| January 13 |  |
Editor says, what if Dubya had choked to death on the pretzel? Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 2002, on this day at the White House, U.S. President George W. Bush choked to death on a pretzel while watching an NFL Miami vs. Baltimore play-off game on television.
Death of an Everyman President
Ed & John P. BraungartShortly afterwards, his wife Laura Bush entered the suite from an adjoining room to find their dogs Barney and Spot standing over him. Mistakenly thinking that the President had just fainted, the First Lady subsequently told a top aide, Karen Hughes that she was surprised that "they [the dogs] were looking at him a little funny". Because although he was unconscious, the President's physical injuries consisted merely of a scrape and bruise across his cheek and lower lip, injured by his glasses when he fell from the couch.
US Air Force Dr. Richard Tubb was summoned, and following an examination, it was discovered that a food morsel had becomed lodged in the President's throat. Although the pretzel was dislodged by the Heimlich manoerve, the food morsel had stimulated a nerve, decreasing the president's heart rate and causing him to fatally lose consciousness. Determined, but unsuccessful efforts to resuscitate Bush followed, and the President was declared dead at 18.05 pm EST.
Shortly after being sworn in as Dubya's successor, Dick Cheney sounded out senior members of the GOP, and the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush swiftly emerged as a leading candidate. However his pledge to carry on the "Bush legacy" was overshadowed by the so-called "Bush Curse" with many Republicans pointing to the tragic misfortune that had befallen their father when he died on the tennis court in 1985.
Cheney's own legacy would be shaped by two surprisingly progressive pieces of legislation in the fields of gun safety and LGBT.
Entry posted by
John P. Braungart
© John P. BraungartStory Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Alternate Nations Source: CNN Labels: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, War on Terror, Pretzel, America. Editor says, this story is based upon a discussions group post from John P. Braungart
~ And. in "progressive" circles, there was much rejoicing.
Comment from Christopher Finkle on Facebook: I think the force of the malapropisms gathering up behind it would have shot it back out. I also doubt there's a nerve in the throat that controls heart rate. I think this is perilously close to a revenge fantasy.
Comment from Roxanne Bland on Facebook: Interesting thought
Comment from Blu Rose on Facebook: I'm sorry, but is it wrong to laugh at the title? Not that I wish anyone would actually 'choke' on anything...gawd forbid, but...
Comment from Jamie Jones on Facebook: Loved it...alternate realities are fun to consider and no less real than the one we're currently experiencing.
~ Comment from John Braungart: I LIKE IT!!!
You've fleshed out the PoD quite well, although to be honest, the "Bush Curse" hadn't been posted (to my knowledge) when I wrote this. I was thinking in terms of the "Twenty-Year Curse" (i.e. the sitting President will die in office who's term starts in the year divisible by twenty).
~ The critical question is how bad the Democratic candidate has to be in order to lose to Cheney in '04
~ This has to be one of the silliest POD's ever--not in the sense that it couldn't have happened but because of the element of farce involved in Bush's imagined death. Can you imagine the history books handling this one?
~ Sounds like an AH to my AH Dubya series... lol
~ MSM and the bulk of 'respectable opinion' would have freaked at Cheney who by 2001 was persona non grata in such circles becuase he was among the last people refighting the wars on executive powers from the 1970's.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
