For those of you who are amused by counterfactuals, consider what would have happened if Clinton had done the right thing and resigned:
- With the advantages of incumbency, and no longer burdened by the equivocal Clinton legacy, Gore won the 2000 election.
- 9/11 occurred on his watch. He won the war in Afghanistan. Since he didn’t have to shift resources to Iraq prematurely, the victory was more complete, although the presence of the Pakistani safe haven provided protection to what little remained of the Taliban.
- There was no Gore tax cut.
- There was no Iraq War. Saddam remained an irritant, but he stayed in place as a deterrent to Iranian adventurism.
- Weighed down by a tepid economy, boredom with 12 years of Democratic rule, and his own personal failings, Gore lost the 2004 election to John McCain.
- McCain could not summon any public support for a war in Iraq years after 9/11.
- McCain was totally befuddled by the stock market crash in 2008. His big thing in life was eliminating wasteful public spending, not enacting stimulus packages. The Great Recession was consequently worse than it was in actual life.
- The dynamics of the 2008 Democratic campaign were very different. On the one hand, Clinton was not required to justify her vote for the war; on the other hand, the resignation of her husband was an even bigger issue than in reality. Obama was nominated and won the general election handily.
- Since there was no Iraq War, Iran was less of a threat, and IS never came into existence.
- With the exception of the events flowing from the Iraq War, the events of the Obama years would have mirrored reality.
On the whole, the world would have been a much better place. You just never know.