October 1990: Republican Clayton Williams has the Texas governor's race locked up against Democrat Ann Richards,the state treasurer. He can only lose if he makes a disastrous mistake. He and Mrs. Richards appear together for a public debate. After the debate, with the cameras still rolling, Mr. Williams confronts Mrs. Richards about something that she had said during the debate. Mrs. Richards offers to shake hands as a gesture of good will, but Mr. Williams refuses her extended hand and walks angrily away. The offense of the handshake refusal ends up costing Mr. Williams the election, and Mrs. Richards is elected governor of Texas. In 1994, Governor Richards is defeated by Republican challenger George W. Bush. Of course if Clayton Williams had not refused to shake Mrs. Richards hand four years earlier, he would be running for reelection against a Democratic challenger. In short, George W. Bush would not have become governor of Texas had it not been for the handshake debacle, nor would he have been set up to make a run for the presidency in 2000. If Clayton Williams had not refused to shake Ann Richards hand in 1990, would there have been a war in Iraq in 2003? Probably not.