Things That Never Happened…BUT COULD HAVE!

Episode One: Gore Beats Bush; Trump Gets Greenland

Florida, November, 2000. In our present reality, Circuit Court Judge Sanders Sauls, chosen by random selection for the case, halts the South Florida ballot counting. He is overturned and admonished by the Florida Supreme Court, but by then there isn’t time for enough ballots to be recounted before the U.S. Supreme Court quashes the recount and Gore concedes the presidency.

But here’s what could have happened:

Florida, November, 2000. Judge Sauls did not happen to be chosen for the case. Instead, Judge Terry Lewis was selected. Judge Lewis allowed the recount to go forward and Al Gore ended up with several hundred more votes than George Bush by the time the U.S. Supreme Court would issue a ruling to stop the recount.

President Gore incorporates much of President Clinton’s national security infrastructure. The September 11th attacks are thwarted due to the combination of better competency than the Bush team and the lack of collusion by Dick Cheney. The U.S. does not invade Iraq or Afghanistan. Thousands of American lives that would have been lost are not. Nearly one and one half million Iraqis who would have died did not. However, the U.S. continues the strict sanctions against Iraq, causing the deaths of millions…