President Bryan in 1914

Had Wilson suffered an earlier stroke could Bryan have got the nomination and election?

Might Bryan have been VP?

If not was there anything that could have knocked out Marshal, and assuming a fatal stroke for Wilson early in Presidency (At that time the Sec of State was next in line after the VP)

I picture him saying America will sell food to all beligerents but arms to none.

Maybe offering escorts to ships with grain for Germany.

Is this his likely attitude?

Does true US neutrality early in the Great War make a Central Powers victory likely?

To make Bryan President, you need to kill Marshall.

If Bryan became President in 1914, he would sign the same progressive laws Wilson signed. I have read that Bryan opposed the Federal Reserve but that was already a done deal. He would favored everything that passed after 1914. The first thing I see changing is that Bryan is equally critical of both the British and Germans after the Lusitiana goes down. He would win his own term in 1916, campaigning on an I kept us out of war platform. Unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman telegram lead him to ask for a declaration of war. I don't know what he would have done at Versailles. I think he would have compromised to get a treaty passed.

The one possibility that I could see for Bryan to get the Democratic nomination--and in 1912 that would be enough to win the presidency even for Bryan, given the Taft-TR split--would be a prolonged Wilson-Clark deadlock. FWIW, the judgment of veteran political reporter Arthur Wallace Dunn in *From Harrison to Harding* was that "Underwood was no more of a possibility in that convention than were Harmon, Marshall, Foss, Baldwin and others. Only Champ Clark, Woodrow Wilson, or William J. Bryan had a chance to be named." http://books.google.com/books?id=BeFBAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA192 (I am not sure that he is right about, say, Marshall--but the convention was in a progressive mood, and it is unlikely to have nominated a relative conservative like Underwood or Harmon.)

The problem, however, is that this is not like 1924 when Smith and McAdoo attracted such fanatical loyalty from their partisans and bitter opposition from their opponents that the convention kept going for over a hundred ballots. The differences between Clark and Wilson were not *that* great, and rather than risk the convention turning to Bryan, some Clark supporters would defect to Wilson or vice versa. In fact, that is pretty much what happened in OTL: Bosses Roger Sullivan of Illinois and Tom Taggart of Indiana came out for Wilson to avoid a deadlock in part because of just this fear of a Bryan nomination. Bryan had said he wasn't interested in the nomination but didn't seem to close the door on it entirely, and it was widely believed that his brother Charley was working to get him nominated.

David T said:

The problem, however, is that this is not like 1924 when Smith and McAdoo attracted such fanatical loyalty from their partisans and bitter opposition from their opponents that the convention kept going for over a hundred ballots. The differences between Clark and Wilson were not *that* great, and rather than risk the convention turning to Bryan, some Clark supporters would defect to Wilson or vice versa. In fact, that is pretty much what happened in OTL: Bosses Roger Sullivan of Illinois and Tom Taggart of Indiana came out for Wilson to avoid a deadlock in part because of just this fear of a Bryan nomination. Bryan had said he wasn't interested in the nomination but didn't seem to close the door on it entirely, and it was widely believed that his brother Charley was working to get him nominated.

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WI Bryan holds his tongue and doesn't use the New York vote as an excuse to withdraw support from Clark? This may, of course, result in a stampede to Clark after he passes the 50% mark, but if it doesn't, and the deadlock continues, might the Clark people be less opposed to a Bryan nomination, since he hasn't stabbed them in the back as he did OTL?

A long shot, but just maybe - -.

Would Bryan have enforced segegation in DC?

Derek Jackson said:

Would Bryan have enforced segegation in DC?

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It depends on his cabinet. I can't see Bryan being specifically opposed to it -- so if he ends up with men like Burleson, Daniels, or McAdoo pushing for the return of segregation, he might permit it.

God help us, Bryan was a friend of James Vardaman; if Bryan put Vardaman in the cabinet the segregation could have been worse.