john mccain

On November 7th, 2000, John McCain beat Al Gore, becoming the 43rd president of the United States and the first president from Arizona. He had faced a tough primary against John Kasich, and an even more difficult campaign in the general election, but ultimately prevailed despite a good economy...

“Now we can’t say that the aircraft has even crashed. We don’t know that. What we do know, it’s been missing now for quite a long time, because it was due to arrive in Martha’s Vineyard--according to the best available information--sometime before midnight last night. So it has been missing on...

Simple enough question: in a world where Bush dies on 9/11 (or by choking a pretzel a few months later), who would be in the strongest position to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2004? The incumbent, Dick Cheney, seems like someone who would not want mount his own bid for the...

I Am Simba, Hear Me Roar BY MAX RUSH || AUGUST 2000 Senator John McCain officially became the Republican nominee for President of the United States at the party’s national convention last week in Philadelphia. Just seven months ago, members of the Republican Party establishment and the news...

I know this is relatively recent history, but just to set the stage for this DBWI thought experiment I'll recap the past 20 or so years of US history. In 2000, after a nail-biting election campaign, Vice-President John Kerry defeated George W. Bush and became the 43rd American President. Kerry...

In 2004, John Kerry wanted his friend John McCain to be his running mate on a bipartisan "unity ticket." Polling from May 2004 showed that a Kerry/McCain ticket had a 14% lead over Bush among registered voters. McCain showed interested but he ultimately declined and endorsed Bush. Curiously...

Had John McCain been the 2000 Republican presidential nominee, who would've been his likely picks for Vice-President?

Folks, this is a redux of a timeline project I first posted a while ago. Part I is mostly written, and it may cease there depending on what people think. Expect the first update tomorrow. It centers on what may have happened if John McCain had stuck with his gut and named Joe Lieberman as his...

A similar thread was posted in this forum a few years ago and prompted some interesting discussion: https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/wi-mccain-sits-out-2000.297524/. I'd like to revive this WI, focusing in particular on how McCain's absence would affect Bill Bradley's performance...

What if Senator Hillary Clinton had voted against the Iraq War? Would she have defeated Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries? If nominated, would she have beaten McCain in the general? How would US history have been different if Clinton had opposed the war?

What if John McCain had decided to enter politics as a Democrat, not a Republican? Would he have achieved the same level of political success as in OTL? How far could McCain take his career as a Democrat?

The year is 2000. Vice-President Al Gore narrowly defeats George W. Bush to become the 43rd US President. Four years later, Gore loses his re-election bid to Senator John McCain. In 2008 President McCain is running for re-election, at least if his health permits. Under these circumstances, and...

Similar to another thread I've done on a hypothetical Jeb! vs Gore race, the POD is that - as expected - George W. loses his 1994 race in Texas while Jeb! wins his race in Florida that same year. This sets up the younger Bush brother as the frontrunner for the 2000 Republican Presidential...

Let's say that the Republican Party's "Crown Prince", Senator from Kansas and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole announces he is not running for President in early January 1995, prompting Senator from Arizona John McCain to announce his own run for the Republican Party Presidential Primaries of...

IOTL, John McCain was respected for his independent views from the Republican Party, as well as his ability to cross the aisle and work with Democrats, earning him the nickname “maverick”. However, what if McCain became a Democrat instead of a Republican? How would that impact his career, and...

After the 2000 election, the Senate was left split 50-50. Democrats sought a Republican who could switch to their party, and eventually found one, with Jim Jeffords switching to being an independent, caucusing with the Democrats. However, they also tried to get Lincoln Chafee or John McCain to...

Supposing that John Kerry had narrowly won in 2004 and the Great Recession still occurs in 2007 (it may be different due to butterflies, but this POD isn't going to change the economic forces that lead to the crash) how would President Kerry have handled the economy? And since a Republican...

The 2004 election between Bush and Kerry was extremely close. All Kerry had to do was win Ohio and he would have been President. Supposing that Gore pulls through in 2000, leads the country through 9/11 and the Afghanistan War, he would be facing the same difficult reelection campaign as Dubya...

Something I have always wondered was, what if John McCain would have selected his rival for the nomination, Mitt Romney as his vice presidential nominee instead of Sarah Palin? Some say McCain would have never done this because of vitriol between them during the Republican Party Presidential...