

By mid-2015, Hobbes was enjoying approval ratings in the mid to high 70's, despite record high gas prices of $3 a gallon as a result of the U.S. actions in the Middle East following the war in Syria.  To ameliorate this, the President reversed himself on the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, and asked for a bill to stave off America's dependence in foreign powers, particularly in the Middle East, for oil.

Despite some grumbling by left-wing legislators, going against a President with a 77% approval rating didn't bode well for the Democrats, and the House and Senate passed the bill.

Going into 2016, the Republicans were sitting rather pretty, with even a few sporadic attempts by GOP legislators to repeal the Twenty-second Amendment to allow Hobbes another term.

[George W. Hobbes]

Going into 2016, President Hobbes announced that he intended to stay neutral in the primaries, as Vice-President Rice would not be seeking the nomination.

Governor Barbara Pierce Bush of Michigan, currently thirty-four, but who would be thirty-five by the day the electors would cast votes for President and Vice-President, is touted by many GOP activists.  She's young, more moderate than her father, from a swing state, and has sky-high approval ratings.  She announces in spring 2015 to great acclaim.

Another Midwesterner, Governor Kenneth Blackwell of Ohio, tosses his hat in the ring.  Blackwell is considered the Establishment favorite, and he vows to "continue the policies of President Hobbes at home and abroad."

U.S. Senator John "Q" Quinones also announces his intentions to seek the Presidency, having been effective in getting Puerto Rican turnout to go increasingly GOP in Florida and vast popularity for his good humor and political philosophy.

On the Democratic side of the aisle, Illinois Senator Barack Obama surprised millions by deciding not to run for President, instead endorsing California Governor Steve Westly, a maverick who was elected in 2010 amidst the China-U.S. trade shut down and won re-election despite being targeted by Republicans in 2014.

Tennessee Governor Harold Ford also announced his intentions to seek the White House, fulfilling his reputation as a rising Democratic star.

Other than Ford and Westly, there were really no other significant Democrats seeking the Presidency.  Too many Democrats felt Hobbes' popularity could not be overcome and whoever the Democrats nominated in 2016 would be a sacrificial lamb.

[George W. Hobbes]

In 2016, both the Democrats and Republicans went to a national primary system. 

For the Democrats, despite Obama's early endorsement for Westly, the California governor's campaign wasn't exactly as well-run as Ford's.  Big money floated to Governor Westly, but the Tennessean's grassroots campaign mobilized minority turnout in the South, appealed more to Midwestern "Middle Americans", and left Westly without a popular or a delegate mandate when the shouting was all over (although Westly did carry Americans Abroad, not reflected in the map).



Ford=Red
Westly=Blue

Governor Harold Ford was selected as the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

The Republican race was largely between Bush and Blackwell, with Senator Quinones serving as a third wheel in most states. 

Blackwell took most of the GOP's Establishment support, although the Bush name delivered Texas into the Michigander's camp. 

Governor Bush's inability to carry enough of the South, outside of Kentucky and Texas, delivered a hammerblow to her campaign, and despite her narrow wins in New York and California, Governor Ken Blackwell emerged as the GOP nominee.



Blackwell=Blue
Bush=Red
Quinones=Green

For the Republicans, it was a different race,

[George W. Hobbes]

As chance would have it, both the Republicans and Democrats put forward African-Americans as their nominees in 2016.

In a bid to solidify base support, Governor Ford selected Senator Gavin Newsom of California for the Vice-Presidency with the approval of Governor Steve Westly, which backfired and actually alienated Ford's Southern supporters who remembered Newsom's unilateral legalization of gay marriage in San Francisco over ten years ago with distaste.

For Ken Blackwell's Vice-President, he decided on Senator John Quinones, a move that drove a wedge between Bush's supporters and Blackwell's, who had been counting on a unity ticket between the two.

Although Bush remained outwardly loyal after Blackwell's pick, she couldn't seem to find the time necessary to do much in the way of campaigning in Michigan, choosing to spend more time "serving the people by staying at work in Lansing."  (President Hobbes, who had more in common politically with Bush than Blackwell was also secretly disappointed, but went out on the stump for Blackwell anyways.)



Christian turnout in Iowa against Newsom and Hispanic voters in New Mexico and Puerto Ricans in Florida kept those states in Blackwell's column, but Newsom and Westly's support in California edged out President Hobbes' personal popularity there, and the state went for Ford/Newsom by a litte over 5,000 votes.

Ohio was solidly behind its governor, but the rest of the Midwest was more Democratic, even Michigan, where Governor Ford emerged victorious by a bit under 15,000 votes. 

Down South, Blackwell held the former Confederacy with the exception of Ford's home state of Tennessee, which went 51-49 for its favorite son.  Ford probably would have carried Arkansas, Louisiana, and Missouri if it wasn't for Newsom's presence on the ticket, pundits eventually decided.

In the end, it came down to West Virginia, which sided with Ford by just under half a percent giving Ford/Newsom 273 electoral votes to Blackwell/Quinones' 265.

Pollsters concluded that President Hobbes' still astronomical approval ratings (68%) didn't automatically transfer over to the Republicans, but despite the GOP's attempts to make the war on terror a central issue, Hobbes gained much of his popularity from his ability to work with the Democrats in Congress.

Had the Twenty-second been repealed and Hobbes/Rice placed on the ballot, one exit poll reported the result would have been more like this:

[George W. Hobbes]

Poll added.

[PBrunsel]

I hope the Republican Ticket of Governor Jim Nussle of Iowa and Governor Lynn Swann of Pensylvania can take out President Ford in 2020.