A Theoretical Look Forward: Deep Impact (@The Red )
1989-1997: George H. W. Bush / J. Danforth Quayle (Republican)
1988: Michael S. Dukakis / Lloyd M. Bentsen (Democratic)
1992: Mario A. Cuomo / Albert A. Gore, Jr. (Democratic), Edmund G. “Jerry” Brown, Jr. / Jack F. Kemp (Independent)
1997-1999: David N. Dinkins / Zell B. Miller (Democratic)
1996: M. Stevenson Forbes, Jr. / Robert K. Dornan (Republican)
1999-2000: David N. Dinkins / Newton L. Gingrich (Democratic / Republican)
2000-2001: John Sculley III / William H. Taft IV ("National Reconstruction" Independent, Democratic and Republican)
2001-2005: Colin L. Powell / Lido A. “Lee” Iacocca (“National Reconstruction” Independent, Democratic and Republican)
2000: Patrick J. Buchanan / James G. “Bo” Gitz (Reform)
2005-2009: Colin L. Powell / Thomas J. Vilsack (“National Reconstruction” Independent, Democratic and Republican)
2004: Oliver L. North / Michele M. Bachmann (Reform)
2009-2011: L. Lawrence Lessig / Tommy R. Franks (National Reconstruction Council)
2008: Helen P. Chenoweth-Hage / James P. Wickstrom (Reform), Bernard Sanders / Glenn E. Greenwald (Independent)
2011-2013: Tommy R. Franks / John G. Roberts, Jr. (National Reconstruction Council)
2013-2017: William B. Richardson III / Allen B. West (National Reconstruction Council)
2012: Albert A. Gore, Jr. / John R. Thune (Independent Democratic), Daniel G. Patrick / M. William Cooper (Reform)
2017-2021: Margaret C. Whitman / Michael D. Huckabee (Independent Democratic)
2016: Howard B. Dean / David R. Petraeus (Reconstruction and Republican), Vernon W. Howell / Kenneth R. Buck (Reform), Cornell R. West / Judith Butler (Compact)
Full disclosure I have not read the book the film is based on but from what I understand Arthur C. Clarke expected the meteor to be spotted from scientific colonies on Mars so, well, here we go.
George Bush was a lucky man in 1992, the Democratic Party was able to chose the man it wanted but no longer agreed with, setting off a struggle that would end in the vote split, with Anti-NAFTA, economically conservative Democrats bolting in a weird mangle of hippie and yuppie politics under Jerry Brown, dooming Mario Cuomo in his effort for the high office, and ironically dooming him to his death in 1999. Had he been President there would be no way that he could have refused the offer of evacuation that he did in Albany, instead giving up his gubernatorial jet to get a few more refugees out. But George Bush would go on, and discontent with 16 years of Reaganism saw the Democrats turn left, selecting two term Mayor of New York David Dinkins after a contentious primary.
And then came the horror. Too much time to spot the meteor, the suicidal bravery of the astronauts on two separate attempts. Martial Law, the National Lottery, evacuations to the caves of Missouri. Captain "Fish" Tanner's act of incredible piloting, Instead of the world ender, 1.1 miles of strike in the North Atlantic and the wave that killed every living soul east of the Appalachians, in North America, with more then a Billion killed when combined with deaths in Europe, Africa and South America. But, as Dinkins would note in his famed speech on his return to Washington, the Waters receded. That was not enough for his Vice President, Zell Miller. He had been evacuated to the People's Republic of China in an exchange program to ensure continuity of government for various major nations. But in the aftermath of the crash there was panic worldwide and Miller would vanish into the pages of the history books along with many other members of the PRC's senior leadership.
What would follow was global chaos for more then a year. Dinkins initially sought unity by replacing Miller with the opposition Speaker of the House but in the end as famine gripped the planet, the winter in the Northern hemisphere lasted 5 straight months and chaos spread across North America, Gingrich got the idea that he need not wait a year to run for President. In the end his plot was foiled but the leadership of the United States agreed that Dinkins would have to go as well, not to a cell and a court marshal like Newt, but to East Asia where he could spend a few years away from a country that was coming to blame him for everything. And so would begin the system of years to follow, bipartisan, post-partisan cooperation to lead a nation that was short on food and who had seen one in three of its citizens obliterated.
In 2000 there was only one man the country was willing to follow, no matter how much he didn't want it. But his sense of duty was enough. Especially as the low scale civil conflict begain to run apace. The militia movement had been waiting for this for years. Christian Identity assumed divine will. Neo-Nazis saw a chance. And so across the country as food riots plagued cities, bands of hateful men bargain to shoot at Aid Convoys coming from East Asia, began to ambush the National Guard and started to carve out their own "Republics". In some ways it was hard to blame them. The Law seemed a thing of the past, for many the Yen seemed to be the only available currency with any value, and even David Dinkins had been forced to bring back gross old ways, like public hangings. And so Powell took office. There would be work to rebuild the economy, work to rebuild the cities of the East. Work to try and secure food and resources as needed. A new Civilian Conservation Corps tilled new fields, a dozen new Executive Departments managed everything from oil rationing to rolling brownouts. Technology was the key to managing this and keeping humanity alive. What could be spared, with great controversy was sent overseas to help any country that needed the aid. But while technology oversaw much it couldn't oversee it all. And there were regressions. The new National Police service would bring back mounted cavalry patrols to compensate for scare fuel supplies, the Air Force returned to prop planes, and the insurgency was a war of potshots with hunting rifles and improvised explosives. And it would drag on, endlessly, to the present day.
For twelve years political discourse in America was heated but united. Even the smallest of small government Democrats and Republicans had to admit that this was a time for action. Only the radical political front for the scattered insurgents, with a mix of paleoconservatism, libertarianism, hardline evangelicalism and far less pleasant ideologies stood against the government. To many they were raging fools who didn't care how many of their fellow citizens died in the name of their utopias, and as shown in many cases where they gained power, that did seem to be the case.
But eventually things would change. Powell would leave, his replacement, one of the brilliant technocrats that Democrats and Republicans could agree on would be killed by an Insurgent attack on the US government headquarters in Sacramento. Lessig's death would see tensions mount, with the only question being who would quit first the Democrats or the Republicans? In the end it was the Democratic Party, that quit, though with equal numbers in many ways of old Dems and old Reps in it while the same could be true of the other side. In 2012 the age of Technocractic government came to an end with the split, four years later, the dissidents would be in power themselves in an upset victory that stunned the world. But in the end Meg Whitman was another Whiz Kid, and while the Reform Party took a major hit politically with real opposition finally arriving, the insurgency continued on, with spring creeping back to its old starting time a bit more every year, and the rationing a little less tight, but none the less from Washington to Tennessee, every year it starts again, bombings, shootings, air attacks and shootdowns.
But there is hope, as shown just last week when the President visited "New York City" now built, in the name of smarter infrastructure on what used to be the New Jersey shore. And while the ruins of some of the skyscrapers of Manhattan yet remain, with scrapping going slowly, it is a great city. The driving heart of the Northeast Territory, and it is growing too, as its first democratically elected Mayor is able to announce that it has now hit a population of half a million, the largest City east of Pittsburgh. And it will keep on growing.