By a Fluke of the Gods: Cox Defeats Harding

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-09-1995
Event Description: Russian President Boris Yeltsin enrages the world socialist movement by sending 2,000 armored cars accompanied by three divisions of heavily armed infantry into the disputed region of Chechnya, a breakaway Muslim province in Russia. While many in the world community, including President Jackson, disapprove of this action, no one tries to stop it either.

Event Date: 1-26-1996
Event Description: Governor Christopher Cox (Democrat of California) and California Attorney General Dan Lungren, also a Democrat, begin prosecutions against more than twenty Bakersfield area political and civic leaders, all tied to the Whitewater Scandal. This list includes Vice-President William Clinton, whom defeated Lungren in 1990 for the office of governor.

Event Date: 2-02-1996
Event Description: President Jackson signs the Welfare Reform Act of 1996, introduced by Senator Michael Huffington (Democrat of California) and Congressman Clay Shaw (Democrat of Florida). Based off of similar laws set by Governor Tommy Thompson (Democrat of Wisconsin), this act requires all Welfare recipients to show evidence every fiscal quarter that they are looking for work or going to school, or lose their benefits. “I look forward to the day when Welfare is no longer needed,” President Jackson declares as he signs the bill into law. Over the course of the next week the bill is both praised and attacked, with the president’s own Republican Party leading the attacks. “It is sickening how the first African-American president,” former Congressman and Jackson Administration cabinet official Malcolm Little rages at the Detroit NAACP annual convention, “Has reinstated workhouses and slavery for the poor people of this country. Reggie Jackson has sold out the poor and is not fit to be the president!” Jackson will wage a write-in bid for the Republican nomination in several primary states, but will never prove to be even a Lilliputian challenge for the popular president.

Event Date: 2-12-1996
Event Description: The Iowa Caucus is held, with Senator Dan Quayle winning an easy victory over Governor Miller, Senator Gramm, Congressman Paul and businessman Steve Forbes. Quayle, as a Midwesterner, was able to appeal to farm voters, and was the only Democratic candidate who promised not to touch farm or ethanol subsidies. Governor Miller takes second place, with his fiery evangelical populism appealing to religious voters in Western Iowa.

Event Date: 2-14-1996
Event Description: After almost two years of discussion, Secretary of State William Cohen announces that the Tutsi and Hutu tribes in Rwanda have signed an agreement, “Of mutual tolerance.” The Treaty of Byumba, in neutral territory, does not end the hatred between the two tribes, but it does end violence between them. The agreement is hailed as the greatest diplomatic agreement in the history of the African continent by foreign policy analysts.

Event Date: 2-20-1996
Event Description: Senator Phil Gramm wins a narrow victory in the New Hampshire Primary, stressing his economic strengths in a state which is the most tax-aphobic in the country. Senator Quayle, appealing to the Democratic machine in a typically Republican state, takes second place, edging out Congressman Ron Paul, who takes 20% of the vote, an upset to political commentators. Governor Miller wins only 3% of the vote, but he never seriously competed in the Granite State.

Event Date: 2-24-1996
Event Description: Businessman Steve Forbes takes his first primary win in Delaware, one of the few states which is embracing his flat tax policy. Senator Quayle takes a close second place finish, defeating Gramm in an upset. Congressman Paul, who had hoped his grassroots campaign would win the First State for him, is thrown into the fourth place position for the first time of the campaign.

Event Date: 2-25-1996
Event Description: French President Lionel Jospin announces that France will not join the European Union or even hold an election to decide the fate of such a union. "France, like other European nations, could not accept such a status nor such a concept of what a federation is," President Jospin declares in a speech to the Foreign Press Club in Paris. This statement is applauded by conservatives around the continent, but German Social Democratic Party leader Gerhard Schroeder sees it differently. “The French once again our standing in the way of real progress in France,” Schroeder tells the BBC, “The only problem this time is that it is not a reactionary like DeGaule or Chirac who stands in our way, it is a socialist.”

Event Date: 2-27-1996
Event Description: The Arizona, North Dakota and South Dakota Primaries are held, with Senator Quayle sweeping all three by differing margins. While he easily wins the Dakotas, with Governor Miller taking second in both states. In Arizona, former Vice-President John McCain campaigned with and endorsed Senator Gramm, but Senator Quayle was able to narrowly win the state. His victory is a combination of factors, but the most important is that Quayle befriended the anti-illegal immigration crowd, led by Congressman J.D. Hayworth. Steve Forbes drops out, endorsing Quayle and giving the Hoosier Senator the backing of his business associates.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 3-01-1996
Event Description: The Democratic Candidates Debate held at Bob Jones University in South Carolina focuses on a strange issue: the Confederate flag. Governor Carol Campbell (Democrat of South Carolina), a Miller supporter, had recently signed a bill which allowed federal buildings in his state to fly the “Johnny Reb Flag.” “It’s plain and simple Southern heritage to fly the Confederate flag,” Governor Miller declares, “That flag stands for state’s rights, the very cornerstone of the Democratic Party.” “We have to take other history into account, however,” Senator Quayle intersects, “While I am not offended by the flag, others are. Are their feelings and rights not to be considered?” “Ha!” laughs Governor Miller, “Yankee Quayle is going touchy feely on us!” Senator Gramm and Congressman Paul get a good laugh out of that statement, while Quayle goes into an outburst, calling the statement, “Very uncalled for.”       

Event Date: 3-02-1996
Event Description: Governor Miller wins the South Carolina Primary, breaking into the delegate column. Though the Confederate Flag issue was not the deciding factor, it was an important one. “The issue was far more about state’s rights then the Confederate Flag,” Congressman Mark Sanford (Democrat of South Carolina), “Quayle appeared like he wanted the federal government to storm into the state and tear down the flag, and that does not appeal to voters in this state.”

Event Date: 3-03-1996
Event Description: Senator Quayle wins a close victory in the barely noticed Puerto Rico Primary, with Congressman Paul taking a surprising second place finish. “Ron Paul’s Revolutionaries” were in full force at the small island, and took advantage of the minimal turnout.

Event Date: 3-05-1996
Event Description: The Mini-Tuesday Primary is held, with Colorado, Connecticut Georgia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Vermont voting in their primaries. No candidate has achieved the needed momentum to sweep the primaries, so today is a mixed bag. Senator Quayle wins the Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts and Vermont Primaries, while Governor Miller wins his home state of Georgia and Senator Gramm ekes out a narrow victory in Maine and Rhode Island, where he pushed economic policy to narrowly win in these Republican dominated states.

Event Date: 3-06-1996
Event Description: Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe is defeated for reelection by opposition leader Abel Muzorewa, a former Methodist Bishop. Mugabe attempts to deny the election results, but the African Union, bolstered by its recent victory in Rwanda, threatens a strike on Mugabe’s capitol, leading the president to resign and go into exile in Cuba. Incoming President Abel Muzorewa promises to work closely with Western nations and the African Union to, “Rebuild our national economy, infrastructure and image.”

Event Date: 3-07-1996
Event Description: The hard fought New York Primary is held, with Senator Quayle winning a close victory. Senator Al D’Amato (Democrat of New York) endorsed Senator Phil Gramm, but his popularity is quite strained as it is, so the “boost” is not much of one. Governor Miller and Congressman Paul finish far behind the two Senators.

Event Date: 3-10-1996
Event Description: Secretary of Commerce Ralph Nader announces that the next corporate giant he will take down is the U.S. military. “The military is the biggest, most overblown and most dangerous beurocracy in the United States,” Secretary Nader tells CNN’s Larry King during an interview, “It needs to be cut down to size like when Dewey and Eisenhower went after it in the 1950s.” This statement enrages the military hierarchy, with General John Shalikashvili, Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff, calling Nader’s proposal, “A whacky, ridiculous idea that will weaken our nation.” Senator Quayle, speaking at a convention of Small Businessmen in Austin, Texas, tells them, “When I’m president, no kooks like Nader are getting anywhere close to the cabinet.” President Jackson responds to this latest crusade by Nader by asking the Commerce Secretary to reconsider. “It’s an election year, Ralph,” President Jackson tells Nader, “I can’t appear weak on defense, or the Democrats will jump all over the issue.” “Mr. President,” Nader responds, “The right thing is not always politically savvy.” President Jackson refuses to budge on the issue, and Nader resigns his post. While Nader will not try to defeat Jackson in the 1996 election, he once again declares that he is leaving politics.

Event Date: 3-12-1996
Event Description: The Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee and Texas Primaries are held, with no decisive winner. Governor Miller wins big victors in Louisiana, Mississippi and Tennessee, while Senator Gramm takes his home state of Texas and Oklahoma. Senator Quayle, who is emerging as the only candidate with national appeal, wins the big Florida Primary along with Oregon.

Event Date: 3-17-1996
Event Description: In an interview with the Washington Times, former Nixon strongman G. Gordon Liddy alludes to the fact that he may have killed for his chief. “I did what I had to for President Nixon,” Liddy tells the Times, “I did some unseemly things, and perhaps very illegal things to make things happen for the administration. I know that the Goss Family doesn’t like me very much for it, but in a big country you have to have casualties for the greater good.” This interview leads Washington, D.C., police detectives to reopen the strange accident of late FBI agent Porter Goss.

Event Date: 3-19-1996
Event Description: Today is Senator Quayle’s big day, as he sweeps the Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin Primaries, each by wide margins. Governor Tommy Thompson had campaigned with the Hoosier Senator throughout the region, leading many to think a Quayle-Thompson Ticket could be the Democratic standard this year. Senator Gramm and Governor Miller, despite being shut out in today’s primaries, refuse to drop out. “I’ll fight for this nomination until hell freezes over,” Governor Miller tells his supporters in Cairo, Illinois, “Then I’ll put on ice skates and fight on the ice!”

Event Date: 3-23-1996
Event Description: The Chinese Corporatist Party gains 12 more seats in the Chinese Legislature, increasing its margin to 36 members. Party leader Hu Jintao applauds these results as, “The slow yet steady march to sanity in China.”

Event Date: 3-25-1996
Event Description: After months of pestering and phone calls, author Timothy McVeigh finally allows Warner Brothers to make a film out of his first novel “The Ghost in the Shell.” He, however, forces two conditions on them: It will be word-for-word out of the novel and McVeigh will head up casting. Director Kurt Wimmer agrees to these conditions, as he is a huge fan of McVeigh’s work.

Event Date: 3-29-1996
Event Description: Senator Quayle sweeps the California, Nevada and Washington Primaries, all but cementing an unsurpassable lead in the Democratic Primary. California Governor Christopher Cox, a potential presidential nominee in the future, had been one of Quayle’s strongest supporters. Senator Gramm, seeing that victory is now impossible, drops out of the race and throws his support behind Quayle. Governor Miller and Congressman Paul will soldier on.

Event Date: 4-03-1996
Event Description: In an attempt to appeal to the progressive left, which he has been distancing himself from; President Jackson addresses the nation on the needs to increase federal funds to find the cure for the Acquired Immuno-Deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. “It is now imperative that we stop this plague once and for all,” President Jackson tells the nation, “We can not sit idly back and claim we are ‘above it all’ when it comes to defeating a virus which threatens millions world wide.” The speech is applauded the world round, with Senator Quayle stuck in a very difficult place. He can not oppose such a popular program, but he can not support it in fear of losing the Democratic base. Karl Rove, Quayle’s campaign manager, comes up with a plan of attack.

Event Date: 4-04-1996
Event Description: In a speech from the Civic Convention Hall in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Senator Dan Quayle rips President Jackson’s AIDS speech in a way that can appeal to Middle America. “The president’s flowery language does not excuse the bill of such a bill,” Senator Quayle tells a cheering crowd, “The government should not get involved in medicinal research, because it is too expensive and that is the business of the pharmaceutical industry. This idea is typical big government Republican spending, believing that the bigger the government, the bigger the results. I’m sorry, but that it completely ridiculous.” After Quayle outline the many miracles of medicine produced by private industry, he ends on a somber note, “Albert Einstein gave the government the Theory of Relativity, and look what they did with that. Can we really trust the government to do anything positive with medicine?” The speech is well received, with most Americans standing with Quayle on the issue of government vs. private industry medicinal research. President Jackson’s surrogates call Quayle “heartless” and such bleeding heart tripe, but it fails to stick. Quayle has won one round of the 1996 Election, but is still far behind the popular president.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-12-1996
Event Description: Congressman Duncan Hunter (Democrat of California) and Congressman J.D. Hayworth (Democrat of Arizona) introduce the 26th Amendment, a revised 14th Amendment which states that all children born to legal American citizens are American citizens. “Just because a kid is born in American shouldn’t make them American citizens,” Congressman Hayworth declares, “Only kids born to citizens of America of should be American citizens.” The amendment is called, “Heartless and cruel,” by Congressman Sherrod Brown (Republican of Ohio) and, “A cheap campaign stunt,” by Congressman Jim Matheson (Republican of Utah). President Jackson, a Hispanic and African-American man calls the amendment, “A slap in the face to all our American rights and privileges.” The amendment will be debated all spring and summer.

Event Date: 4-20-1996
Event Description: The Green Party USA, a left-winged, environmental organization, holds its first presidential convention in Eugene, Oregon. After crafting a very left-winged progressive platform attacking corporations, the Military-Industrial Complex and supporting tougher EPA standards for business, the party nominates former Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey of California for President and Native American activist Wynona LaDuke of Minnesota for Vice-President.     

Event Date: 4-23-1996
Event Description: Despite Governor Miller’s strong campaign in the “T-Zone” of the state, Senator Quayle wins the Pennsylvania Primary by a wide margin, making him the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, though he still has a great deal of primaries left to battle Miller and Paul in.

Event Date: 4-28-1996
Event Description: A bomb explodes in Bhaiperu, Pakistan, killing more than sixty people. The attack is not linked to any terrorist organization, but many in Pakistan believe that the Taliban government in Afghanistan has been ordering strikes on their nation for years. Prime Minster Benazir Bhutto, already facing a tough reelection campaign under charges of corruption, is all but finished in the election.

Event Date: 5-07-1996
Event Description: The Washington. D.C., Indiana and North Carolina Primaries come in for Senator Quayle, with North Carolina being the closest bout with Governor Miller. Congressman Paul takes a strong second in the nation’s capitol, racking up nearly 40% of the vote. President Jackson wins all three easily, but Malcolm Little’s write-in bid hits it’s peak in D.C., with Jackson winning by a 69-31% margin, the closest primary win for an incumbent president since 1956.

Event Date: 5-10-1996
Event Description: The 26th Amendment passes the appropriate House Committee, and finds a sponsor in the U.S. Senate: Senator Conrad Burns (Democrat of Montana). House Minority Leader Gingrich is pushing the act through Congress so that it may be a campaign issue. Polling shows that a majority of Americans stand with Hunter, Hayworth and Burns on the issue of illegal alien citizenship, making it a winning issue for the Democrats.

Event Date: 5-12-1996
Event Description: President Jackson signs the Living Wage Act of 1996, introduced by Congressman Chaka Fattah (Republican of Pennsylvania) and, surprisingly, Senator Robert Byrd (Democrat of West Virginia). The act requires the minimum wage to be increased to match the rate of inflation, a tall order for some companies, as many Democrats mentioned, but capable for the largest employers. “President Jackson is being very savvy this year,” political commentator Richard Morris writes in the New York Times, “He is playing the middle and the left against the far right, and is coming up on top.”

Event Date: 5-14-1996
Event Description: Having slammed the Jackson Administration for two days on the popular Living Wage Act, Senator Quayle is handed a big win in Nebraska but a large defeat in West Virginia. “I know that Danny Boy hasn’t worked a day in his life,” Governor Miller had told a rally in Wheeling, West Virginia, “But it is just plain wrong that he wants to deny an honest day’s dollar to an honest day’s worker.”

Event Date: 5-19-1996
Event Description: After months of Secretary of State Cohen and the world community working to oust him, President of the Bosnian Serbs Radovan Karadzic resigns from his office. Karadzic had been regarded as a war criminal following his overseeing of massacres of indigenous Serbs in the early 1990s.

Event Date: 5-21-1996
Event Description: In a big win, Governor Miller wins the Arkansas Primary over Senator Quayle. This victory was expected, but the 82-18% margin of victory was not. “I think this may prove that Quayle lacks a certain appeal to the Deep South voter,” Morton Kondracke writes in Roll Call, “It might be his moderate conservative voting record, his support of the Civil Rights Act every time it comes up for renewal or maybe his answers to the Confederate Flag and state’s rights question. Whatever the reason, Quayle has a lot of work to do with the Democratic South.”

Event Date: 5-25-1996
Event Description: With more than 15,000 Chechens dead and another 30,000 scattered, Secretary of State Cohen begins diplomacy between President Yeltsin and Chechen Rebels. Though he does not expect much from the meetings, he tells President Jackson, “Talking is at least something.”

Event Date: 5-28-1996
Event Description: Senator Quayle wins the Idaho Primary by a 59-38% margin over Governor Miller, but is defeated by a similar margin in the Kentucky Primary. Good news does come Quayle’s way today as Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott endorses the Indiana Senator, helping his cause in the Magnolia State’s primary.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 6-01-1996
Event Description: President Jackson vetoes the Communications Decency Act, which he calls, “An unneeded censorship bill.” While First Amendment activists, foremost in applause coming from shock jock Howard Stern and author Timothy McVeigh cheer the president’s decision, Senator Quayle uses the opportunity to attack the “radical President Jackson.” “The president vetoes an act which would protect out children from pornography, violence and drug use being shown on television,” Quayle tells a rally in Atlantic City, New Jersey, “His veto will allow the most obscene materials in America to be smeared across our homes and schools.” Congress agrees with Quayle and overrides the veto by a wide margin.   

Event Date: 6-04-1996
Event Description: In the last round of Democratic Primaries, Senator Quayle easily dispatches Governor Miller in the Montana, New Jersey and New Mexico Primaries, with Miller winning only the Mississippi Primary, and only by a 53-47% margin. Indiana Senator James Dan forth Quayle III is the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. “This goes to show you,” Jay Leno jokes on the Tonight Show, “That in America anyone really can be the president.”

Event Date: 6-12-1996
Event Description: In a Rose Garden Ceremony, President Jackson announces that Senator Paul Wellstone (Republican of Minnesota) will be his running-mate in the 1996 Election. “A promise made is a promise kept,” President Jackson told Senator Wellstone before the announcement. The selection pleases the progressives who had been angered by President Jackson’s shift to the center as well as the elderly, who appreciate Wellstone’s Social Security act which saved their benefits. While Senator Quayle and the Democrats attack the selection of a “wild, long haired liberal” like Wellstone for Vice-President, the day is a general success for the Jackson-Wellstone Campaign.

Event Date: 6-20-1996
Event Description: The incoming President of the Bosnian Serbs, Biljana Plavšić, is arrested by Bosnian police officers before she can take power. She will face trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia together with here old chief Momčilo Krajišnik and here former ally Radovan Karadžić for the "creation of impossible conditions of life, persecution and terror tactics in order to encourage non-Serbs to leave the area, deportation of those reluctant to leave, and the liquidation of others".

Event Date: 7-04-1996
Event Description: The Rudolph Braun Memorial is dedicated in Washington, D.C., by President Jackson. The memorial statue stands in front of the Holocaust Museum, as a reminder of how good can always come from any evil. “The life of Father Braun is one that should always be remembered,” President Jackson tells the world as he dedicates the statute, “His life was one which gave to people and left a legacy of peace and understanding wherever he went.”

Event Date: 7-13-1996
Event Description: Senator Dan Quayle meets at his home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with Governors Christopher Cox of California, Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin and Senator Kit Bond of Missouri in a meeting concerning his running-mate. While all the elected officials in the room know they could be picked, Governor Cox advises Quayle to choose a Southerner, “That’s the only way to please Miller and his boys.” After some consideration, the men decide that Quayle needs to ask South Carolina Governor Carroll Campbell to be his running-mate. Campbell, when asked the next day by Quayle, immediately says yes to the offer. The 1996 Election will be Jackson/Wellstone vs. Quayle/Campbell.

Event Date: 7-19-1996
Event Description: Amongst great fanfare, President Jackson begins the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. The opening ceremonies are begun by a prayer from Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, asking God for, “Peace and the spirit of competition to spread throughout the world during these glorious games.” Eric Rudolph, an anti-abortion and anti-government activist, will listen to these words, as there is no reason to terrorize a city in a state which does not allow abortion and has limited government.

Event Date: 8-01-1996
Event Description: NASA announces that it has completed a Mars Rover which can carry a chimpanzee to the Red Planet. “We can thank Presidents Kemp and Jackson for the funds,” NASA researcher Charles Day tells the Associated Press, “But the real heroes of this project are the scientists who gave years to the Mission to Mars Project.”

Event Date: 8-15-1996
Event Description: The Democratic National Convention in San Diego, California, nominates Senator Dan Quayle for President and Governor Carroll Campbell for Vice-President. “Reggie Jackson’s America is one of fees, taxes and regulations,” Senator Quayle tells the cheering audience, “He talks a lot about change, because after he’s done taxing us that’s all we’ll have left in our wallets.” Senator Quayle outlines his vision of America, “One of small government and tight knit families. A nation built on God and values, where the smut peddlers and socialist dreamers can find a home somewhere else. I see an America where every man, woman and child can be a point of light in the American skyline. A land where we are a thousands points of light, outlining a bright future for our nation.” The convention goes over well with the American voter. Quayle’s speech is seen as far less polarizing as his 1992 “Culture War” address. “I think we are seeing a new, more mature Dan Quayle,” Bill Kristol writes in the National Review, “This man looks and acts like a president.”

Event Date: 8-20-1996
Event Description: The first hydrogen and ethanol gas station in California opens today, with Governor Cox and Senator Quayle cutting the ribbon for the new facility. “It took American intuition to constrict this station,” Senator Quayle tells the assembled crowd and media. “Quayle may be overlooking, however, President Jackson’s multi-billion dollar alternative fuel crusade which is yielding amazing results nationwide,” Senator Paul Wellstone tells the Republican Women’s Convention in San Francisco, California.

Event Date: 8-29-1996
Event Description: President Jackson and Senator Wellstone are nominated for President and Vice-President at the Republican National Convention in Chicago, Illinois. Following speeches by Dr., Martin Luther King, Junior, and Senator Mitt Romney, President Jackson makes the biggest speech of his political career. “Four years ago I asked you to believe in change,” President Jackson tells the audience in his acceptance address, “Together, we have brought that change to this nation. Today, the economy is expanding, we are closer to energy security than anytime in our history, millions who had no financial security now have it and even more have health care. We have done great things, and together we can do even more. Tonight I ask you to not change to the failed policies of yesterday, but look to a bright, progressive future ahead!” The speech is applauded even by House Minority Leader Gingrich, who tells The Hill magazine, “Even if 90% of that speech was BS, the president certainly made it sound believable.”   

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 9-09-1996
Event Description: It is reported by Matt Drudge and his internet based Drudge Report that President Jackson allowed the Taliban to stay in power, despite his high talk of a “new birth of freedom” for the Afghani people. “This is true” President Jackson tells the nation from the Oval Office, “I took the best deal I could find at the time, and because I took this deal the murders of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center were captured and brought to justice.” Senator Quayle, at a rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, questions Jackson’s idealism. “The president talks a utopian game,” Senator Quayle tells the crowd, “He acts like a messiah, but makes under the table deals with dictators. That is something I believe is sickening and will never do that as president.” The Gallup Poll puts Jackson ahead of Quayle two days later, however, by a 53-44% margin.

Event Date: 9-20-1996
Event Description: After months of heated debate, the 26th Amendment is defeated in the House of Representatives, killing the amendment. “It is dead,” President Jackson tells a rally of supporters in Denver, Colorado, “I hope it stays that way.”

Event Date: 10-06-1996
Event Description: The first presidential debate is held at the Bushrell Auditorium in Hartford, Connecticut. Moderated by PBS’s Jim Lehrer, the debate focuses on domestic issues mostly. Senator Quayle makes a big deal about President Jackson’s opposition to the 26th Amendment, calling the president, “An open borders anarchist or, perhaps, a sympathizer with those who break our laws.” “You know that’s ridiculous, Dan,” President Jackson snaps back, “I oppose all changes to the Constitution that are unneeded, and that was just a stupid amendment.” “So it’s stupid to enforce laws now, Mr. President?” Quayle retorts. The cross-fire is ended by Lehrer, but not before Jackson interjects, “Laws that decimate against any ethnic group are not laws, but curses.”

Event Date: 10-10-1996
Event Description: With the Gallup Poll showing Senator Quayle trailing by a mere 53-47% margin, President Jackson begins a sweep through the Midwest and Mountain States focusing on economic growth. With the Dow Jones Industrial shooting up 300-=points today, his tour will be very successful.

Event Date: 10-16-1996
Event Description: “It’s the first time in American history that someone should cry over spilt milk,” Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners tonight, as Senator Quayle makes a major gaffe in the last presidential debate. When asked by an undecided voter what the price of milk was, Quayle seems to stemmer and not really know. He goes on about how Jackson’s taxes are making it harder to buy milk, but never answers the question. “I think that milk is about three dollars these days,” President Jackson responds, and it turns out that the guess was correct. This episode only adds to Quayle’s perception as out of touch.

Event Date: 10-31-1996
Event Description: In an ultimate October Surprise, the Treaty of Canton is signed by the Russian and Chechen governments, ending the Chechnya War. Secretary Cohen will receive the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts, and peace will finally exist between the two nations.

Event Date: 11-05-1996
Event Description: President Reginald Jackson is easily reelected President of the United States, defeating Senator Dan Quayle by a large margin.

Reginald Jackson/Paul Wellstone (R): 372 EV; 55.3% of the PV
Dan Quayle/Carroll Campbell (D): 166 EV; 43.0% of the PV
Others (Green, Libertarian, etc.): 0 EV; 1.7% of the PV

The Republican Party also takes control of the Senate and increases its margins in the House of Representatives. The Republican win in 1996 is complete. The biggest win of the night is Congressman Richard Swett’s victory over long time New Hampshire Democratic Senator Bob Smith. 

Event Date: 11-25-1996
Event Description: President Jackson, fresh off his election victory, signs additional tax cuts for the Middle Class, beginning a mini-economic boom which will last throughout 1997.

Event Date: 12-09-1996
Event Description: French President Lionel Jospin nationalizes the French area of the Euro Tunnel, enraging U.K. Prime Minister John Major. There will be a standoff between the two nations, closing down the tunnel until the crisis is solved in March 1997. During the standoff, Jospin gives the government control of all French transportation and begins modernizing trains and busses.

Event Date: 12-25-1996
Event Description: On Christmas Day, former Senator Fidel Castro announces that he will accept the position of Baseball Commissioner, a job which has recently opened. It is expected that the great Yankee pitcher will be an exceptional Baseball Commissioner.               

[Captain Chaos]

Fidel Castro is MLB Commissioner. I hope he prevents baseball from going on strike.

[MasterJedi]

Great update, but hopefully we can get President Tommy Thompson in 2000!

[PBrunsel]

The Second Term of President Reginald Jackson

Event Date: 1-05-1997
Event Description: The 105th Congress convenes, with the Republican Party once again in control of both chambers of the legislative body. While Republican leadership continues, with the 73-year old Senator Bob Dole now as Senate Majority Leader and Tom Foley still as Speaker of the House. The Democratic minority has a major shake up in power, with the “Southern branch” being blamed for the overwhelming defeats in both 1992 and 1996. Though House Minority Leader Newt Gingrich attempts to keep his job, his financial scandals and polarizing nature leads him to be defeated for the position by Congressman J.D. Hayworth (Democrat of Arizona), a firebrand conservative, who at 37, is the youngest congressional leader since Henry Clay. In the Senate, Trent Lott is bypassed for Senate Minority Leader, with Senator Don Nickles (Democrat of Oklahoma). This change from the South to the West in Democratic leadership is viewed as a major change in the party, which had been described as, “A Southern Party since the 1820s.”

Event Date: 1-10-1997
Event Description: NASA Director John R. Dailey announces that the Mars Rover can be deployed as soon as Cape Canaveral’s weather allows it. The chimpanzee selected, a red chimp named Bonzo in honor of the classic Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed film “Bedtime for Bonzo”, will take off in the craft to become the first living Earth creature on the Red Planet.

Event Date: 1-20-1997
Event Description: President Reginald Martinez Jackson is sworn in for his second term as President of the United States. Sporting a new mustache, President Jackson becomes the first president with facial hair since William Howard Taft. “I tell you today, my fellow Americans that we face no trial we can not overcome,” President Jackson tells the world in his inaugural address, “All that may be wrong with America can be cured by what is right with America.” President Jackson’s cure is outlined in the address: full national health care benefits for every American, continued tax relief for the Middle Class, a nation free from energy dependency, a chance for every American student to go to college and peace abroad. He calls this plan, “The New Justice.” “These may seem like a tall order,” President Jackson concludes, “But why shouldn’t we dream great things, after all, we are America.”

Event Date: 1-21-1997
Event Description: President Jackson puts Vice-President Wellstone in charge of writing a bill which would expand the Health Care Reform Act of 1994 into a full scale Universal Health Care plan. Wellstone, a firm believer in Universal Healthcare, immediately begins finding sponsors for the new law, with freshman Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Republican of Ohio) as a top candidate to introduce the legislation.

Event Date: 2-09-1997
Event Description: Singer and songwriter Billy Joel performs his new song “Goodnight Baghdad” at a convention of Iraq War Veterans in Jefferson City, Missouri, Though Joel is not a veteran and did not support the Iraq War, the veterans had specifically asked the talented pianist to write and perform a song to benefit Iraq War veterans. The song, which is about the daily life of the soldiers in the desert sands, hits #1 on the music charts and stays there for more than three months.

Event Date: 2-12-1997
Event Description: Using Lincoln’s Birthday as a backdrop, President Jackson vetoes the Defense of Marriage Act, which had been passed two days ago with bipartisan support. “This act is bigotry, plain and simple,” President Jackson declares as he vetoes the bill, “It fails to recognize the rights of those Americans who want to marry outside of the Juedo-Christian model. That is wrong, and I refuse to sign such a bill.” While the veto will be overridden by Congress, the homosexual community applauds the President’s brave stand on the arising issue of same-sex marriage. 

Event Date: 2-15-1997
Event Description: With the Department of Labor announcing that the GDP has grown to levels not seen since the economic boom of 1988 and thus unemployment has hit a low of 3.5%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shoots up to more than 5,000-points at closing time. This is an unparalleled growth in the economy, with President Kemp and Jackson to be credited.

Event Date: 2-21-1997
Event Description: House Minority Leader Hayworth, speaking at a massive hole in the border fence built by President Kemp, calls on Congress to begin satellite surveillance of the Southern border. “It is not enough to have just a physical fence, as such things, obviously, can have holes,” Hayworth tells the assembled crowd, “We must have a technology wall as well. Only when such a wall exists can we truly feel safe and secure at home.” President Jackson rejects the idea, instead calling for a Guest Worker Program for immigrants across the world. “All should be able to work in America, if that is their wish,” President Jackson tells reporters at a press conference, “And that is what I intend to do about immigration.”

Event Date: 3-09-1997
Event Description: Iraqi leader Georges Sada resigns his post as president after more than a decade on the job. The resignation comes over charges that General Sada had harbored the late Vladimir Putin, which he did, and anti-Western Iranian Islamic radicals, which he was, in Baghdad. The dictator was also being investigated by a worldwide police unit on the issue of selling oil to the Russian Mafia and the Japanese Yakuza, of which he was found guilty of by the investigation. A free election is called by the new interim leader, former President Ahmed Chalabi, who assures his people that he will not stand for the office of president.

Event Date: 3-13-1997
Event Description: An explosion at the Tokaimura nuclear waste reprocessing plant in Japan exposes 35 workers to low-level radioactive contamination, in the worst nuclear accident in Japan's history. This lapse in repair is blamed on the laissez faire Japanese Corporate Council by Amnesty International. The corporatist state has begun to show some signs of rust on the island nation, but it still is widely supported by the people of Japan.

Event Date: 3-20-1997
Event Description: Senator John Kerry (Republican of Massachusetts) introduces the Kerry College Bill, which provides a free college education for all American students whose families make $20,000 a year or less. The bill will be paid for, once again, by taxation of the very wealthy through an Excess Tax. “This bill is once again the Republicans showing their Marxist stripes,” Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners, “It’s ‘the rich are evil, Mr. Limbaugh, so we need to take what they have and give it to everyone.’ This tripe is the type of thing which is ruining the nation, especially its work ethic!”

Event Date: 4-02-1997
Event Description: The House of Representatives passes the Kerry College Bill, which was sponsored by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Republican of California) in the House. While House Minority Leader Hayworth had tried to torpedo the bill by introducing an amendment which would end the Excess Tax, thus taking the funding mechanism away and rendering the bill useless. “There is no way we’ll let this bill pass in the Senate,” Senate Minority Leader Nickles tells the Associated Press, “This bill, just another big spending GOP act, will meet its demise in the Senate.”

Event Date: 4-10-1997
Event Description: After an eight hour filibuster by Senator Jesse Helms, the Senate finally votes to end the talking and pass the Kerry College Bill, albeit more narrowly then in the House of Representatives. President Jackson signs the Kerry College Bill, completing the first step of his New Justice plan.

Event Date: 4-30-1997
Event Description: French President Lionel Jospin, who has recently denationalized the EuroTunnel, announces that France will open its borders to refugees from politically torn Pakistan. Along with this decision, Jospin also ends the Napoleonic rule that foreigners in the French Military can not be promoted to High Command. “This is the time to make commitments and see them through,” President Jospin tells his nation, “That, in my eyes, is the basis for the relationship of trust that should exist between citizens and their highest representative.” While the heavily immigrated areas of Southern France and the left-winged suburbs of Paris applaud this decision, the highly anti-foreigner sentiments in Northern France erupt, with National Party leader Jean-Marie LePen leading the charge. “I love the Pakistanis, Turkish and all the rest,” LePen tells the French press, “I love them when there in their own countries.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-01-1997
Event Description: Anti-immigrant rioters begin a five day national riot throughout France, with targets being both heavily immigrant, and heavily socialist, neighborhoods. President Jospin orders out the National Guard, helping to quell then riots. However, he can only completely stop the rioters, who are supported by the National Party, when he rebuffs his decision on military promotions for foreigners. Upon doing this, the bulk of the French Military crake down on the rioters, ending the May Day Riots and keeping Jospin in power.

Event Date: 5-10-1997
Event Description: Conservatism in Europe is hit with another defeat as Tony Blair’s Labour Party wins a massive landslide election victory over Prime Minister John Major’s Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. It is the biggest election defeat for the Conservative Party in history, which leads political commentator Robert Novak to declare, “Conservatism is dead in Europe, and may be in the United States.”

Event Date: 5-13-1997
Event Description: Almost disproving what Novak said three days ago, the U.S. Senate kills the Jackson Administration’s second attempt to end the Gold Standard, this time with Senator Mike DeWine (Republican of Ohio) introducing the failed bill. “Americans want their currency backed in something,” Senator Phil Gramm, who was reelected in 1996 after running simultaneously for President and Senate, tells the press, “This is why the fiscally irresponsible Jackson Administration can’t end the gold standard. It can’t do it, and it never will.”   

Event Date: 5-25-1997
Event Description: Senator Strom Thurmond (Democrat of South Carolina) celebrates his 41 years and ten months in the Senate, the longest in history, by appearing on Meet the Press with Tim Russert. “I think that the American people need to have a long look at both parties next election,” Senator Thurmond tells Russert, “And see which party wants lower taxes, and which want higher ones? Which party wants people to decide their lives, and which one wants the government to run everyone’s lives? These are the questions that need to be asked, and these are the issues that Democrats can win on.” When asked by Russert who he thinks could articulate these points the best in the 2000 lection, Thurmond pines, “Governor James Webb, no doubt. He’s a bright, folksy military man who you can’t help but like. I don’t offer him my endorsement, because that would probably hurt his candidacy, but my points still stand.” Former Governor Webb is once again running for Governor of Virginia, being opposed in the Democratic Primary by Virginia Attorney General James Gilmore, Congressman George Allen and Marine Colonel Oliver North, a Russo-Chinese War veteran like Webb who was defeated in for the U.S. Senate in 1996 by Senator John Warner.

Event Date: 5-30-1997
Event Description: President Jackson and Vice-President Wellstone make a joint appearance the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. After touring the facility, Vice-President Wellstone announces that he and a panel of experts have written a bill for Universal Health Care. “This plan will relieve the suffering of millions,” Vice-President Wellstone assures doctors, “And not cost one of you a single job.” “This is another utopian scheme from Jackson’s mob,” Rush Limbaugh declares on his radio show, “Socialized medicine has never worked anywhere, and it won’t work now.”

Event Date: 6-01-1997
Event Description: President Jackson and Prime Minister Tony Blair meet for the first time. At a summit on World Energy Reserves, the two men find that they have a lot in common. “I can work with President Jackson,” Blair tells the press, “He is a bright fellow and shares a view of the world which I have.” 

Event Date: 6-10-1997
Event Description: Former Governor Jim Webb wins the Democratic Party nomination for Governor of Virginia, winning 55% in a crowded four-way primary. Colonel Oliver North finishes second, losing his second statewide bid for office. Gaffe-prone Congressman George Allen, the 1993 Democratic nominee for governor, finishes a distant third, with Attorney General Jim Gilmore finishing fourth with just 3% if the vote. The popular Webb is expected to have a tough battle for the Governor Mansion against Republican Mark Warner, a millionaire businessman and ally of Senator John Warner, who is of no relation to him.

Event Date: 6-22-1997
Event Description: On a clear day in Cape Canaveral, Bonzo takes off on a spacecraft destined for Mars, along with the Mars Rover. The chimp will pilot the Rover with the assistance of robotics, leading humorist Jay Leno to joke on his late night show, “I’m glad they sent a chimp and a robot to drive around on Mars. If NASA had sent a human to drive Mars would never want us back.”

Event Date: 6-30-1997
Event Description: Russian President Boris Yeltsin announces that his nation will begin paying for the reconstruction of Chechnya, a goodwill measure from the nation which caused the damage in the first place. While National Party politicians rage against this policy, a coalition of Populist and Social Democrats in the Duma provide the funding. “Today,” President Jackson tells the press, “Russia reenters the civilized world.”

Event Date: 7-01-1997
Event Description: Author Phillip Roth releases his most shocking novel to date, “The Arsenal of Democracy.” This novel tells the story of how Senator Franklin Roosevelt defeats General Douglas MacArthur in the 1940 Election, leading to American involvement in the Second World War. The novel includes a daring American invasion of France, a resurgent Soviet Union rebuffing the Nazi invaders with American aid, the rise of General Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander, the defeat of Nazism in 1946, the destruction of the Holocaust, the death of President Roosevelt in 1945, leading to the disastrous James Byrnes Administration and an American-Soviet Cold War which has the world locked in the terrible horror of nuclear holocaust. The novel ends with President John F. Kennedy, who’s older brother Joseph Kennedy, Junior, was killed in the war, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy preparing for a likely war with the Soviet Union over missiles on the Red isle of Cuba, lead by Fidel Castro. The novel is a best seller and applauded by critics, though all comment that such a world is quite a nightmare scenario.

Event Date: 7-04-1997
Event Description: The Mars Rover and Bonzo land on the Red Planet, and begin a week of taking pictures and collecting samples from the planet. NASA is hailed by the media as, “A government organization can produce results.”

Event Date: 7-12-1997
Event Description: Congress returns from its Independence Day vacation, with a full docket of proposals from the White House. The biggest plan is Wellstone’s Universal Health Care Act, being introduced in the Senate by Senator Russ Feingold (Republican of Wisconsin) and sixteen co-sponsors. Senate Minority Leader Nickles promises to fight the bill to death, “If it takes all summer.”

Event Date: 7-21-1997
Event Description: Senators Larry Craig (Democrat of Idaho), Trent Lott (Democrat of Mississippi), Jim Jeffords (Republican of Vermont) and John Ashcroft (Democrat of Missouri), despite the bitter debate over the Universal Health Care Act, perform as “The Singing Senators” at Constitution Hall in a celebration over the 200th birthday of the U.S.S. Constitution. The group, which covers all four voice positions for men, is quite popular around the capitol, performing at least once a week at different functions. Tonight they sing several patriotic songs, and an original piece by Larry Craig, a humorous song about the “guy code” to escape one’s wife, “Tap Three Times.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-10-1997
Event Description: Debate begins in the House of Representatives over the Universal Health Care Coverage Act of 1997, introduced in the House by Congressman Sherrod Brown (Republican of Ohio), with Congressman Kucinich, Wellstone’s choice to introduce the bill, one of 50 co-sponsors. Democrats argue that the Health Care Reform Act of 1993 gives the best care that Middle Class and poorer Americans can get. “I recognize the successes of the 1993 health care law,” Congressman Tom Coburn (Democrat of Oklahoma) concedes, “I’m a doctor, and I have seen how that bill helps the neediest of my patients. I do not see the need to force a larger government plan on the people of this nation.” Republicans argue that the Health Care Reform Act of 1993 does not cover long term care and has too many loopholes for employers to manipulate. “We need complete and total health care for every American,” Congressman Brown argues, “We are the richest and greatest nation on Earth and this is a moral imperative.”

Event Date: 8-13-1997
Event Description: Working to stop the Universal Health Care Coverage Act of 1997, radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Michael Reagan and G. Gordon Liddy go to work reading the entire 1,600-page bill and tearing it to shreds. Former President Jack Kemp himself goes on the stump across the nation to stop the passage of the bill, speaking at political rallies in New Jersey, Virginia, New York, California and several other states. These attacks on the price of the bill, how it strips every American of their own personal insurance and how it is unneeded due to the Health Care Reform Act of 1993 prove to be quite successful. “I have received more than 5,000 letters, phone calls and even these new e-mails,” Congressman Tom Latham (Republican of Iowa) tells CNN’s Larry King, “They are more than 2-to-1 against this universal health care bill.” President Jackson, seeing his bill in jeopardy, takes the case for it to the people, using Air Force One to fly to more than 20-states in the next week, pushing Universal Health Care.

Event Date: 8-28-1997
Event Description: After the brutal debate over the Universal Health Care Coverage Act of 1997, the House of Representatives fail to pass the progressive bill. A solid bloc of Democrats and conservative Western Republicans defeat the bill, despite the Republicans dominating the chamber. “I am very disappointed that right-wing lies destroyed this noble endeavor,” Speaker Foley tells the press. “Lies?” Rush Limbaugh retorts on his radio program, “If telling the people exactly what was in the bill is lying, then I guess I’m guilty of the crime.”            

Event Date: 9-03-1997
Event Description: Following the defeat of the Universal Health Care Act, President Jackson decides to rethink his New Justice Program. Meeting with Chief of Staff Nutter, Jackson acknowledges he overplayed his hand. “I gave the Congress too much credit,” Jackson tells Nutter, “I thought they would believe the way I did, but that was far too much of an overestimation.’ “You need to push some of your smaller programs,” Nutter advises, “Like the college bill, and then you will better prepare the Congress for bigger plans.”

Event Date: 9-14-1997
Event Description: Director Ken Burns releases his latest work, a five part documentary on the American-Japanese War. The documentary has over 100 interviews from veterans of the war, along with readings from more then 2,000 letters, making it one of the most in-depth documentaries on any war, especially the under reported American-Japanese War. Burns will receive several Emmys for his work as well as a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American-Japanese War Veterans Association.

Event Date: 9-21-1997
Event Description: President Jackson signs the Clean Imports Act of 1997, introduced by Congressman Marion Berry (Democrat of Arkansas). The bill requires that all nations which trade with the United States must abide by the standard of the 1993 International Trade Bylaws, including clean and safe imports, or the U.S. will halt free trade with any nation found in violation of the laws. This bill is meant to make the Russians and Chinese, who both have free trade agreements with the United States, reform there lax inspections of poisons in their food and other imports to the United States.

Event Date: 9-30-1997
Event Description: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl enrages the socialist community, especially in his native land, by referring to President Lionel Jospin as, “The Red President”, while being interviewed by a German publication. “This statement is meant to tie the modern day socialist movement with Stalinism,” German Social Democratic Party leader Gerhard Schröder says, “It is a low blow and the Chancellor should apologize for it.” President Jospin is not so offended, telling the Le Information of Paris, “He can call me ‘red’, ‘purple’ or ‘blue’, it doesn’t change my mission. I am the President of France, not the President of French Capitalism.”

Event Date: 10-06-1997
Event Description: It is discovered by private instigators in Tokyo, Japan, that Makei Tokuyawa, a former President of the Bank of Japan and Financial Chair of the Japanese Corporate State, has been artificially boosting banking in Hong Kong through distorted news stories and falsified insider rumors. The investigators conclude that Tokuyawa was overseeing this plot to make up for his failing bank investments in both Japan and China. Within 24-hours the stock market in Hong Kong collapses 5,000-points and Tokuyawa commits suicide by a bullet to the head. President Jackson calls for stability, as does Federal Reserves Chair Alan Greenspan. These cries for peace, however, are drowned out by a world banking panic.

Event Date: 10-07-1997
Event Description” WALL STREET LAYS AN EGG!” blares the headline of the Wall Street Journal. With Hong Kong’s banking system and stock market going wild, the world goes into an economic panic. The Dow Jones Industrial Average follows suit and plummets 554.26, or 7.18%, to 7,161.15, worse than the crash in 1929, leading to the Recession of 1929. While President Jackson speaks to the nation telling them to, “Let your cooler and wiser heads prevail” there is little else the chief-of-state can do as the world enters an economic panic.

Event Date: 10-17-1997
Event Description: Following an emergency meeting of the Federal Reserves stabilizing the U.S. banking system for the time being, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gains 300-points, which begins a stabilization of the market. The panic has caused a slight economic downturn, something that President Jackson does not need. The two hardest hit nations are Japan and China, where the banking system is now worthless. Japanese Corporate Minister Matabee Kenji Maeda begins major work to change the corrupt system, using his powerful office to rebuild the Japanese economy. In China, President Chen Shui-bian is hogtied by beurocratic oversight, continuing the economic spiral. Some in China are beginning to see some sense coming from Hu Jintao and the Corporatist Party.

Event Date: 10-30-1997
Event Description: The Iraqi Presidential Election, the first since the 1980s, elects Ghazi Mashal Ajil al-Yawer, of the center-left The Iraqis Party, to the office of president. His election is another victory for populist, socialists and leftists worldwide. The nominee of the right-winged National Islamic Union, Nouri al-Maliki, accepts the, “People’s decree,” and concedes the race. “This peaceful transition of power is a great victory for democracy,” President Jackson tells the nation in a speech from the Oval Office, “It shows that Iraqi’s want freedom, and peace, above all.”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-04-1997
Event Description: While the world may be looking left, the United States turns right in the elections held today. In Virginia, former Governor Jim Webb defeats businessman Mark Warner by a 55-45% margin, a big win for a potential president. In New Jersey, Governor Christine Todd Whitman is defeated for reelection by Jersey City Mayor Bret Schundler, who attacked the governor constantly for raising property taxes and supporting the Universal Health Care Coverage Act. Governor-elect Schundler is touted by the conservative National Review as, “The next Jack Kemp.” In New York City Mayoral bout, Democratic Congresswoman Susan Molinari pulls off a major upset, defeating incumbent Republican Mayor Francisco Ferrer by a margin on 309-votes. Following two weeks of recounts, Congresswoman Molinari is declared elected the first woman Mayor of the Big Apple. “This three sweep is a huge victory for the Democratic Party,” Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners, “It appears as if the message of less government and more freedom plays well when said by articulate and clear thinking individuals.”           

Event Date: 11-08-1997
Event Description: The recently elected pro-Western government of Egypt orders the arrest of the small fringe group Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya ("The Islamic Group"), for an attack two days ago on a group of British scientists near Alexandria. The leaders are arrested and questioned. It is discovered that the group was intending to attack a group of European tourists as they saw the sites near Luxor, Egypt, an historic area. The massacre was to be in protest of the election of pro-Western leaders in Cairo and the recently passed anti-terror legislation this election brought. The attack is foiled by Egyptian national guardsmen, ending what would have been a massacre at Luxor. President Jackson, upon hearing of this foiled terrorist plot, applauds the Egyptian government as, “A close and trusted ally in the ongoing struggle against terrorism.”

Event Date: 11-20-1997
Event Description: Senator Al Gore (Democrat of Tennessee) tells the Memphis Daily Gazette that he would be interested in seeking the White House in 2000. “The results of this month’s elections in Virginia and the rest show that the people want Democratic leadership,” Senator Gore tells the paper, “I believe that I can best lead this cause in the year 2000.” Gore is seen as a far more liberal Democrat, voting for public housing, Medicare and jobs training while in the Senate, so it can be debated if he can best argue for conservative leadership.

Event Date: 12-03-1997
Event Description: After a prolonged debate, President Jackson signs the Cleland Act, outlawing the manufacture and trade of landmines from the United States. Senator Max Cleland (Democrat of Georgia) had lost his legs to a landmine in China during the Russo-Chinese War, so the bill had a story behind it as well as facts about the dangers of land mines. Senator Chuck Hagel (Democrat of Nebraska) co-authored the bill, adding another war veteran to the act.

Event Date: 12-11-1997
Event Description: The Kyoto Protocol is introduced by the Corporatist State of Japan, outlining the rules of proper and legal banking. Following the crisis last October, the Japanese never want another such panic. The rules follow the laws introduced by President Hoover in the 1920s in regards to banking and the stock market, spreading his legacy over seas.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Another excellent update   I'm hoping to see Jim Webb elected President.

[MasterJedi]

Good update!

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-02-1998
Event Description: Facing a massive unemployment crisis, President Yelstin begins a massive jobs program in Russia, reminiscent of the New Deal, the New Day and other such American programs. The great exception is that these programs do not embrace private industry, but instead put factories and workplaces under government control. Conservatives world wide attack Yeltsin and his, “Return to Stalinism.”

Event Date: 1-12-1998
Event Description: Governor Hillary Rodham (Democrat of Illinois) signs the largest tax decrease in the history of the Land of Lincoln. The fact that she also had to cut more than 13,000 government jobs is also brought up by the local media, but the regular Illinois voter is proud of “Governor Hillary.” She is seen by the Democratic establishment as a strong contender for a landslide reelection and the Oval Office.

Event Date: 1-26-1998
Event Description: The trial of former Vice-President William Jefferson Clinton begins today, with Attorney General Dan Lungren leading the prosecution. “Mr. Clinton has admitted that he broke the law and accepted money and favors for government contracts,” Lungren tells the court, “Thus, he must be punished and sentenced to the fullest extent of the law.” Clinton’s defense attorney, F. Lee Bailey, tells the jury in his opening statement, “Mr. Clinton is guilty of only one thing: being in a different political party then Cox, Lungren or Gingrich.”

Event Date: 2-06-1998
Event Description: The Washington National Airport is renamed the Joseph P. Kennedy, Junior, Washington National Airport. Though the Republican dominated Congress had opposed this name change, in the end the Congress put partisanship aside to honor the great air force hero with his own airport.

Event Date: 2-17-1998
Event Description: President Jackson and Chief of Staff Nutter meet with Republican National Chairwoman Elizabeth Dole, discussing the midterm elections. “Things do not look good,” Dole tells the president, “Republicans are being seen more and more as tax-and-spenders who are trying to make government too big.” “The legacy of Gingrich,” Nutter responds. After some thinking, President Jackson interjects, “Why don’t we try to use our government programs to reach conservative aims?” “What do you mean?” Nutter asks. “Why don’t we introduce school vouchers, tax credits and such?” Jackson asks, “These are what the Democrats want anyway.” “I see,” Nutter responds, “Use their own tactics against them.” Jackson nods his head, in which Nutter responds, “I think you’re losing your starry eyes, Reggie.” “No Mike,” the president responds, “You just can’t be an idealist if you don’t get anything done.”

Event Date: 3-09-1998
Event Description: In a defeat for gay rights, the conservative Supreme Court strikes down President Jackson’s executive order allowing soldiers to be openly gay. Oncale v. U.S. Army declares that homosexual soldiers have no need to openly announce their sexual orientations. “Such actions are not required for soldiers,” Associate Justice Robert Bork writes for the majority opinion, “Just as they are not required for any other government job.” The ACLU declares that it will fight to overturn this ruling, but for now the gay rights movement has suffered a major blow. 

Event Date: 3-20-1998
Event Description: To the surprise of the left and the right, President Jackson signs the long Debated School Choice Act, introduced by archconservative Senator Orrin Hatch (Democrat of Utah). The law gives all high academic achieving students who’s families make $20,000 a year or less the option to use a special government voucher to attend a private school. The law is applauded by the NAACP as a bill which “Will cultivate young minds who must grow up in poverty.” The bill is expensive, but widely supported by the American public.

Event Date: 3-25-1998
Event Description: Asian stock markets collapse again today when it is announced that the National Chinese Bank and Trust has still yet to reform its system following the Hong Kong Banking Scandal. “The world’s most populous nation appears to be the most beurocratic and inefficient as well,” Roger Mudd declares on PBS’s Nightly Business Report, “It is a shame one nation can create a recession.” The U.S. itself is being harmed by the slow going recovery in the Chinese banking system, with many investments in that nation failing.

Event Date: 4-01-1998
Event Description: Following almost a week of bad economic news due to Asian Recession, President Jackson and Congress pass a major economic relief bill for the nations of Japan, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Thailand and even the Republic of China. “We can only hope they don’t squander this money,” President Jackson tells Speaker Foley. “Hope springs eternal, Mr. President,” Foley responds.

Event Date: 4-02-1998
Event Description: With the news of the incoming economic stimulus, the world markets rebound. Once again, clever manipulation and tactics from Washington, D.C., has staved off a world wide recession. “Our luck will run out one day,” President Jackson tells his wife at dinner, “I just hope that doesn’t happen for a long time.” 

Event Date: 4-15-1998
Event Description: As tax day comes in, President Jackson signs a revised version of the Gramm Tax Payers’ Bill of Rights, one which makes even Rush Limbaugh applaud the president. The new amendment to the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights requires that both Houses of Congress to inspect what the biggest pork barrel projects are and why members of Congress want them. “This is a ridiculous policy,” Congressman Ted Kanjorski (Republican of Pennsylvania) tells the Associated Press, “This is an unneeded assault on Congressional privacy rights.” Ironically, Congressman Kanjorski will be the first congressman found using pork barrel spending for private gain, and forced to resign from office.

Event Date: 4-22-1998
Event Description: Duma Election Day in Russia is not a bright day for President Yelstin. The Populist Party loses disastrously due to the “Vote out the Reds” campaign by the Nationalist Party. Yeltsin’s emergency economic actions are easily portrayed as socialist by the Nationalists, and in a nation which was once Communist, this idea is a frightful one.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 5-03-1998
Event Description: “The Ghost in the Shell” is released, and it is word for word accurate to Timothy McVeigh’s best selling novel. The role of Jack M. Shell, the antigovernment marine colonel, is portrayed by 24-year old Christian Bale in his first major role. Jeremy Irons, the veteran Shakespearean and silver screen actor, portrays antagonist Detective Wayne Gray. The film receives much praise, but the selection of the unknown Bale is seen as very odd by the Hollywood elite. “I saw Bale’s audition,” McVeigh explains to entertainment columnists, “And he stuck out as the man with the dark side and the sense of duty to play a marine who hates Uncle Sam.”

Event Date: 5-11-1998
Event Description: In a closed door meeting, President Jackson and House Minority Leader J.D. Hayworth discuss a new immigration bill incorporating both men’s ideas on the border and illegal immigration. President Jackson’s idea is to set up new, more powerful surveillance cameras on the border fence as well as beginning a guest worker program for immigrants. “I don’t want amnesty, Mr. President,” Hayworth tells Jackson. “You won’t have any,” Jackson tells Hayworth, explaining that his new immigration reform bill will outlaw sanctuary cities, “anchor babies” and make all illegal immigrants report to immigration offices before they can become guest workers. The bill seems to cover everything, and Hayworth agrees to support it when it comes up for debate.

Event Date: 5-18-1998
Event Description: The New Republic, a progressive magazine with over three million subscribers nationwide, publishes a scathing article of President Jackson and his “move to the center-right.” “The Right Stuff”, the name of the article, attacks the president for “selling out his progressive values” on universal health care, the separation of church and state and immigration reform. In response to these attacks, Chief of Staff Nutter tells the Associated Press, “The New Republic should stop complaining that the president has to be a bridge builder.”

Event Date: 5-25-1998
Event Description: In a tragic turn of events in the trial of William Clinton, Norman Hsu commits suicide the day before he was expected to testify against Clinton. Attorney General Lungren immediately assures the nation that no fowl play has been found surrounding the suicide. “It has long been known that Mr. Hsu was mentally unbalanced,” Lungren tells the swarming press, “This trial obviously put him over the edge.” Hsu’s affidavits from the Senate Whitewater trial will be used as evidence in his place, but the tragic event leaves former Vice-President Clinton devastated, as he blames himself for the death of Norman Hsu.

Event Date: 5-30-1998
Event Description: Secretary of State Cohen begins talks between Pakistan and India over nuclear testing. The two nations, who have lost their spirit of cooperation since the agreement over Kashmir in 1984, have begun beating war drums over recent nuclear tests. Secretary Cohen, hoping to bring a bi-partisan feeling to the agreement, brings along the man who made that 1984 agreement, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, along as his chief advisor.

Event Date: 6-05-1998
Event Description: In California, popular Democratic Governor Christopher Cox wins his primary with more than 90% of the vote, defeating several gadfly opponents. The Republican Primary is a free-for-all, with former Governor, Attorney General and current Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, the son of a Democrat, winning the nomination with just 38% of the vote against seven other candidates. Lieutenant Governor Gray Davis, who takes second place, is hurt by the Whitewater Scandal, as he was a close ally of Governor Clinton. Taking third was colorless Congressman Sam Farr, who ran a campaign, based on economics, failing to appeal to a state with a very fast growing economy. Cox, who has a 61% approval rating in the last SurveryUSA poll, is seen as favored for reelection against the man known even by fellow Republicans as “Governor Moonbeam.”

Event Date: 6-13-1998
Event Description: Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi (Republican of California) introduces the Off-Shore Closure Act, prohibiting off-shore drilling on the California, Oregon, Texas and Florida Coasts. “This bill is insane!” Congressman Bob Barr (Democrat of Georgia) declares on the House floor, “It ties the hands of industry and of Uncle Sam. It stops us from getting emergency oil if there is ever a major energy crisis.” “That is the point,” Pelosi responds, “There is no need to ever drill off-shore, especially during an energy crisis. You can’t drill your way out of a crisis.” Debate continues on the bill, with President Jackson agreeing to sign the bill.

Event Date: 6-15-1998
Event Description: Congresswoman Pelosi’s bill finds a strange ally in oil billionaire T. Boone Pickens, who applauds the bill for, “It’s forward thinking.” Pickens confines on Larry King Live that he is becoming more of an environmentalist as he has seen, “What oil spills and the like can do to the Earth.” Pickens begins a nationwide newspaper advertisement campaign urging readers to call or write their legislators and tell them to support the Off-Shore Closure Act.

Event Date: 6-30-1998
Event Description: The House of Representatives passes the Off-Shore Closure Act by a wide margin, with a good deal of Republicans supporting the bill. Speaker Foley confines to President Jackson that the bill faces, “One tough road in the Senate.” With Senate Minority Leader Nichols coming from Oklahoma, a very pro-oil state, that is an understatement.

Event Date: 7-09-1998
Event Description: Vice-President Paul Wellstone selects White House intern Monica Lewinsky to be a chief speech writer for him. “Ms. Lewinsky has shown incredible talent in this regard,” Wellstone tells the press, “She will serve as an excellent speech writer, of that I have no doubt.” Vice-President Wellstone, a strong family man, will become close friends with Ms. Lewinsky, but there will never be any talk of any romantic affair going on between the two professionals.

Event Date: 7-16-1998
Event Description: The U.S. Senate votes down the Off-Shore Closure Act by a close margin, leading environmental groups to picket the homes of senators who voted against the bill. Senator Olympia Snowe (Republican of Maine), who voted against the bill, is most fiercely targeted as she was seen as a champion of the environmental cause until now. “I couldn’t vote away our nation’s greatest energy asset,” Senator Snowe tells the press, “That is our ability to drill in our own country. If we don’t do it, someone else will.” Environmental leader Ralph Nader, a former cabinet secretary, begins looking for a Republican to challenge Snowe when she runs in 2000 to punish her for being one of the senators who killed the bill.

Event Date: 7-21-1998
Event Description: The U.S.S. Ernest McFarland is christened by Secretary of the Navy Walter Bibwaller, who confines that he knows little about President McFarland. The quiet man who captained the ship of state from 1949-1953 is overlooked by most historians, with the exception of David McCullough. The lauded historian is expected to release his new book “McFarland” in October, becoming the first major book on a forgotten leader.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-04-1998
Event Description: Senator Charles Grassley (Democrat of Iowa) and Congressman Jeff Flake (Democrat of Arizona) introduce the Grassley-Flake Immigration Act of 1998, an all encompassing act which strengthens immigration laws and begins a guest worker program. The bill is applauded by most members of Congress as a great success of negotiation and compromise, with Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Republican of Ohio) being one of few dissenting voices over the bill. “I see this bill as a sell out to the right by the president,” Kucinich tells the fellow legislators from the House floor, “It tells the world that we are not the great nation of immigrants, we are a nation which is made up of dishwashers, maids and other such low dignity jobs. This bill doesn’t offer hope to illegal or legal immigrants, it offers slavery.” The bill will easily pass both houses of Congress despite these attacks, and will be signed into law by President Jackson.

Event Date: 8-17-1998
Event Description: Russia defaults on the state short-term bonds issued by the emergency Yeltsin economic plan, which destroys the ruble. The ruble loses 70% of its value against U.S. dollar over the next months, leading to many American companies in Russia to fail. Several of the largest Russians banks collapse and millions of people lose their savings and jobs. “This is Populist efficiency,” Nationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky tells Pravda, “I think it is time for a change in the Kremlin.”

Event Date: 8-21-1998
Event Description: The Senate passes an emergency relief package for Russia, just as it did for several Asian nations in April. This act is attacked by many conservatives as very overreaching. “Russia is a socialist power,” Congressman Newt Gingrich tells Tim Russert on Meet the Press, “These billions we are sending to its banks and industries will just be wasted in socialist beauocracy. I feel it is best to leave Russia in an economic panic until Yeltsin reigns and new, more efficient men take power.”

Event Date: 9-01-1998
Event Description: Former Vice-President William Jefferson Clinton is found guilty by the grand jury of influence peddling, using government lands for private gain and working illegally with a foreign government. His penalty is not jail time, but a $2 million dollar fine and one decade probation from real-estate speculation and politics. “They might as well have put me in jail,” Clinton tells the court after the sentence, “That’s how I’ll feel it I can’t get involved in politics.” President Jackson has nothing to say about the case except, “California sees justice as being served, and that is their business.”  

Event Date: 9-28-1998
Event Description: After weeks of tense negotiations, Senator George W. Bush (Republican of Connecticut), the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, declares that the Major creditors of Long-Term Capital Management, a Greenwich, Connecticut-based hedge fund, will not be bailed out by the government after defaulting on several loans. Instead, management is required by the committee to be fired and fresh leadership to be instated. “Amazing!” Rush Limbaugh declares on his radio program, “The big spending GOP Congress decided NOT to send $50 million to bail out something that’s failing.”

Event Date: 9-30-1998
Event Description: Former Senator Margaret Truman releases her new book, “My Daddy: The Human Side of Harry Truman.” The book is a beast seller as it shows the life of legendary Senator Harry S Truman through the prism of a man seeking, “One more success than failure.” The story of how a down on his luck Truman, after failing to win the Jackson County Judgeship in 1922, found work as a piano player at a seedy dance hall, and then turned it into a success, becomes a favorite story of Rush Limbaugh, who Mr. Truman probably would have called a name that will not be mentioned.

Event Date: 10-06-1998
Event Description: A day of terror which inspires an unlikely man to take up an unlikely cause. Congressman Barney Franks (Republican of Massachusetts), the only openly homosexual member of Congress, while waiting in traffic outside of Boston, is attacked by a hand propelled grenade, causing his car to explode, killing the congressman and the three aides in the automobile. The murderer is found to be Eric Rudolph, a would be Olympics bomber who wanted to, in his own words, “Bring the wrath of God upon the sodomite abortionist monster.” Congressman Franks is mourned by members of both parties, and is remembered by Senator Al D’Amato (Democrat of New York) as, “One of the funniest, big hearted and most compassionate men I have ever met.”
 
Event Date: 10-10-1998
Event Description: In response to the murder of Congressman Franks, Senator D’Amato, previously one of the most anti-homosexual members of Congress, introduces the Barney Franks Memorial Act, which introduces strict laws regarding anti-gay violence and hate speech. “We must not let the memory of our good friend Barney be lost in the screams of hatred,” Senator D’Amato tells his colleagues, and they seem to agree with him. The bill will easily pass, and be praised by homosexual rights groups and the ACLU as the most, “Sweeping human rights reforms since the civil rights laws in the 1920s.”

Event Date: 10-14-1998
Event Description: Eric Rudolph begins his trial for the murder of Congressman Barney Franks with overwhelming evidence and public opinion against him. “I did what I knew was right,” Rudolph will tell his prosecutor, “I will not ask for forgiveness for that.” In December 1998, he will be sentenced and found guilty of murder in the first degree, and given life imprisonment. “While I am not a fan of the homosexual lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination,” Pat Robertson tells his viewers the day Rudolph’s trial begins, “Murder and terror are not what Jesus Christ wants from his followers.”

Event Date: 10-25-1998
Event Description: Europe’s fastest growing economy, Germany, becomes a nation under the rule of the Social Democratic Party, as Gerhard Schroeder and his party are swept into victory in a landslide. “It was time for a change,” outgoing Chancellor Helmut Kohl tells the Associated Press, “I experienced both the winds of change for and against me, and so will Chancellor Schroeder.”

Event Date: 11-02-1998
Event Description: President Jackson signs the Government Vehicle Modernization Act, requiring all non-military government vehicles to become alternative fuel hybrids by 2001. This act both delights the left, who need to vote for Republican in the Midterm elections just one day away, and delights Vice-President Wellstone, who has shown some animosity towards President Jackson’s move to the right.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-03-1998
Event Description: The Midterm elections are a wash, with the Democrats gaining seats in both houses of Congress, but not enough to win either house back from the GOP. In New York, Senator Al’ D’Amato is narrowly reelected over Republican Congressman Charles “Chuck” Schumer, with his sponsorship of the Barney Franks Memorial Act being seen as a big reason for his upset win. In Minnesota, Minneapolis Mayor Norm Coleman, the Republican nominee, is elected Governor, defeating former Congressman and 1994 Senate candidate Rod Gramms, the Democrat, and Jesse Ventura, an actor and former professional wrestler seeking the office as the nominee of the Progressive Reform Party. In California and Illinois, Governors Cox and Rodham win big election victories, setting up their probably bids for the Oval Office in the year 2000.

Event Date: 11-09-1998
Event Description: Congressman Henry Hyde (Democrat of Illinois), the “Jowliest Man in Congress”, tells the Hill Magazine that House Minority Leader Hayworth’s work with President Jackson over the past two years is the reason that the Democrats failed to win Congress this year. “He didn’t lead like a conservative,” Hyde declares, “And we paid a dear price for this negligence.”

Event Date: 11-18-1998
Event Description: The Russian economy completely collapses as it is revealed that President Yeltsin’s own cabinet has been embezzling the U.S. funds to prop up its failing economy. This news causes market confidence in Russia, and around the world, to collapse as it spreads doubt on such loan packages to Asia. President Jackson calls for calm, but the market goes haywire today with the Dow closing with more than 700 lost points.

Event Date: 11-20-1998
Event Description: President Yeltsin tells Pravda he refuses to resign from his office no matter what information comes out over the embezzlement crisis. “My hands are clean!” he belligerently tells the news network. As long as Yeltsin stays in power, many in the U.S. fear, the Russian economy will continue to suffer.

Event Date: 11-23-1998
Event Description: In a move welcomed by the world at large, President Yelstin names a Council of Economic Advisors, made up of Russian and American businessmen and economists. Their job will be finding a way to make the massive Russian economy work, and it is a daunting task. “I feel like that Greek god who had to pull the boulder up the hill,” Steve Jobs, who is head of this new council, tells the press, “I just hope I don’t get crushed by the weight of it all.”

Event Date: 12-12-1998
Event Description: Senator Al Gore announces his candidacy for the 2000 Democratic Presidential nomination. “It is time for all Democrats to recognize we are in a new age,” Gore declares, “An age where we must embrace the environment and technology, or be thrown into the dust.” This speech is well revived by Republicans, but most Democrats are very skeptic of this tone which seems somewhat more GOP than Democratic.

Event Date: 12-30-1998
Event Description: President Jackson names Senator Mitt Romney as Chairman of the Millennial Celebration Committee. This committee will oversee all official government celebrations for next New Year’s Eve, welcoming in the year 2000 and a new millennium. Romney is honored to have the position, and the national exposure. This is also a tactical move by President Jackson, who did not want the ambitious and wealthy Romney running against Vice-President Wellstone in 2000.

[MasterJedi]

Good update, President Jackson is at least going more to the center!

And President Tommy Thompson 2000!

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Gore/Webb '00!

[PBrunsel]

I've been on vacation for the last week seeing a collection of presidential libraries. This is why I have failed to update my timeline in a week. I hope by the end of today or tommorrow I will have 1999 up, and then we can party like that year.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-01-1999
Event Description: Pakistani gunmen attack the peace summit in Islamabad, Pakistan, between India and Pakistan. Three people are killed and six are injured, but Secretary of State Cohen and the top diplomats are not injured. The attackers are found to be rogue Pakistani military operatives, who are punished accordingly by Pakistani law.

Event Date: 1-07-1999
Event Description: Former Senator Dan Quayle announces that he will run for the Democratic nomination for President in 2000. Quayle, who had been the 1996 Democratic Presidential nominee, declined running for reelection in 1998 to seek the White House once again. Former Republican Governor Evan Bayh won Quayle’s seat, easily defeating Democratic Congressman Dan Coates. “The Jackson Administration has proven to be a disaster for America,” Senator Quayle declares in his announcement address, “The naivety of Jackson and his cronies on economic and foreign affairs has led our world to the brink of an economic plunge which has never been seen before. I say it is time for a change in the White House.”

Event Date: 1-20-1999
Event Description: In his State of the Union Address, President Jackson challenges the nation to, “Put a man or woman on Mars by 2005.” Jackson, who has been a favorite president of NASA, asks the scientific world, “To use the technology of the ‘Bonzo Mission’ to make sure that the United States of America wins the race to Mars.” With the lunar base on the Moon becoming a reality, most Americans see a man on Mars as a real possibility.

Event Date: 2-12-1999
Event Description: A massive earthquake devastates the nations of Colombia and Venezuela, leading President Jackson to call for a $185 million relief package for the two nations. While the Congress is happy to give aid to Colombia, a close U.S. ally, many are far less willing to support such aid for Venezuela. “The nation of Venezuela is under the control of a red socialist!” Congressman Bob Dornan (Democrat of California) booms on the House floor, “We shouldn’t send a penny to that rat hole until Hugo Chavez steps down and is punished for his crimes.” Chavez, a socialist, was elected in January 1999, running on a platform calling for more distribution of wealth and government control of oil production. In the end, the funds will be allocated, but not without American-Venezuelan relations being strained.

Event Date: 2-22-1999
Event Description: The Indian-Pakistani Nuclear Test Ban Treaty is signed in Islamabad, Pakistan. The agreement requires both nations to practice a moratorium on nuclear testing for twenty years and destroy their long range nuclear devices. The agreement is hailed by the world as a major diplomatic achievement, but cold warriors in both nations are unhappy with the decision. “We have signed away our security,” General Pervez Musharraf declares at a right-winged rally, “It is unacceptable that we should have to give up our own safety to appease Western idealists.”

Event Date: 3-09-1999
Event Description: Governor Tommy Thompson (Democrat of Wisconsin) announces his candidacy for President of the United States. He promises a campaign based on modernizing our health care system, reforming social welfare programs to require accountability for recipients, passing a Balanced Budget Amendment and a humble foreign policy. “We need a president who can make Washington work for us, and not over us,” Governor Thompson declares, “I will be that president.”

Event Date: 3-13-1999
Event Description: Following her northern neighbor, Governor Hillary Rodham (Democrat of Illinois) announces that she will seek the White House in 2000. “I inherited a state that had a multi-million dollar deficit, an economy that was losing jobs and citizens who no hope,” Governor Rodham tells the cheering Springfield crowd that came to see her announcement, “I changed all those things for the better and I am ready on day one to be President of the United States.” Polling shows that Governor Clinton is in second place in the Democratic Primary, with Senator Quayle leading by a slight margin. “The first woman president,” Fred Barnes of the National Review writes, “May well be a Democrat, much to the surprise of the ‘accepting’ and ‘progressive’ Republicans.” 

Event Date: 3-20-1999
Event Description: Serbian forces flood over the border into Kosovo, starting the Kosovo War. President Jackson and Secretary Cohen meet in the Oval Office to discuss the situation and what should be done about it. “It’s genocide, Bill,” Jackson tells Cohen, “It has to be nipped in the bud or we might as well return Rwanda to chaos.” “I know that Mr. President,” Secretary Cohen responds, “But this is a European affair, let them deal with it.” This answer does not please the idealistic chief executive, who calls on Secretary of Defense Colin Powell to appoint a commander of American forces to intervene in the war torn region of Eastern Europe.

Event Date: 3-21-1999
Event Description: The 71st Academy Awards surprise the critics by giving the award for Best Actor to Christian Bale for his portrayal of Jack Shell in “The Ghost in the Shell,” a film expected to not win a sing award.

Event Date: 3-22-1999
Event Description: General David Petraeus, the former commander of the Allied Humanitarian Force in Rwanda, is appointed by President Jackson and Secretary Powell to head the American intervention in Kosovo. This decision is met with protests by Democrats in Congress, most of them very loud and critical. “Why are we invading a sovereign nation which never attacked us and we have no vital interest in?” Congressman Gordon Robertson (Democrat of Virginia) asks his House colleagues. The answer comes from Congresswoman Maria Cantwell (Republican of Washington) who calls the intervention in Kosovo, “A noble endeavor by a noble man.” This answer is not what the American people were looking for, as the Gallup Poll shows that more than 60% of Americans see no reason to have any presence in Kosovo.

Event Date: 3-27-1999
Event Description: The first 25,000 American troops arrive in Kosovo under General Petraeus, despite Congress never voting to allocate these troops. The first hours of combat are quick and easy for the American forces, but it will not stay this way for long. By the end of the day, three American jet fighters have been shot down and twelve soldiers have been killed by enemy fire. 

Event Date: 3-29-1999
Event Description: American intervention in Kosovo causes the European market to go into yet another panic, this time over fears of a long term war in Kosovo and the “Powder Keg of Europe.” This causes the Dow Jones Industrial Average to fall 115-points, leading to a poor day for Wall Street. “Nothing good ever comes from Jackson’s foolish jaunts in other countries,” Rush Limbaugh tells his listeners, “This is just another example of this fact.” President Jackson’s approval ratings have suffered in the last few days, standing at just 43% in the latest Gallup Poll. Despite this fact, an additional 10,000 soldiers arrive in Kosovo today.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-02-1999
Event Description: With American troops overseas in yet another peace keeping mission, Governor James Webb (Democrat of Virginia) declares his candidacy for President of the United States. “I have seen war, I know war and I hate war,” Governor Webb tells the crowd in Richmond watching his announcement, “This is why I oppose unconstitutional, unadvised, undeclared and unneeded wars in places which are of no strategic or humanitarian interest to the United States.” Governor Webb, a Russo-Chinese and Iraq War veteran and military analyst for Presidents Ashbrook, Bush and Kemp, is seen as the strongest Democratic candidate for president by many conservative leaders, especially Rush Limbaugh.

Event Date: 4-07-1999
Event Description: American and Serbian troop’s battle at Kosovo's main border crossings. Serbian forces were attempting to prevent ethnic Albanians from fleeing Kosovo, which General Petraeus was attempting to aide them in doing. The firefight goes on for two days, with Marine Colonel Paul Hackett emerging as the hero of the battle. Hackett risked his own life carrying three wounded comrades to a Red Cross combat hospital six miles. The strain severely wounds Hackett, but his valor will earn him the Purple Heart and the Silver Star.

Event Date: 4-11-1999
Event Description: In a shocking announcement, Senator Joseph Biden (Republican of Delaware), the 1984 Republican presidential candidate, announces that he will run for President in 2000. “We do not need another foreign policy novice in the White House,” Senator Biden declares, “We can’t have Paul Wellstone be our standard bearer when he is not a military man, a foreign policy expert or even a chief advisor to his own president.” This attack on Wellstone is seen as very odd, as the Vice-President has not yet announced his intentions to seek the Oval Office. “This is upsetting,” Vice-President Wellstone comments to the press, “I would have expected Senator Biden to be less disingenuous. After all, I worked on his 1984 campaign.”

Event Date: 4-18-1999
Event Description: American forces in Kosovo reach Pristina, the largest city in the territory. General Petraeus meets with the leader of the territory, Fatmir Sejdiu who declares that the Republic of Kosovo is an independent nation. This decree shocks many across the globe, as the U.S. entered Kosovo not as a liberating power, but as a humanitarian force. “I will back whatever decision Mr. Sejdiu makes,” President Jackson tells the nation in an address from the Oval Office, “His nation has been the target of too much hatred and mistrust, and the stage of genocide for too long.”

Event Date: 4-21-1999
Event Description: Kosovo Independence Day is celebrated, with all major players in the Kosovo government signing a declaration of autonomy from Yugoslavia. This move naturally enrages Yugoslavian leaders, who are struggling to keep their nation together, and Russia, who sees such a move as a threat of American involvement in Eastern Europe. Many Democrats in the United States are upset about this action, with Governor Webb being the first to attack, “The dangerous policy of nation building.”

Event Date: 4-30-1999
Event Description: Yugoslavian forces mount a massive counterstrike against American forces on the outskirts of Pristina, attempting to overtake the new government in its earliest stages. The assault is a surprise one, as American commanders had expected all fighting to be over by the end of April. The assault lasts three days, and costs the lives of more than 1,200 American soldiers. However, the Yugoslavian assault is completely repealed with more than 15,000 casulties on their side. It appears as if peace is at hand.

Event Date: 5-05-1999
Event Description: The Republic of Yugoslavia signs the Treaty of Athens with the Republic of Kosovo. Secretary of State Cohen demanded that the treaty be signed in Athens, where, “The spirit of cooperation was made into a philosophy.” The treaty is simple. Yugoslavia recognizes Kosovo independence while the United States pays the nation $135 million in repairs for the Kosovo War. “We now have peace one again in Eastern Europe,” President Jackson tells the nation, “We must now have high hopes that this peace stays in tact.”

Event Date: 5-11-1999
Event Description: California Governor Christopher Cox declares his candidacy for president amongst great celebration from Western Democrats. “I seek the office of president not to oppose any administration,” Governor Cox tells his supporters, “I seek it to propose a new policy of honesty and effective administration in Washington.” The governor who helped bring down Bill Clinton is hailed by Democrats nationwide as one of the best choices for president in the year 2000.

Event Date: 5-20-1999
Event Description: Author Timothy McVeigh his newest novel, “The Furher’s New Clothes,” on what would be Adolph Hitler’s 110th birthday. This book talks about how a nuclear war leads to a gated community in Middle America; one ran by an all knowing and all seeing “High Father.” This “High Father” ushers in an era of utopia, but at the price of freedom of choice, expression and thought. The protagonist of the novel, taxi driver William Curtis, lives this life until he comes across a banned history book one night, reading about the Third Reich and its promises of glory through sacrifice. Curtis begins to use radio and computers to spread the gospel of “False Utopia” and attempts to bring down the all powerful “High Father.” This novel is attacked by many McVeigh fans because at the end, Curtis is executed and tyranny continues reigning over the land. “We can not always have happy endings,” McVeigh tells Barbara Walters in an interview, “This is life.”

Event Date: 6-03-1999
Event Description: The Dow Jones Industrial Average collapses today, falling more than 350-points before the closing bell. The reason for this revolves around Russian anger over American meddling in Kosovo, the slow going bank reforms in China and continued graft throughout the Corporatist State of Japan. “The world is going into an economic spiral,” Ben Stein tells Tony Snow on FOX News Sunday, “We can really just hold on tight and hope it turns out all right.”

Event Date: 6-16-1999
Event Description: The International Criminal Tribunal at The Hague, Netherlands calls for a trial of Slobodan Milošević, the Serbian leader who led the invasion of Kosovo, and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. President Jackson asks the tribunal to call upon General David Petraeus to testify against Milošević, a call which they will answer.

Event Date: 6-20-1999
Event Description: President Jackson signs the Economic Stimulus Act of 1999, introduced by Senator John Kerry (Republican of Massachusetts). This act gives all Americans who filed taxes in 1998 a stimulus check for $800. This act hopes to encourage consumer spending, which hit an all time low in the first quarter of 1999. Democrats ridicule the act as a waste of funds. “I can’t think of anything more ridiculous,” Governor Cox tells a rally in Des Moines, Iowa, “The government gives people money for doing nothing but being tax payers. This is a waste of money and time.”

Event Date: 6-27-1999
Event Description: The International Criminal Tribunal for Slobodan Milošević for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo. This leads to mass national celebrations throughout Kosovo, the first such unity demonstrations since independence.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 7-04-1999
Event Description: “Mr. Putin’s Russia” premiers in theatres. This film tells the story of Vladimir Putin, the former Russian Defense Secretary who led two unsuccessful coups in Russia. The title role is played by Dennis Hopper, an Academy Award nominated actor who has been given very few serious roles since “Blue Velvet” in 1986. The film receives critical acclaim, and Hopper will be nominated once again for an Academy Award.     

Event Date: 7-12-1999
Event Description: Senator George W. Bush (Republican of Connecticut) announces his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in the year 2000. “With our economy souring more and more every day,” Senator Bush declares in his announcement address, “We need a Masters of Business Administration in the Oval Office, and I just happen to have an MBA from Yale.” This comment, aimed at pro-business Republicans and Democrats, is attacked by potential candidate Senator Kerry due to the fact, “That the Harvard MBA program is far superior to the Yale one.”

Event Date: 7-16-1999
Event Description: John F. Kennedy, Junior, flying with his older nephew Captain Joseph Patrick Kennedy IV, arrives safely at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. Captain Kennedy, like father and grandfather before him, is a skilled pilot. John F. Kennedy, Junior, the nephew of two presidents, discusses with his uncle Edward Kennedy running for Congress in New York City, where he currently lives. “It’s only natural,” Edward tells his nephew, “Every Kennedy has to run for office sometime.”

Event Date: 7-18-1999
Event Description: President Jackson meets six other world leaders in Cape Canaveral, Florida, to discuss the completion of the lunar base. “Moonbase Omega” will be able to be launched and docked on the Moon by October 1999.

Event Date: 8-08-1999
Event Description: At an announcement from an urban public school in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Vice-President Paul Wellstone announces his candidacy for the presidency. “I chose to speak from such humble and poor surroundings for one reason,” Wellstone states in his announcement address, “It is because these parts of our country, the urban and rural poverty stricken areas, are ignored by a nation that clings to the suburbs and the metropolitan cities far too much. I want to be the president which looks for solutions for neighborhoods around this school.”

Event Date: 8-29-1999
Event Description: NASA launches the Lunar Prospector today, amongst great international fanfare. This robotic satellite will sift through the soil and rock of the area selected for the lunar base. “We spent $350 million on a vacuum cleaner,” Rush Limbaugh tells the audience, “It’s no wonder why the American people think that Jackson sees money and immediately spends it.”

Event Date: 9-30-1999
Event Description: The economic outlook from Russia is quite bleak as the Russian Economic Council reports today. “Stagflation is out of control,” Steve Jobs reports to the Duma, “The council can do very little to help the economy. The government is racked by corruption and the price of everything is rising faster than the government can deal with.” In response to this, President Yeltsin fires his entire cabinet and orders the arrest of Minister of Finance Sergei Stepashin, who has been embezzling public aid for decades. These dramatic moves are seen as positive by the world market, which stabilizes despite the horrible Jobs Report to the Duma.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 10-01-1999
Event Description: Governor George Pataki (Republican of New York), who was elected in 1994 after successfully defeating Governor Mario Cuomo in the Republican Primary and reelected in 1998 by a landslide, announces his candidacy for President of the United States. He has the backing of Nelson Rockefeller’s wing of the Republican Party, socially progressive and focused on diplomacy in foreign policy. Senator Mitt Romney (Republican of Massachusetts) endorses Governor Pataki, telling the crowd at the governor’s announcement address, “I haven’t seen a governor who’s done more for his state since my dad was in charge of Michigan.”

Event Date: 10-10-1999
Event Description: In Belgrade, tens of thousands of Serbians rally to demand the resignation of President Slobodan Milošević. The Yugoslavian leader has been convicted of war crimes and held under house arrest since May 1999. In the following weeks Milošević will resign his office and be arrested by American and European forces in Yugoslavia. This action is attacked by Governor Webb as, “America performing the actions of a world wide police force.”

Event Date: 10-15-1999
Event Description: President Jackson signs the African Growth and Opportunity Act, introduced by Congressman Bobby Rush (Republican of Illinois). This act gives African businesses needed aid in building up their capitol and loans American farming and textile production products to African nations which lack the tools to be self-sufficient. While most Americans applaud the act as one which will begin an economic change on the troubled continent, but Governor Cox has different ideas about the bill. “This latest act from President Jackson gives Africa what the president has denied American businesses,” Governor Cox tells supporters in Nashua, New Hampshire, “The greatly feared ‘corporate welfare.’”

Event Date: 10-17-1999
Event Description: After three years of work by NASA and the European, Russian and Japanese space agencies, Moonbase Omega is launched. “The stars salute us today,” President Jackson tells the world from the Oval Office, “For together; we have reached the Moon and will discover the secrets of space.” NASA is now at work on the vehicle that will take humanity to Mars. The multi-stage rocket is currently scheduled to be completed in April of 2002. If it works, the project is scheduled to move forward until M-Day, Mars Launch Day, on July 4th, 2005.


Event Date: 10-19-1999
Event Description: Senator Strom Thurmond (Democrat of South Carolina) calls for Governor Hillary Rodham to drop out of the Democratic Primary for president on Larry King Live. “This woman claims to be a conservative,” Senator Thurmond tells King, “But when you look deep into her record, you’ll see a history of signing unbalanced budgets, okaying tax hikes and currying favor with radicals from Cook County.” Thurmond points out that in 1998, in an obvious reelection stunt, Governor Rodham had, “Worked with a radical State Senator named Barack Obama to pass a law which liberalized abortion laws in the state. I can’t believe that this lady thinks she can be the Democratic presidential candidate with a record like that.” Responding to Thurmond in West Des Moines, Governor Rodham accuses him of, “Playing the gender card to scare me out of the race.”

Event Date: 10-30-1999
Event Description: In a surprise announcement, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (Republican of Georgia) announces her candidacy for the Republican nomination for president. Flanked by Malcolm Little and the Reverend Al Sharpton, McKinney calls Vice-President Wellstone, “A fake poverty crusader who never spent one day in a ghetto.” She declares that as president she will be, “The urban president.” Her announcement comes as a surprise to President Jackson, who thought that Republicans would line up behind Vice-President Wellstone. He is even more surprised when McKinney attacks him in her speech as, “That man in the White House who spoke down to the poor to get elected, and forgot about them when he was in office.”

Event Date: 11-01-1999
Event Description: The Chinese finally get their banks in order, but not without first causing millions to lose their life savings. The Bank of China collapses overnight due to the crisis, leading the Stock Market to collapse worse than one year ago during the Japanese Banking Crisis. “The banks of the world have never been weaker,” Morton Kondracke writes in Roll Call, “We can hope that the problem will stabilize itself, but that is all we can really do.”

Event Date: 11-09-1999
Event Description: During a routine check up at Michigan City Penitentiary, former President Robert Kennedy discovers that he is dying of Bright’s Disease, a kidney ailment that claimed the life of another president, Chester Alan Arthur. The 74-year old president takes the news well enough, telling the doctor, “I always wanted to die as painfully as possible. I am a glutton for punishment after all.”     

Event Date: 11-10-1999
Event Description: “The Abuse of Power: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon” is published by John Dean, President Nixon’s former chief counsel. The book reveals that President Nixon’s “Plumbers” performed many illegal activities, even the murder of Porter Goss, on the orders of President Nixon. While Pat Buchanan, one of the staunches Nixon supporters, calls the book, “A pack of lies,” many other Nixon officials claim that the book tells the truth. One thing is proven by the reaction to the book; the legacy of Richard Nixon is still of great interest and debate more than two decades after he left the White House.

Event Date: 11-12-1999
Event Description: Senator Rudolph Giuliani (Republican of New York) announces that he will not run for president in the year 2000, but instead support Governor Pataki for the office. “George Pataki will restore competency to the Oval Office,” Senator Giuliani tells Tim Russert on Meet the Press, “That is something that the world desperately needs right now.” This comment is seen as an attack on Vice-President Wellstone, who of course is President Jackson’s choice for president.

Event Date: 11-20-1999
Event Description: In a military coup, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is overthrown by Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf. Senior Army generals led the coup, seeing Musharraf as far more of an anti-Indian leader than the more peaceful Sharif. The generals’ coup d'état leaves Musharraf in control of the government and reverses Secretary Cohen’s success in the region.

Event Date: 11-28-1999
Event Description: With the world’s economy in trouble due to the banking crisis, President Jackson sends Secretary of the Treasury William Scranton III to Geneva, Switzerland, to work on a plan to stabilize world banking. “We can only hope that the nations of the world can come to an agreement on banking,” Secretary Scranton tells the Associated Press, “For that is the only way to save the world economy from darkness is to shed light on the problem.”

Event Date: 12-10-1999
Event Description: Baseball Commissioner Fidel Castro meets with both players and management at his home in Tampa, Florida, to come to an agreement over pay and work hours for baseball stars. “I was once a baseball player,” Castro tells the men,” I know that I was too whiny as a player, and I know that management was too greedy. We must overcome these faults to find an agreement.” By Christmas 1999, an agreement has been met with players getting a slight raise and management getting more commercial endorsements for players. “Sometimes we have to play to the worst in people,” Castro tells his wife, “I gave the whiner money and gave the greedy guy even more.”

Event Date: 12-26-1999
Event Description: The Jack Kemp Presidential Library opens in Buffalo, New York. The museum includes a wing to First Lady Joanne Kemp, the first such attachment to a presidential library. “Mr. President,” President Jackson tells Kemp in the commencement address of the new building, “You stood proud and tall and made our nation dot he same after one of the greatest constitutional crises in our nation’s history.” President Robert Kennedy, dying of Brght’s Disease in Michigan City Penitentiary, is not invited to the opening events.

Event Date: 12-31-1999
Event Description: The Millennial Celebrations commence across the world, with President Jackson and Senator Romney overseeing America’s celebration of the new millennium. “The 20th Century has seen both bright and dark days,” President Jackson tells the nation in an address from the Oval Office, “We have seen wars that destroy millions of lives, and peace which gives hope to billions. We have had dishonest and wicked men in power across the globe, but in the end the great statesmen of our time have defeated them and taken the path of the righteous. My fellow Americans, the 20th Century has come and gone, and America stands as the superpower of the world and the shining city on the hill.”         

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Another excellent update