What If Bill Clinton Resigned During The Lewinsky Scandal?

19FortyFive ^ | 1/19/2021 | William Strook

[Onthebrink]

It was embarrassing, really.

A few days after internet provocateur Matt Drudge broke the news of the Clinton/Lewinsky Scandal, the President took the rostrum, wagged a finger at the cameras and declared, ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky…’ It was Drudge again who noticed that Clinton’s left eye seemed a bit darker than the right. Drudge posted blowup photographs of the president and indeed one could see just a bit of purple under makeup foundation. Hours later, beneath a red siren, Drudge proclaimed: “Source Confirms, Hillary’s Bullseye!”. The headline writers at the New York Post couldn’t help themselves, “Hillary Threw the Book at Bill!”. The President could deny the allegations but he could not withstand mockery and ridicule. Bill Clinton submitted his resignation three days later and, on Saturday, January 24th, 1998, Albert Gore Jr. became the 43rd President of the United States.

[Gay State Conservative]

If he had it seem likely that algore would have won in 2000.

[DIRTYSECRET]

I was in the room when the late Lyn Nozfiger addressed that possibility: “If we can’t beat a sitting Al Gore we have no business being in business”. Wonder if he feels the same about Biden-I think so.

[BillyBoy]

I’ve had a hypothetical “Clinton resigns during Monicagate” alternate history movie in my head for a while. Gore ends up narrowly winning the contested 2000 election because he is the incumbent president. The film ends the twin towers being struck on 9/11 and the media asking President Gore for a response.

[Political Junkie Too]

The real question is if Gore had become President, would Tipper still have divorced him in 2010, or sooner, or later, or not at all?

-PJ

[rfp1234]

Hmmm...Goron could have implemented a Green Nude Deal 23 years in advance, and wrecked the energy-intensive tech/dotcom boom before the election.

That would have given W an even bigger win.

[lowbridge]

"Bill Clinton submitted his resignation three days later and, on Saturday, January 24th, 1998, Albert Gore Jr. became the 43rd President of the United States"

Yeah, thats what you think.

[MHGinTN]

The dnc used the salaciousness to divert attention from his criminality. Why try to bring the salaciousness back as a new diversion?

[Sans-Culotte]

The film ends the twin towers being struck on 9/11 and the media asking President Gore for a response.

I wonder if Gore would have declared Islam a "religion of peace" and and given the TSA cart blanche to feel up little girls while ignoring people from the mideast? That would have been terrible!

[mo]

Democrats don’t have to do all that yucky resigny stuff.

Only Republicans do. It was the Speaker of the House-Newt Gingrich-a Republican -who was forced to resign for having interfered with the plans of the UniParty by having impeached Bill Clinton

Newt was never really UniParty

[BillyBoy]

>> I wonder if Gore would have declared Islam a "religion of peace" and and given the TSA cart blanche to feel up little girls while ignoring people from the mideast? That would have been terrible! <<

I'd leave it to the viewers to decide what would happen next (though Monicagate unfolded a little differently in my scenario than the article here... I had Clinton resigning in my "alternate history" after Robert KKK Byrd turned against him and announced he WOULD vote to convict, unlike in real life where KKK Byrd said he was convinced Clinton committed "high crimes and misdemeanors" but would vote to acquit anyway)

Sadly, with the number of FReepers who now believe the liberal narrative about Bush (evil corporate puppet who "lied" about WMDs in Iraq to enrich his oil buddies and somehow "failed" to win the war even though Saddam was captured & executed and Iraq now has a sane, democratically elected leader), there seem to be a number of "conservatives" who now believe we would have been better off with Algore.

On a personal aside, one of Trump's first acts was President was to reverse Obama's goofy plan to "close" Gitmo and to instead sign an executive order to "keep the terrorist detainment camp open permanently". Gosh, if all that stuff that Bush did like waterboarding terrorists was so "wrong" and "bad" (the "disastrous" advice of "neo-cons like Cheney and Rumsfeld"), I guess we should have closed it down the day off Bush left office?

We'll see what SlowJoe does.

[alternatives?]

I am sure Nozfiger was talking about fair elections.

[alternatives?]

I don’t think Gore implements much given the makeup of the senate and house. I think he wins 2000. I doubt he invades Iraq.

[nitzy]

I have thought about this a lot.

I don’t see how Gore’s response to 9/11 could have been any worse than Bush’s. At least when Gore said Islam was a “religion of peace” there would have been about 50 million Americans calling bullshit. I think you would have had conservatives joining with the ACLU to denounce the Patriot Act. As it turned out, nobody on our side said a word about Bush doing any of that. If Gore won in 2000, we likely would have never had to suffer under Obama. We may not have needed an “America First” type of President until 2024 or 2028.

[Phlap]

Had Clinton resigned, Trump would likely never have been president. Just sayin.

[rfp1234]

He would have sent pinprick strikes on Al Qaeda camel farms and called it a response to 9-11.

[EQAndyBuzz]

If my mother had wheels she would be a wagon.

[Impy]

Bush is the enemy, if not for his nephew I’m sure he’d have openly endorsed the usurper.

Gore is an even greater enemy. Alito alone makes Bush tenure preferable.

Gore may have been a one termer, McPain in 2004? I shudder.