Not to mention, Bill Clinton had spent many years as Governor of Arkansas - so he was not exactly "inexperienced". Not to mention, had ANY of the latter candidates have won - and Gore, Kerry and Clinton were extremely close to winning, the narrative would have magically changed. As a "winner", they would have been seen through all the positive moments of their campaign - not the errors.
You would add to that the type of "pull the nation together" speech that any of them would have given. This would be followed by all the excitement of an inauguration and the type of what happened is what should have happened coverage that the media normally has.
The Dukakis memes would return to the technocrat who could move the country forward - as he did with Massachusetts. This WAS the story leading up to the convention and he was at one point 17 points ahead, before he was smeared by the Republicans.
Mondale would have been given the chance to define himself as the Minnesota liberal he was -- not just as Carter's VP who lost against Reagan.
Gore would have been seen as the heir to Clinton POLICY that worked, while not having the personal problems. Imagine the pictures of that inauguration - Gore with Tipper and their beautiful family. The family would have softened his image as President.
Kerry would have been seen as the charismatic improbable winner, who took courageous stands against the Vietnam War and the illegal support of the Contras and beat a war time President who had 60% approval a year before the election. (It should be mentioned that in 2000, pundits routinely called Kerry "charismatic".) I would imagine that although both Teresa and John Kerry are very private, the country would have been reintroduced to them and she would have been an amazing First Lady.
As to Hillary, we KNOW what was planned for election day -- with the symbolic breaking of the glass ceiling. That theme would have continued. What we would remember is the complete look of joy on her face and the faces of those around her.
Of course, coverage would have quickly turned back to more negative -- as happened for Bill Clinton and Barak Obama.
Congratulations to our presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden!
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