Bobby Lives

In this timeline, Robert Kennedy's life was never cut short by an assassin in 1968-instead, his staff selects a different hotel in which to celebrate their victory, thus sparing Kennedy's life and ensuring his election to the presidency in '68.

Election of 1968
Senator Bobby Kennedy and his running mate, Senator George McGovern, received the Democratic nomination in 1968 during a dark and tumultuous time in American history. The Vietnam War was rapidly sucking up more American lives and money, protests rocked the nation's major cities, and the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 led to a considerable deal of civil strife. The Kennedy/McGovern ticket rode a wave of national discontent and hope for a better tomorrow and defeated the Republican ticket of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew by a comfortable margin, making this the second time Nixon had lost the presidency to a Kennedy brother.

During his victory speech, President-elect Kennedy promised to "restore our national will, and to make America a place where men and women of any creed or color can live together in peace and harmony."

First Term: 1969-1973
Robert Kennedy's first term was marked by his deescalation of the Vietnam War in which the United States had been involved in for four years, and which it was not winning. President Kennedy began withdrawing troops in 1969, and had completely withdrawn them by year's end; in exchange for U.S. withdrawal from the war, the North Vietnamese agreed to sit down for peace negotiations with South Vietnam and the United States.

The New Year's Conference of 1970 is considered by many to be a defining moment of the Kennedy presidency. Warm, amiable, and likeable, he managed to negotiate "peace with honor", withdrawing all U.S. forces from Southeast Asia while managing to restore the status quo borders between North and South Vietnam. Kennedy had taken what had looked like certain defeat and turned it into something that while far from victory was certainly not a military defeat for the United States.

Kennedy also used his first term to pursue some domestic reforms: he had numerous civil rights bills passed in Congress that enshrined the ideas of Martin Luther King into law, and legally requiring equality for people of all races in America. President Kennedy also had several tax increases passed in order to fund social welfare programs that were designed to close the rich/poor gap. By the end of Kennedy's first term, that gap had indeed closed considerably. In addition, Kennedy brought environmental issues the forefront for the first time in American history, and took some major steps in increasing environmental protection in the United States.

Kennedy's first term also saw the realization of his late brother's dream of landing a man on the Moon in 1969. He reinvigorated the nation's interest in the space program, declaring that while America may have won the Space Race, space exploration was just beginning. He poured government money into NASA, and set a goal to create a permanent base on the Moon by 1985, and to reach Mars by the year 2000.

Second Term: 1973-1977
President Kennedy and Vice President McGovern were overwhelmingly renominated by the Democratic convention in 1972, and enjoyed sky high public approval ratings. Popular New York governor Nelson Rockefeller was the Republican nominee, and many on the Democratic side feared that '72 would be a close election. However, Kennedy ran a cool and collected campaign, and Rockefeller never posed a serious threat to Kennedy's reelection. The Kennedy/McGovern ticket was elected to another four years by a safe margin.

Kennedy's second term marked a major economic expansion for the United States at home, as well as the cooling off of the heated passions of the Sixties. Many Republicans and hawkish Democrats criticized Kennedy for not doing enough to contain the spread of communism abroad; Kennedy officially recognized the communist People's Republic of China in 1972, and made a historic visit to Beijing in 1973. Also, in 1974, Kennedy flew to Moscow to meet with the premier of the Soviet Union, Leonid Brezhnev. The visit was constructive and laid the ground for future peaceful discussions between the two superpowers.

Kennedy also pushed through more social reform projects through Congress, and passed a new budget that cut spending on defense and radically reformed the U.S. military, making it a more efficient cohesive unit.

By the time Kennedy's second and final term as president was ending, many were hailing it as the best years since the post-World War II prosperity, and trying to change the Constitution to allow Kennedy to run for a third term. However, Kennedy announced that he would not seek a third term, and such efforts were dropped. Instead, his vice president, George McGovern, was elected president in the election of 1976.

McGovern Administration: 1977-1981
George McGovern was elected the 38th President of the United States in 1976, defeating Republican nominee Ronald Reagan by a fairly slim margin. McGovern's vice president was Texas senator Llyod Bentsen.

President McGovern immediately set out to greatly expand the federal government and continue Kennedy's sweeping social reforms, much to the chagrin of the Republican opposition, which had been out of power since the Eisenhower Administration in the Fifties. One of McGovern's first major policy changes was the legalization of marijuana, which was controversial across the board, but especially in the heat of the Kennedy Coalition, which was working class Catholics. He also had a law passed guaranteeing a $6,500 minimum income for every American citizen, and also instituted a "demogrant" program, granting $1,000 to every American child at birth.

McGovern's reforms were highly controversial, and to make matters worse, his foreign policy initiatives were failing miserably. He simply did not command the respect that Robert Kennedy did. He was viewed as weak, and in 1978 the Republican Party recaptured Congress for the first time in years, electing House Minority Leader Gerald Ford as the new Speaker of the House.

The final nail in the coffin for the McGovern presidency was the Iranian Hostage Crisis, which only fed the perception that he was a weak leader. He tried fruitlessly to negotiate with the Iranian regime, and in the end was forced to order a special forces operation to rescue the hostages that, while partially successful, resulted in the deaths of 10 U.S. military personnel and more than a dozen hostages.

Reagan Era: 1981-1989
Ronald Reagan had been defeated by McGovern in 1976 for the presidency, and was hungry for a rematch. Selecting Bob Dole as his running mate and creating a "super ticket", Reagan rode the wave of public disappointment and general bleakness during the McGovern years. The Reagan/Dole juggernaut crushed the McGovern/Bentsen reelection campaign, with Reagan winning forty-five of the fifty states.

President Reagan used the GOP control of the government to completely overhaul the American tax system, instituting a flat income tax and slashing all other taxes by large margins. The American economy, which had reeled under McGovern's watch, began a major recovery under Reagan and began growing and thriving once again. Reagan also used his two terms in office to institute many socially conservative reforms, namely appointing conservative judges and placing some controls on abortion, which had been unchecked during the McGovern administration. He also scaled back the power of the federal government, downsizing it considerably and repealing some of McGovern's social programs. Also, the Reagan years marked the fulfillment of Robert Kennedy's pledge to build a permanent American Moon base by 1985; one was indeed constructed that year, and President Reagan and former President Kennedy proudly hosted a national gala commemorating the event. The space program continued to flourish under Reagan.

Reagan also took a very aggressive stance against the Soviet Union and against communism in general; by 1989, the end of Reagan's presidency, the Cold War between the USSR and the United States had ended, and the Soviet Union collapsed later that year.

Ronald Reagan was a very different president than America had seen, and he marked a major shift from the liberal policies of the past twenty years. Today, he is considered to have been a talented and dynamic president.

Dole Administration: 1989-1993
The presidential election of 1988 was one of the most boring in American history; two exceptionally dull men, Vice President Bob Dole and Governor Michael Dukakis, competed for the presidency. Dole was milking Reagan's popularity and success, and won a commanding victory over Dukakis. In 1989, he took the oath of office as the 40th President of the United States, with Jack Kemp serving as his administration's vice president.

The defining moment of Dole's presidency came in the 1991 Gulf War, in which the Middle Eastern nation of Iraq invaded its tiny neighbor, oil-rich Kuwait. Dole used his admirable political skills and assembled a global coalition to oppose Iraq, with nations from each continent contributing. The war was a great success, and came to a close after six months of fighting, with U.S. troops marching into the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, overthrowing Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and replacing him with a democratic government.

Dole's approval ratings soared; however, an economic crisis following the war sunk them very low. As a result, he lost his 1992 reelection bid to the Democratic ticket of Tom Harkin, who was running in the image of Robert Kennedy, and Harkin's energetic young running mate, Bill Clinton.

President Harkin: 1993-2001
Tom Harkin immediately set out to improve the nation where he felt his predecessor, President Dole, had failed. The defense budget, which had reached unprecedented heights under Reagan, was slashed, and the money was dispersed elsewhere. Harkin instituted several reforms that benefited working class Americans, raising the minimum wage and limiting the hours allowed to be worked during a work week. He also, along with Vice President Clinton, launched major education reforms: the education budget was greatly increased, as were teacher's salaries and benefits. The school year was also lengthened. As a result, the U.S. became more competitive and successful in the real of global education, but with a high price tag.

Foreign affairs during Harkin's first term were quiet, with the U.S. pursuing a "minding our own business" policy, as President Harkin put it.

The Harkin/Clinton ticket was easily reelected in 1996 over the Republican ticket of Lamar Alexander and Ken Blackwell (the first African-American vice presidential nominee on a major party ticket).

Harkin's second term was marked by the U.S. and European intervention in the Kosovo War, with NATO committing air and ground forces in the Balkans against Serbia in 1998. The Serbians quickly withdrew from Kosovo and sued for peace, which NATO granted them, on the condition that they disarm and grant independence to the provinces of Kosovo and Montenegro. The Serbians agreed.

In 1998, it was revealed that Vice President Clinton was having an affair with an intern, Monica Lewinsky. Though he initially vowed to stay on as vice president, he bowed to public pressure and submitted his resignation that year, effectively ending his political career. Harkin selected Democratic senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska to replace Clinton as vice president.

Also, 2000 marked a year of great American triumph; the United States landed a man on Mars. The Moon was now home to three permanent settlements, with two more to be constructed within the next decade.

President Harkin was largely liked by the American public, and in his term oversaw education and labor reform, as well as economic growth. His first vice president, Bill Clinton, was considered a rising star in the Democratic Party and was favored to win the presidency one day until his sex scandal ruined his career. Instead, the Democratic nomination would be battled over and handed to somebody else.

The McCain Years: 2001-2009
Arizona senator John McCain easily clinched the 2000 Republican presidential nomination, as the divided Democrats fought amongst themselves. The two major contenders for the nomination were Vice President Kerrey and Tennessee senator Al Gore. Gore campaigned on continued reform and improving the party's image; he eventually won the nomination, though not until after a bruising primary battle with Kerrey. McCain selected Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge as his running mate, while Gore selected Democratic Congressman Dick Gephardt. The election was extremely close, and the outcome was not decided until twenty-four hours after the first ballots were cast, but McCain eventually won the presidency.

President McCain's entire tenure in office was defined by his response to the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, by Islamic radical group al-Qaeda. President McCain organized a coalition consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom, and over a dozen other countries to retaliate militarily and invade Afghanistan, whose government had sponsored the attacks. The invasion was a success, and the government of Afghanistan was removed and replace with a functioning democracy. In addition, the mastermind of the attacks, Osama bin Laden was killed in 2003. The U.S. was eventually able to withdraw victoriously in 2006.

McCain also instituted a slew of anti-terror and homeland security laws on the homefront which, while keeping America safe, some felt threatened civil liberties. President McCain also additionally launched the Lexington Project in 2003, an initiative which eliminated American dependence on fossil fuels by 2025, replacing them with alternative fuels such as nuclear, wind, solar, hydrogen, and biodiesel.

In 2004, President McCain easily defeated Democratic nominee Howard Dean in the presidential campaign, securing another four years.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans; thanks to effective crisis management by President McCain, Vice President Ridge, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security, a humanitarian disaster was averted and the death toll kept at a minimum. Also that year, the American territory of Puerto Rico officially joined the Union as the 51st state.

In his second term, McCain had major tax cuts passed, and had the federal budget balanced. He also authorized Operation High Flier, a join NATO/Israeli bombing campaign of Iranian nuclear sites in 2006. The Iranian nuclear program lay in ruins, and the regime did a fair amount of saber ratting, but did not attempt to retaliate openly.

President McCain's administration was marked by economic prosperity, with the exception of 2008, which did see a major dip in financial growth. He is generally considered to have been a successful president and an effective leader in the difficult months following 9/11.

Romney Administration: 2009-present
Vice President Ridge declined the seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, so it instead went to former CEO and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who selected Florida governor Charlie Crist as his running mate. The Romney/Crist ticket ran an efficient and powerful campaign, eventually overwhelming the Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama, who was defeated by a narrow margin.

Mitt Romney was sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States on January 20th, 2009. He immediately set to work on his campaign promises to reform healthcare and get the economy growing again after its 2008 slump.