In our reality, Captain America was courted as a third-party candidate for President but ultimately declined. The Watcher now shows us an alternate reality in which Cap accepted the nomination, choosing as his running mate Andrew Jackson Hawk, an African American Senator. Once Hawk is convinced that he is not being added to the ticket as a gimmick he accepts. The two Major Party candidates, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, frame the issue as one of experience, yet on election day, Cap wins with over 50% of the popular vote. On Inaugural Day, the new President keeps his first promise…and unmasks on the spot (shocking Bernie Rosenthal, watching at home). An assassin immediately fires a shot a Cap but the hero outraces his Secret Service protectors to capture the man personally….
The trust the American people place in him leads President Rogers to a number of early successes, including funding and building an orbiting solar collecting station to reduce dependence on foreign oil. Rogers also supports the rebels in the South American country of San Pedro, leading to a democracy in that nation under Presidente Jacinto Morez. Against Vice-President Hawk’s advice, Rogers visits San Pedro as the guest of Presidente Morez. At the Presidential Palace, Morez unmasks to reveal he is…the Red Skull! Explaining that, as Captain America’s natural counterpart, he needed a country of his own, he blasts Steve with a handy weapon and locks him in a dungeon. The Skull hijacks the solar collector (which he has converted into a weapon using technology shared with San Pedro) and uses it to hold the people of America hostage while showing them their President as his prisoner. The villain announces he will use the orbiting weapon to destroy Washington D.C. and SHIELD can’t stop him. Cap manages to escape from his cell and sabotages the machine, redirecting its beam at the capital of San Pedro. As the beam reaches their location, Captain America and the Red Skull die together, locked in hand-to-hand combat. The story ends with Cap’s funeral and a Bible quote: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith" (the Apostle Paul’s last words, 2 Timothy 4:7).