Wednesday, May 06, 2015

Six Term Bill?

I don't like term limits. Maybe it's because I believe every office has term limits, called "elections." Or maybe it's because my first ever vote was for William Proxmire's sixth term.
As I predicted yesterday, the nativists are restless following Hillary's immigration speech. But maybe, in an alternate universe with no 22nd Amendment, Obama COULD win a third term.

Except...  in an alternate universe with no 22nd Amendment, Bill Clinton is in his sixth term.


Well, can't be proven or disproven. But considering that Bill actually GAINED popularity after impeachment, he would have been a hell of a lot stronger candidate for the Democrats in 2000 that Al Gore. Who at the very least got a half million more votes that W, and at the very worst... well, let's just say Bill could have found 537 more votes in Florida, Jeb or no Jeb.

So that's three terms and sets up Bill vs. John McCain in 2004. Which depends on whether 9/11 happens or not in this alternate universe. Could Bill have headed off 9/11 given eight more months? And if not, would he have gone out of his way to get into Iraq like Presdent Cheney did? One thing for sure: McCain would have had a different running mate. (Hopefully by this point Bill would have dumped Gore as well.)

Assuming Bill wins term 4, who does the GOP put up in 2008? Mike Huckabee couldn't have out-bubba'd Bubba himself. and if a time machine is ever invented, I want to visit the timeline where we get a Bill Clinton vs. Mitt Romney class war election.

But by now we're in a scenario with no Iraq war, no Bush backlash in 2006, no Obama changing the electorate surge in 2008, and no obvious Republican candidate for 2012 (with Jeb Bush a long forgotten footnote who couldn't even deliver Florida for his brother). Too many variables. And maybe by this point Hillary tells Bill to quit bogarting all the terms. But that still gets us to five terms, so six is not beyond imagining.

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