By a Fluke of the Gods: Cox Defeats Harding

[MasterJedi]

Yay, Chavez gone and the revolutions in Cuba crushed!

[Kaine for Senate '18]

It's been good, and it stays good

[Хahar 🤔]

Yay, Chavez gone and the revolutions in Cuba crushed!

At the expense of Latin America hating the US.

[MasterJedi]

Yay, Chavez gone and the revolutions in Cuba crushed!

At the expense of Latin America hating the US.

So far as he's mentioned Latin America for the most part doesn't hate the U.S. so hah.

[Reluctant Republican]

You continue to impress, PBrunsel. You have created an excellent world here.

[Хahar 🤔]

Yay, Chavez gone and the revolutions in Cuba crushed!

At the expense of Latin America hating the US.

So far as he's mentioned Latin America for the most part doesn't hate the U.S. so hah.

As far as he's mentioned. But I'm sure they do.

[MasterJedi]

Yay, Chavez gone and the revolutions in Cuba crushed!

At the expense of Latin America hating the US.

So far as he's mentioned Latin America for the most part doesn't hate the U.S. so hah.

As far as he's mentioned. But I'm sure they do.

Well Cuba had some reforms so the people turned against the reovlution and Colombia elected conservatives. Probably the only people that hate us are the Venezualens and we didn't really do anything to them.

[War on Want]

Gross, I really hate America in this TL. I would probably be a big time Socialist in this world.

[MasterJedi]

Gross, I really hate America in this TL. I would probably be a big time Socialist in this world.

Then they could deport you to Mexico.

[War on Want]

Gross, I really hate America in this TL. I would probably be a big time Socialist in this world.

Then they could deport you to Mexico.

I would probably just move to Mexico.

Really though supporting coups by military juntas to overthrow democratically elected governments is pretty disgusting. I don't care if they are quirky or hate America, if you support Democracy then you should think the socialists will screw up and not be reelected.

[MasterJedi]

Gross, I really hate America in this TL. I would probably be a big time Socialist in this world.

Then they could deport you to Mexico.

I would probably just move to Mexico.

Really though supporting coups by military juntas to overthrow democratically elected governments is pretty disgusting. I don't care if they are quirky or hate America, if you support Democracy then you should think the socialists will screw up and not be reelected.

Well if they try and overthrow other governments then nothing's really wrong with it if you do it to them.

[War on Want]

Gross, I really hate America in this TL. I would probably be a big time Socialist in this world.

Then they could deport you to Mexico.

I would probably just move to Mexico.

Really though supporting coups by military juntas to overthrow democratically elected governments is pretty disgusting. I don't care if they are quirky or hate America, if you support Democracy then you should think the socialists will screw up and not be reelected.

Well if they try and overthrow other governments then nothing's really wrong with it if you do it to them.

Ever hear the phrase two wrongs don't make a right? Besides that is a fallacy in most cases because some countries could apply the same thing to the country whoose government they are trying to overthrow. Get my point?

[PBrunsel]

I'm glad to see that a debate has begun over affairs in Latin America. 2002 was the crisis year, but there will still be some more changes in affairs in the Americas. Also, to Xahar, you are right, the events of the last two years have soured opinions in Latin America towards the United States.

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 1-08-2003
Event Description: President Webb signs the Saxton Act, introduced by Congressman H. James Saxton (Democrat of New Jersey). This act, the first passed by the 108th Congress, requires the U.S. Congress to have to a 2/3rd majority before any tax increase can become law. This is a major victory for fiscal conservatives, as they have been fighting for this tax prevision since the 1990s.

Event Date: 1-15-2003
Event Description: Governor John Rowland (Republican of Connecticut) declares his candidacy for President of the United States. “It’s about time that the American people get some straight talk,” Governor Rowland says in his announcement address, “President James Webb has been a disaster, and the current Republicans seeking to unseat him can’t do it. I know I can, as I have beaten the odds before and I will do it again. I was told that I could never balance the budget as governor, and I did. I was told I could never pass welfare reform, and I did. I was told I could never be elected governor, and I did. Together, we can defeat the Webb White House and restore dignity to the Oval Office.” Governor Rowland is very popular with the national Republican establishment and the powerful Bush political family, making him a powerful player in the Republican Primaries.

Event Date: 1-21-2003
Event Description: In Caracas, Venezuela, leftist rebels begin a three month terror campaign to destabilize the Perez Administration. Minister of Defense Angel Perdomo begins a major crackdown on civil liberties in the nation’s capitol, leading to an outcry against the new government by humanitarian groups.

Event Date: 2-08-2003
Event Description: Senator Russ Feingold (Republican of Wisconsin) introduces a resolution to the Senate which would discourage intervention in foreign civil wars. “The event in Cuba last year have led me to believe that this administration sees the armed forces as a tool to help unpopular regimes win domestic conflicts,” Senator Feingold tells his colleagues, “That is a dangerous position and one which should never be used again.” Senator Majority Leader Don Nichols (Democrat of Oklahoma) will refuse to allow this resolution to come up for a vote, calling it, “Pure parliamentary games.”

Event Date: 2-15-2003
Event Description: Timothy McVeigh releases his first non-fiction book, “A Future for Fascism.” This book, described as a libertarian manifesto by McVeigh, attacks the United States for, “Abandoning the principles of the Founding Fathers and becoming both a police state at home and aboard.” The CIA, FBI, public education, the standing army and lobbyists are blamed for, “Tilling the land for a fertile growth of American fascism.” The book is applauded by libertarian author Larry Elder as, “The most eye opening look at American government in fifty-years.”

Event Date: 2-26-2003
Event Description: In a bipartisan agreement, Senator Bill Frist (Democrat of Tennessee) and Congressman Charlie Bass (Republican of New Hampshire) introduce the Latin America Relief Act. This bill issues $500 million for economic development in the nations of Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Belize, Mexico and Costa Rica.

Event Date: 3-03-2003
Event Description: In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court upholds their decision on abortion as set down by Planned Parenthood v. McWherter. This time around Planned Parenthood attempted to sue the state of Illinois for refusing a state abortion plan which would have allowed a young girl to abort her pregnancy, which was the cause of her death. “This is becoming a murder case,” Planned Parenthood attorney Gordon Powers tells the press, “A lack of proper birth control laws in the United States can be a cause of death amongst women too young to give child birth.” The conservative Supreme Court rules against this line of thinking, with Justice Robert Bork writing, “No state can be charged with murder.”

Event Date: 3-10-2003
Event Description: Governor Mitt Romney (Republican of Massachusetts) announces on Meet the Press that he will not seek the presidency in the year 2004. “I have just become governor,” Romney explains to Tim Russert, “Now is not the time to seek another office. I need to complete the job I’ve been hired for, after all, that’s what I did when I was in business and that’s what I want to do in my new executive position.” When pressed by Russert on who he supports for president in 2004, Romney responds, “I like Governor Coleman in Minnesota, I hope he runs.” This is a major slight to John Kerry, the second Republican to announce his candidacy for president, as he had served alongside Romney in the Senate six years.

Event Date: 3-12-2003
Event Description: Chinese President Hu Jintao fires his entire economic staff, calling them, “Amateur novices,” to U.S. News and World Report. The new Chinese corporate state has been nowhere as successful as the one in Japan, leading Jintao to blame is economic staff for failures in growing the economy. This abrupt action leads the world market to suffer, but it will rebound as soon as Jintao hires new advisors.

Event Date: 3-26-2003
Event Description: Secretary of State Daniel Patrick Moynihan dies at the age of 76 after complications suffered from an emergency appendectomy done last month. Despite the pain of the failed operation, Moynihan refused to quit his post until President Webb requested his retirement. Moynihan had served as a U.S. Senator from 1977-1981 and Secretary of State for Robert Kennedy and Jack Kemp, from 1981-1993, and in the same post for President Webb since 2001. “A faithful public servant has passed into eternity tonight,” President Webb tells the American people in a heartfelt address from the Oval Office, “Daniel Patrick Moynihan spent his life seeking peace in the world, and now enters the glory of Heaven to live forever with the Prince of Peace.”

Event Date: 3-28-2003
Event Description: Nicaragua, a nation whose economy was left out of economic aide in the Latin American Relief Act due to its socialist government, elects a new, pro-American government headed up by Arnoldo Alemán, who defeats former President Daniel Ortega by a 54-46% margin. Ortega claims that the election was stolen, but has no proof to back up this assertion. Over the next several months the U.S. Congress will formalize relations with Nicaragua and include them in the nations aided by the Latin American Relief Act.

Event Date: 3-29-2003
Event Description: Senator Olympia Snowe (Republican of Maine) declares her candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States. “The time is now for the promise of President Reginald Jackson to be fully fulfilled,” Senator Snowe declares in her announcement address, “The promise of a full life through faith, education and a helping hand, and that is why I seek the presidency today. I also seek the presidency to fulfill the promise of Secretary of State William Cohen, one of Maine’s greatest public servants, by ending the policy of the United States coddling civil liberties terrorists and dictators across the globe. We must show the world that right makes might, and not the other way around in American foreign policy.”   

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 4-03-2003
Event Description: California Governor Richard Riordan issues an executive order defending sanctuary city polices in California. Sanctuary cities, which are cities in which illegal immigrants can not be asked by police if they are legal residents, have never been tackled by the federal government, making Governor Riordan’s decision a legal and valid one. “California has some of the biggest cities in the country,” Governor Riordan explains to the press, “We need to have ever law abiding resident, legal or not, available to talk to police when cries occur. This is why sanctuary cities need to exist.” This comment is roundly criticized by leading conservatives, with Rush Limbaugh telling his radio audience, “Riordan understands law and order about as well as Sam Waterson does it appears.”

Event Date: 4-05-2003
Event Description: Six anti-Russian Chechens kidnap a tour bus full of Russian and American tourists in Kiev, Ukraine. The terrorists demand that Russia remove two units of tanks from the Russian-Chechen border. President Webb and Undersecretary of State Joshua Bolton immediately condemn the attack and urge the European Union to intervene in the crisis. Russian President Boris Yelstin chooses to negotiate with the Chechens, though the opposition Nationalist Party of Russia demands a forceful response. After two days of intensive talks, President Yeltsin agrees to remove certain weapons from the border, including tanks and short range missiles. These concessions are enough to end the hostage situation, but they infuriate Nationalists in Russia who see the deal as a sell out.

Event Date: 4-12-2003
Event Description: Governor Norm Coleman (Republican of Minnesota) announces his candidacy for president of the United States. “I seek the presidency not to oppose the current administration,” Governor Coleman states in his announcement address, “I seek the office to be America’s Mayor, an executive who cleans up his town, something President Webb doesn’t want to do.” The slogan “America’s Mayor” is meant to point to Coleman’s many successes as Mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota, as well as his strong tenure as Governor of the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Event Date: 4-22-2003
Event Description: The Senate confirms Joshua Bolton as the new Secretary of State, confident that his masterful handling of the recent crisis in Chechnya as proof he will perform well in the new job.

Event Date: 5-05-2003
Event Description: Governor Mitt Romney signs the Equality of Marriage Act, making the Bay State the second state in the nation to legalize homosexual marriage. “Laws should not be made to discriminate against other people,” Governor Romney tells the press as he signs to bill, “This is why every state needs to recognize the equality of holy matrimony, no matter if it is between a man and a woman or a man and a man.” This act makes Romney a popular figure amongst progressives, but alienates his own Mormon Church who opposes homosexual unions.

Event Date: 5-11-2003
Event Description: President Webb begins a tour of Latin America, the focal point of his foreign policy. The trip will not always be a pleasant one, as millions of Latin American people see the United States as an aggressor in their homelands. However, President Webb leaves for the trip with a strong face on. “This trip will open up new doors of understanding,” President Webb tells the press as he goes aboard Air Force One, “Even if it doesn’t, I haven’t had a good vacation in twenty years so I could just use it for that.”

Event Date: 5-13-2003
Event Description: President Webb and Mexican President Vincente Fox meet in Mexico City, Mexico, to discuss progress in Mexico’s faltering economy as well as Mexico’s attempts to decrease illegal immigration into the United States. While the guest worker project and the “satellite wall” have reduced illegal immigration from Mexico by more than half in the last five years, the problem still exists. In the end, Fox agrees to step up Mexican border patrol and crack down on the drug dealing crisis in his poverty stricken nation.

Event Date: 5-15-2003
Event Description: While touring Managua, Nicaragua, President Webb’s motorcade is attacked by a small group of leftist protesters. These rebels are armed with small firearms and Molotov cocktails, far more weaponry then local police had thought protesters would dare bring near a presidential convoy. The ensuing chaos will leave several police and protesters injured, but none are killed and President Webb arrives at the Presidential Manor unscathed.

Event Date: 5-20-2003
Event Description: In a surprise announcement, former Senator Gary Hart (Republican of Colorado) announces that he will seek the presidency in 2004. Senator Hart, thought discredited as a candidate for any office after the 1987 Donna Rice scandal, tells the Boulder Daily Press that he is, “Tanned, rested and ready to take on the president and restore progressive values to the Oval Office.” “Well if he’s around enough patriotic secretaries,” Rush Limbaugh comments, “More than just ‘progress’ will be brought back to the Oval Office.”

Event Date: 5-28-2003
Event Description: Henry Clay High School in Lexington, Kentucky, is racked by a minor explosion. While none are harmed by the blast, harm caused to the school’s cafeteria will cost thousands of dollars to replace. A formal police inquiry into the attack reveals that junior Ryan Petersen is responsible for the attack. His locker is found to have a copy of Timothy McVeigh’s “A Future of Fascism” in it, leading some in congress to call for the banning of the book. “These attacks on my work are uncalled for,” McVeigh tells Larry King Live, “I am only the messenger; people interrupt messages in different ways.”

Event Date:  6-08-2003
Event Description: In a White House ceremony, President James Webb presents General Tommy Franks with the Medal of Honor for leading American troops, “In the fight for freedom in Cuba.” Also today six U.S. soldiers who served under Franks will be given this high honor. Protesters line the streets outside of Pennsylvanian Avenue, attacking the president for giving awards for, as one protester tells CNN News, “Invading a country and propping up a murderous regime.”

Event Date: 6-11-2003
Event Description: United Airlines Flight 93 crashes outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania, killing all ninety-six passengers. Among the dead is former Congressman Malcolm Little, who was traveling to Washington, D.C., to march with the Reverend Al Sharpton and Project Push in favor of saving affirmative action, which will be decided on in Grutter v. Bollinger in three days. Little was seventy-eight years old, and as Sharpton will say at his funeral in Detroit, Michigan, “Feeling younger everyday due to the energy of justice.”

Event Date: 6-14-2003
Event Description: In Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court rules against affirmative action in university admissions by a 5-4 decision. “Race is no longer a valid reason to skew admission into universities and other areas of higher learning,” Chief Justice William Rehnquist writes in the majority opinion, “Though class based affirmative action are still a reasonable request for higher learning.” This decision outrages both liberals and conservatives, as liberals support race based affirmative action and conservatives oppose all forms of it!

Event Date: 6-25-2003
Event Description: French President Lionel Jospin becomes the first French president in history to face a recall election. Paris Mayor Nicholas Sarkozy, the protégé of Jacques Chirac, spearheaded this recall election, and was able to get the needed signatures to force a recall vote on July 14th, 2003, Bastille Day. If President Jospin is recalled, a special presidential election will happen in October 2003. “I will survive these bitter partisan attacks,” President Jospin tells the press, “No recalls can stop the power of the people’s voice.”

Event Date: 7-06-2003
Event Description: Vice-President Kay Bailey Hutchinson, while visiting Paris, France, for an economic summit, makes the grave error of endorsing the recall of President Jospin. “I believe that Mr. Jospin’s ideas on taxation and government control are out of step with those of the developed world,” Vice-President Hutchinson tells the BBC in an exclusive interview, “Which is why I feel that recalling him from office would do some good for France.” This comment is taken up by Republicans as proof that the Webb Administration is now targeting socialist governments in Europe as well as in the Americas. “This administration is trigger happy when it comes to over throwing governments!” Senator Mike Gravel declares at the first Republican Presidential debate in Des Moines, Iowa, “Now they are looking across the sea to further their reactionary agenda.” President Webb responds that his administration, “Has nothing to do with the recall in France,” and, “the vice-president is entitled to her own opinion.”

Event Date: 7-14-2003
Event Description: President Lionel Jospin escapes recall as President of France by a 51-49% margin. This is by no means a mandate for governing, but as Jospin tells the French press at his victory celebration, “It’s a mandate of victory over those conservative bastards and that’s all that matters to me!”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 8-01-2003
Event Description: Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Republican of Ohio) throws his hat into the ring, declaring his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in 2004. “I’ve been fighting my whole life,” Congressman Kucinich declares at his announcement address in Cleveland, Ohio, “From my days of living in cars, to my battles as mayor to my current position as a champion of progressive values in Congress I have been fighting to be heard and to prevail.”

Event Date: 8-14-2003
Event Description: A wide spread power outage across the Northeastern United States leaves millions of Americans without basic electricity, some for hours and other for days. When it turns out that a grove of overgrown trees in Ohio caused the crisis, Senator George Voinovich (Republican of Ohio) introduces the Power Grid Maintenance Act of 2003. This act will require state governments to monitor their power lines every year to make sure that their power grid is not being interfered with by foreign objects. The bill will easily pass and be singed into law by President Webb.

Event Date: 8-18-2003
Event Description: Former Maryland Governor Peter Franchot declares his candidacy for President of the United States. One of the “Young Wonder Governors”, such as Bill Clinton, Jefferson Thomas and John Rowland, of the early 1990s, Governor Franchot is seen as the darkest of dark horses in the 2004 Republican Primaries. However, he has the support of House Minority Leader Stenny Hoyer and Senators Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski, all nationally known Republicans.

Event Date: 8-26-2003
Event Description: The European Space Agency begins the search for two astronauts to join the Americans as they blast off to Mars in 2005. The search will cause some tension between Germany and the United Kingdom, as Germany has the continent’s most advanced space program but the United Kingdom is America’s closest European ally.

Event Date: 9-02-2003
Event Description: The House of Representatives begins debate over the Webb Budget for the 2004-2005 fiscal years, with great controversy surrounding one decision. This decision is that the Webb Administration will balance the budget by 2005, meaning that major spending cuts will occur. The military, of which President Webb comes from, is barely affected by these cuts, but education, public housing, job training and free clinics are severely severed of funds. “If the president wants balanced budgets, that’s fine,” House Minority Leader Hoyer declares at a pres conference, “But let him cut from the military or take away his tax cuts, not from the poverty stricken in society.”

Event Date: 9-08-2003
Event Description: After days of heated debate, President Webb decides to humor his budget opponents by cutting funding for American missile defense and cutting loose ten underperforming contractors for the Pentagon. This move saves $23 million and allows several jobs programs and educational necessities to be returned to the budget. The budget will easily pass both houses of Congress by October 2003, leading political commentator Robert Novak to comment, “President Webb is the only politician in history who can be both a polarizing and a uniting figure.”

Event Date: 9-12-2003
Event Description: Political commentator Dick Morris, a columnist for the “The New York Times”, derides the Republican candidates for president as, “The Eight Dwarves.” “Snowe, Rowland, Gravel, Kucinich, Hart, Kerry, Coleman and Franchot are not serious candidates for the most powerful position on the planet,” Morris writes, “None have shown the American people that they have a clear plan that deviates from the Republican line, and those who actually stand a chance at the nomination show no real signs of deviation from President Webb.” Morris concludes that, “The president is on his way to a landslide victory in 2004 if no better candidate enters to race for president.”

Event Date: 9-20-2003
Event Description: The Dow Jones Industrial Average finishes above 20,000-points today, the first time in the history of the stock.

Event Date: 9-28-2003
Event Description: The New York State legislature passes a resolution outlawing Timothy McVeigh’s novels in public high schools. “Mr. McVeigh’s books show people a government conspiracy that isn’t there,” Assemblyman Sheldon Silver tells the press, “That is why such trash should be kept out of reach of impressionable students.” In response to this decision, McVeigh blasts Silver on “Radio Free America” as, “One of those government types I warn against in my books. This is a man who wants no free expression of ideas and will do anything to stop the First Amendment. Sheldon Silver is a fascist.”

Event Date: 10-10-2003
Event Description: Rush Limbaugh, the host of “The Voice of the Nation”, admits on his program that he is addicted to prescription pain killers. “I have shown great weakness and foolishness,” Limbaugh tells his listeners, “For this I apologize to my listeners, supporters and the American public at large.” While late night comedians and Republican talking heads make much of this scandal, it will die down and Limbaugh will remain the host of the most popular radio show on the airwaves.

Event Date: 10-16-2003
Event Description: With the Russian presidential election just six months away, President Boris Yeltsin announces he will not seek a second term as president. “I feel a routine failing of my body,” President Yeltsin tells his people from a televised Kremlin address, “I have become an old and worn out man, and am not fit to be your president.” The Populist Party, after six years in power, feels the same way.

Event Date: 10-20-2003
Event Description: Bolivia bucks the pro-capitalist and pro-American attitudes of its Latin American neighbors by electing socialist Evo Morales to the presidency as well as voting in the Socialist Party as the majority in the Bolivian Legislature. Almost immediately, Senator Bill Frist introduces an embargo against Bolivia. President Webb never seriously considers an embargo, telling Secretary of Defense Wesley Clark, “The people of Bolivia will see the error of their ways without the big bad United States doing anything at all.”

Event Date: 10-31-2003
Event Description: Conservative attorney Starkman Roberts, a graduate of the University of Connecticut Law School as well as a member of the Federalist Society, announces that he will sue the New York State government for banning Timothy McVeigh’s books in public high schools. “We can not joke about freedom,” Roberts tells the press, “One man’s works can not be allowed in schools while another man’s is said to be ‘wrong’ for schools. To quote Orwell, this could mean that, ‘All animals are created equal, only some animals are more equal than others.’”

[PBrunsel]

Event Date: 11-05-2003
Event Description: The Louisiana gubernatorial election produces an unexpected winner today: businessman Piyeush “Bobby” Jindal, a very conservative Democrat whose parents were born in the nation of India. Jindal was considered a dark horse when he entered the race against three better known Democrats: Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Blanco, Congressman David Vitter and State Senator David Duke, a former Klansman. Jindal was able to use his “Baton Rouge outsider” image to win over the Bayou State and become the first Indian-American governor in the most unlikely of places.

Event Date: 11-08-2003
Event Description: President Webb meets with United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss the mission to Mars in 2005. The two men decide that one astronaut will be British and another will be German, to try to appease the two nations. “Is it not a bit presumptuous to be discussing your second term, Mr. President?” Prime Minister Blair asks President Webb, “After all, you do face an election next year.” “Mr. Prime Minister,” President Webb responds, “Elections in America are not like those here in Britain. In America, you know when you’re going to win.”

Event Date: 11-11-2003
Event Description: On Veteran’s Day, documentary director Ken Burns releases, “Mr. Churchill’s War”, a positive look at the war polices of Prime Minister Winston Churchill from 1939 to 1941. The documentary is attacked by pundit and historian Pat Buchanan as, “A revisionist wonderland.” However, the Churchill family, long discredited as a name for failure, sends appreciations to Burns from their home in Toronto, Canada.

Event Date: 11-18-2003
Event Description: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, rules that Governor Romney’s same-sex marriage laws are constitutional. This decision sends much of the political world into a free-for-all, as never before has it been ruled that same-sex marriage is protected by any constitution.

Event Date: 11-29-2003
Event Description: Congressman John F. Kennedy, Junior, announces his candidacy for the U.S. Senate in 2004. The forty-four year old Kennedy will face four-term incumbent Senator Alphonse D’Amato, a formidable task for a man with a discredited name.

Event Date: 12-08-2003
Event Description:  State Representative Alan Schlesinger, a conservative Democrat, introduces three articles of impeachment against Governor John Rowland. Governor Rowland is accused by the Democrats of taking money from banks to fight for a bill which deregulated certain aspects of state banking. “This is influence peddling and graft,” Schlesinger tells the state legislature, “We have no alternative but to impeach.” Republicans, seeing this as an attack on a presidential candidate more than the governor, do not let these proceedings occur. Governor Rowland remains in the race for president, and as a strong candidate for the nomination.

Event Date: 12-12-2003
Event Description: Congressman Ron Paul tells Chris Wallace on FOX News Sunday that he will not challenge President James Webb for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination. “While I disagree with the president on his belligerent foreign policy, especially towards Central America,” Congressman Paul tells Wallace, “But to run against him and divide our party would mean the election of a big government Republican to the presidency. At least the president fights for balanced budgets and against the military-industrial complex, which is not something I could expect from any Republican candidate.”

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Excellent update

[Хahar 🤔]

Ugh. Bork.

[War on Want]

Good update but I am still disgusted by the Democrats in this timeline.

[HappyWarrior]

What exactly were Governor Franchot's guberntorial accomplishments and views in this TL?  Also is Bob Ehrlich still the Republican Governor of Maryland in this Timeline?

[PBrunsel]

HappyWarrior,

Governor Franchot served two terms as governor of Maryland, and was hailed for three major achievements:

1) He modernized voting in Maryland and made sure each ballot has a paper trail to cut down on voter fraud which is rampant in Baltimore.

2) Cleaned up corruption in the state government, especially bribery scandals under Price George’s County Executive Parris Glendening.

3) Governor Franchot lowered the state income tax and vetoed a state sales tax, attempting to end Maryland’s reputation as a “tax-and-spend” state and save retail jobs.

Congressman Robert Ehrlich, a moderate Democrat, was elected Governor of Maryland in 2002, defeating Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, the Republican nominee.   

[MasterJedi]

Looks like we'll be in for another 4 years of President Webb. And since he's been a good President so far, hooray!

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Looks like we'll be in for another 4 years of President Webb. And since he's been a good President so far, hooray!

That post looks familiar

[HappyWarrior]

HappyWarrior,

Governor Franchot served two terms as governor of Maryland, and was hailed for three major achievements:

1) He modernized voting in Maryland and made sure each ballot has a paper trail to cut down on voter fraud which is rampant in Baltimore.

2) Cleaned up corruption in the state government, especially bribery scandals under Price George’s County Executive Parris Glendening.

3) Governor Franchot lowered the state income tax and vetoed a state sales tax, attempting to end Maryland’s reputation as a “tax-and-spend” state and save retail jobs.

Congressman Robert Ehrlich, a moderate Democrat, was elected Governor of Maryland in 2002, defeating Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, the Republican nominee.   

How did Ehrlich win the campaign in this TL?  In RL it was due to the corruption of Glendening's government and the ineptitude of the Kennedy-Townsend campaign.  But obviously neither of them is in the picture.