AHC: Give Teddy Roosevelt Two or Three More Terms

[Stolengood]

Just as it says on the tin; you can try it with or without a Taft (or even Elihu Root!) interval.

Curious to see what's come up with; have fun.

[Know Nothing]

No 1908 retirement - Roosevelt wins easily in 1908. The newly erupted crisis in Europe in the summer of 1912 causes him, or at least gives him the excuse, to break the two-term tradition.

1908 retirement - the easiest scenario would be one where he survives his 1914 South American trip with his health intact, while not losing any sons in WWI. So he regains the presidency in 1920 for two terms.

[RogueBeaver]

Originally Posted by Know Nothing

No 1908 retirement - Roosevelt wins easily in 1908. The newly erupted crisis in Europe in the summer of 1912 causes him, or at least gives him the excuse, to break the two-term tradition.

1908 retirement - the easiest scenario would be one where he survives his 1914 South American trip with his health intact, while not losing any sons in WWI. So he regains the presidency in 1920 for two terms.

Or doesn't take the trip at all. What he could do is sit out 1912 and get the 1916 nomination on a silver platter. In the long run he places the dynastic hopes on Quentin.

[Paul V McNutt]

TR gets credit for the break up of Standard Oil, the Federal Reserve, and the FTC. In 1915, he gets into trouble when he wants to get involved in World War I. Considering that the OTL winner of the 1916 election campaigned on the slogan he kept us out of war, TR does not get a fifth term.

[Stolengood]

I sort of think, if he hadn't made that promise, he easily would've run and won in both 1908 and 1912... running again in 1916 might've been interesting to see.

Who knows? Maybe he'd have shuffled VPs with each term...

[tiggerfan]

No 1908 pledge gets him term #3, WW1/international crisis brings him 1912 and 1916, he retires in 1921 after serving 20 yrs as POTUS.

Absent the South American trip his health is improved, and if Quentin doesn't die in WW1 then TR could live through a chunk of the 20's.

[Ariosto]

Originally Posted by tiggerfan

No 1908 pledge gets him term #3, WW1/international crisis brings him 1912 and 1916, he retires in 1921 after serving 20 yrs as POTUS.

Absent the South American trip his health is improved, and if Quentin doesn't die in WW1 then TR could live through a chunk of the 20's.

He likely won't make it all the way through those terms, or that long after leaving office, due to the amount of stress he would be under serving through them as the President.

[tiggerfan]

Originally Posted by Ariosto

He likely won't make it all the way through those terms, or that long after leaving office, due to the amount of stress he would be under serving through them as the President.

I considered that but TR thrived on the Presidency, I think leaving in 1909 was part of what shortened his life. That and the need to do other things to replace the energy he got from being POTUS

[Lord Grattan]

Originally Posted by Ariosto

He likely won't make it all the way through those terms, or that long after leaving office, due to the amount of stress he would be under serving through them as the President.

True; adding the longevity (or general lack thereof) of persons in his family to the pressures of serving as POTUS for 12 to 16 years during that period of history may well mean that TR dies at about the same age as he did in OTL.

[RogueBeaver]

I can see him running in 1908, 1912 no.

[Plumber]

I have a TL where he is elected in 1896-1904, 1908-1920. His last three terms deal with a few wars that ensures no horses are changed midstream.

[Glass Onion]

He runs and wins in 1908. Due to the luck of the campaign and Republican fatigue after 16 years, a Democrat, let's for the moment say Wilson just for the sake of argument though it could be Champ Clark or someone else, defeats Roosevelt's chosen successor. Said Democratic President raises a certain degree of animosity in former President Roosevelt. As he did historically, Roosevelt decides to reenter the Presidential race four years after he's left office. This time, the incumbent President is a Democrat, and so Roosevelt has a freer path to the nomination. He wins the nomination and the Presidency in a closely fought political campaign. Even if he doesn't die in office, he doesn't run in 1920.

This is probably wildly unrealistic, and demands a lot of convergence, but this is the most almost plausible Theodore Roosevelt political fantasy scenario I could think of. Assuming he lives through his 1916 term, he's going to have been President for about 16 years, give or take a few months. That's a very long time. FDR himself didn't pull that off. Well, that was more to do with health but still.

This means there's almost certainly going to be a constitutional amendment to block more than two terms once Theodore Roosevelt leaves office.

[Mikestone8]

Originally Posted by Glass Onion

This means there's almost certainly going to be a constitutional amendment to block more than two terms once Theodore Roosevelt leaves office.

Or even to one.

In Feb 1913, a constitutional amendment passed the Senate, increasing the President's term of office to six years, but at the same time limiting him to a single term.

It would have passed easily in the House, had not President-elect Wilson butted in and caused it to be pigeonholed in the Judiciary Committee. His principal rivals for the 1912 nomination, Champ Clark and WJ Bryan, were both on record in favour of the change, which was indeed part of the Democratic platform for that year, so without him it would likely have gone through. Maybe on this TL it does.

[Stolengood]

1916: Theodore Roosevelt vs. Woodrow Wilson? Roosevelt wins handily.

Mikestone8, you might be right about that legislation; I can only imagine Roosevelt would see it as fitting that no one after him would ever attain the length to which he was President.

So... possible R and D tickets for those years:

1908: Theodore Roosevelt for President, Elihu Root for Vice President / William Jennings Bryan for President, John Albert Johnson for Vice President

1912: Theodore Roosevelt for President, Philander Knox for Vice President / Thomas R. Marshall for President, Champ Clark for Vice President

1916: Theodore Roosevelt for President, Charles Evans Hughes for Vice President / Woodrow Wilson for President, John W. Kern for Vice President

[Stolengood]

Erm... anyone else?

[Soundgarden]

He takes his brief retirement as it happened in OTL and runs again in 1912. He wins after the courage is shown in his post-assassination attempt speech. He sends troops into World War 1 after he is reelected in 1916(just like Wilson did), and retires to his home retreat in Long Island in 1921(assuming he dosen't die in 1919). Unlike his fifth cousin Franklin, he serves 4 (almost, as a result of the McKinley Assassination) full, yet non-consecutive terms. 1901 - 1909 and 1913 - 1921. But you have to wonder, would they enact the two term limit sometime in the 20s? Assuming FDR won in 1932, and WW2 goes as planned, how would that affect his presidency not being allowed to continue? Would Congress make an exception?

[jack_donaghy_is_the_shado]

Originally Posted by Stolengood

1916: Theodore Roosevelt vs. Woodrow Wilson? Roosevelt wins handily.

Mikestone8, you might be right about that legislation; I can only imagine Roosevelt would see it as fitting that no one after him would ever attain the length to which he was President.

So... possible R and D tickets for those years:

1908: Theodore Roosevelt for President, Elihu Root for Vice President / William Jennings Bryan for President, John Albert Johnson for Vice President

1912: Theodore Roosevelt for President, Philander Knox for Vice President / Thomas R. Marshall for President, Champ Clark for Vice President

1916: Theodore Roosevelt for President, Charles Evans Hughes for Vice President / Woodrow Wilson for President, John W. Kern for Vice President

Hughes was from New York too, maybe Henry Cabot Lodge or Gifford Pinchot?

[Stolengood]

Originally Posted by jack_donaghy_is_the_shado

Hughes was from New York too, maybe Henry Cabot Lodge or Gifford Pinchot?

I used Hughes so as to, on Roosevelt's possible death ITTL in 1919, segue into a Hughes presidency.

...however, Cabot Lodge is a very good choice.