New York Magazine did a wonderful cover piece last month in which nineteen contributers were asked the question, "What if 9/11 never happened?" Of all the entries I think Andrew Sullivan's comes pretty close to the mark. Writing for his blog in the year 2006 of an alternative universe, Sullivan speaks of George W. Bush's one failed term and the resulting rejection of the neo-con philosophy. He speaks of "President Gore's" determination to weed out the real root causes of terrorism, as potential threats and a cold war-like struggle take hold in the Middle East. And, after an October 2006 chemical attack on five cities around the world, Gore is able to find and kill Osama bin Laden.One thing though. In Sullivan's alternate universe, Gore won the 2004 election the same way Bush won the 2000 contest - having lost the popular vote. I disagree. Without the security issue on the table I doubt that the evangelical and independent vote numbers would have been as strong for Bush. Gore would have tallied a comfortable margin in both the popular and electoral votes.
But all the talk is for naught. 9/11 did happen. Bush is still the President. And we're in one hell of a mess.
And this lead me to wonder, not what the world would be like if 9/11 hadn't happen, but what things would look like had someone else been president.
And for the sake of argument, let's say I were president that day. (See the following post.)
