WI: Tom Harkin Elected '92

MrHuman

Sort of a dream of mine, because he's one of my favorite Senators. I think with a strong enough NH showing, he could have done it.

Anyway, I think he would have expanded disability rights (yay!), tried to repeal Taft-Hartley (also yay!) but I'm not sure about what his economic and foreign policy would be.
 
Ariosto

Ariosto

If Clinton's term is anything to go by, it would be worse.

Harkin is normally a proponent of Fair Trade, but he voted for NAFTA so I imagine him signing that into law and Perot would continue to hold that over his head. His overt Liberalism, compared to Clinton's Third Way, whether or good or for ill, may likely still create the Republican Revolution as we know it, and thus prevent anything of his agenda being accomplished after his first two years. From there he is likely defeated by the Republican nominee (unless we are looking at someone like Buchanan) in 1996 since he cannot draw in enough support from Independents and Republicans who would have in a similar scenario supported Clinton.​
 
Plumber

Plumber

Probably better overall than Clinton. No repeal of Glass-Steagall. A Republican Congress will hinder his effectiveness, though I think in his first two years he could generally do better than Clinton in getting what he wanted. Reelected in 1996.
 

MrHuman

Ariosto said:
If Clinton's term is anything to go by, it would be worse.

Harkin is normally a proponent of Fair Trade, but he voted for NAFTA so I imagine him signing that into law and Perot would continue to hold that over his head. His overt Liberalism, compared to Clinton's Third Way, whether or good or for ill, may likely still create the Republican Revolution as we know it, and thus prevent anything of his agenda being accomplished after his first two years. From there he is likely defeated by the Republican nominee (unless we are looking at someone like Buchanan) in 1996 since he cannot draw in enough support from Independents and Republicans who would have in a similar scenario supported Clinton.​
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As for NAFTA, I don't know. It's a really different scenario.

I disagree about his reelection chances. If the GOP nominates a Bob Dole-like moderate, you could be right. But it would depend on the economy.
 
Ariosto

Ariosto

MrHuman said:
As for NAFTA, I don't know. It's a really different scenario.

I disagree about his reelection chances. If the GOP nominates a Bob Dole-like moderate, you could be right. But it would depend on the economy.
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As that was really left for Clinton to do was sign the parchment in regards to NAFTA, all the negotiating had already been done under Bush and the latter had been hoping to get it done before he had to leave office, just barely missing that self set deadline. I can't imagine Harkin all of a sudden doing an about face and demanding a renegotiation under such circumstances.

Also, if he is governing as a Progressive, there is going to be a significant backlash against him, and something like pushing the repeal of Taft-Hartley is not going to help the Markets in the least.​
 
Ariosto

Ariosto

Wendell said:
How did Harkin feel about Clinton-era foreign policy?
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MrHuman said:
I think he was less interventionist, but I'm unsure.
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He was about the same as far as I can tell, or is an Interventionist when it comes to preventing Humanitarian Crises. He has made calls for an intervention in Darfur for instance in recent times. Thus it may be the same in areas like the Balkans but different in others like the Middle East.​
 

MrHuman

Ariosto said:
He was about the same as far as I can tell, or is an Interventionist when it comes to preventing Humanitarian Crises. He has made calls for an intervention in Darfur for instance in recent times. Thus it may be the same in areas like the Balkans but different in others like the Middle East.​
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That sounds right.
 
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