Meet the Alternative History: What If Bill Clinton Had Resigned in 1998?: Political Analysis Meets Alternate History

I don't usually review podcasts here.  But given my love of alternate history -- as reader, viewer, interviewer, reviewer, and writer -- how could I resist.  I saw Jeff Greenfield this afternoon on Meet the Press with Chuck Todd, talking about the special four-episode Meet the Alternative History series on Chuck's Toddcast, and I just finished listening to the first episode.

First, a word about how I've come to be such a devotee of alternate history.  As an author of time travel science fiction, it's hard not to encounter alternate history, since any trip to the past is always on the verge of engendering an alternate history (see this Zoom lecture I gave last week to a Science Fiction and Philosophy course in Germany for more on that).  Sometimes the consequences can be major (you stop the assassination of JFK), sometimes they're just a tasty flourish (I had Joe Biden elected President in 2008, in my 2014 novel, Chronica).  As a reader and viewer, Philip K. Dick's 1962 The Man in the High Castle (in which the Axis powers won World War II) is among my all-time favorite novels, and the Amazon Prime series adaptation of the novel among my all time favorite television series (see my in-depth interview with Rufus Sewell, who starred in the series).  So alternate history fiction is as familiar and welcome to me as a walk on the beach on Cape Cod Bay, or a cool sunny day anywhere.

To be clear, the conversation between Todd and Greenfield in this podcast episode is not alternate history per se -- or not "alternative" history, an alternate name for alternate history which I don't like as a name as much as alternate history.  The conversation is rather, just that, a conversation.  But it's a very informed conversation, in which Todd and Greenfield consider all the political ingredients and possible political consequences of Bill Clinton resigning in 1998.  Al Gore becomes President.  Would Joe Lieberman have been his running mate in 2000?  Probably not.  It could have been Dianne Feinstein.   And what about 2004?  Would Gore have run again?  Where would Barack Obama have been in 2008, with Gore finishing his second term as President (assuming he ran and won)?  What about Hillary Clinton?  What about Trump?

If politics and alternate history are your cup of tea, this little podcast will be delicious listening.  Not that I agreed with everything Todd and Greenfield said.  Both loved only the first season of The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime, whereas I loved it all except the ending of the final season (see, again my interview with Rufus Sewell).  But, though Greenfield has written some alternate history (which I'm now more likely to read), the alternate history of science fiction is neither his nor Todd's speciality.  Politics is.  And the result is a great conversation, bubbling with effervescent scenarios, which I look forward to hearing more of, with additional guests, in the next three episodes.

Listen to Meet the Alternative History on Spotify or Goodpods.

See also Meet the Alternative History: What If Had JFK Lived? and Meet the Alternative History: What If Hillary Clinton Had Run for President in 2004?