Editor says, what if Pat Robertson spoke out on the Haiti Quake? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).

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Editor says, Believe it or not, Robertson actually did make that claim, as recounted here. And he did run for (U.S.) president, in 1988, actually defeating the elder George Bush in one early primary contest. His run inspired me to concoct the mock campaign slogan, ROBERTSON IN ?88: HE?LL BRING AMERICA TO ITS KNEES.

Comment from Padraig Griffin on Facebook: If there's one constant in the multiverse, it's that Pat Robertson is a miserable waste of carbon in any reality.

Comment from Robert Freeman Adams III on Facebook: this is so stupid. there is no way it would happen.

David Atwell commented on 2010-01-16 01:21:11 ~ I'm surprised he had even heard of Haiti!

Eric Oppen commented on 2010-01-16 06:26:10 ~ I'd be surprised if Haiti was still an independent country...one of the first things that an independent CSA would have done would be to stomp it flat.

H. Torrance Griffin commented on 2010-01-16 13:09:37 ~ Depends on how they could get the RN out of the way.

Scott Palter commented on 2010-01-16 13:20:13 ~ The concept that a Confederate States that survive as an independent republic would produce a 20th/21st century we would recognize with personalities we would recognize as political figures is most likely a product of too many Turtledove novels. Projecting a generation out from a POD is diificult. Projecting political detail at more than a century is a Hollywood movie.

Eric Lipps commented on 2010-01-16 13:55:16 ~ Point taken. However, there's a reason Turtledove does it: it allows readers to more easily connect his alternate worlds with our own. I find doing so similarly convenient. And in any case, fgiven the basic premise of AH, even unlikely alternatives must still be legitimate, as long as they're not actually impossible. (Besides, just because the people in question have familiar names doesn't mean they're the same people, if you take my meaning.) On the other hand, I have a novel in progvress which imagines what might have happened if William Jennings Bryan had been elected president in 1896 (as could have happened by way of the electoral college if as few as 50,000 votes had gone the other way in the right states). In it, there are butterflies all over the place: among other differences, there's still a kaiser in Germany annd Ottoman Turkey, buoyed by oil, is still around and no longer the "sick man of Europe). (Those particular differences spring from continued scrupulous U.S. neutrality in World War I.)

Eric Lipps commented on 2010-01-16 14:30:07 ~ Regarding Eric Oppen's remark about Haiti's independence: The Confederacy lived in constant fear of "servile insurrection" and the Southern states had acquiesced in the abolition of the African slave trade in 1808 precisely because they feared a continuing influx of "wild" blacks not broken to slavery. The last thing the CSA would have wanted to do is seize a nation full of blacks with a history of successful rebellion against white masters--especially since it's practically certain that in such a case, the Haitians would have received foreign military help. Nevertheless, Haiti might have become an economic and political dependency, either of the CSA or of some other poer (e.g., the USA, Britain, even France). For the CSA to make Haiti a satellite in this way would be a lot easier and safer than attempting to colonize it outright, and the Confederacy's leaders would surely realize this.