People Who Could've Been President If The Times Were Different

[NickCT]

Examples include:
* Eleanor Roosevelt
* Martin Luther King, Jr.

The basis is basically minorities (religiously, racially, gender-wise, etc) that had the merits, popularity, whatever to be President but because of social beliefs at the time could never have been elected...

[Stolengood]

Betrand Russell for PM!

[V-J]

Ron Paul missed the gilded age by a mere century.

[Son of Sphinks]

Barry Goldwater in 76 had Nixon won in 1960

[BillyShears]

Originally Posted by Stolengood

Betrand Russell for PM!

Oh dear God no!

I think a Labour Prime Minister Rowan Williams has its merits but the beard would've stopped him.

I'm also of the camp that thinks Michael Foot would've been a good PM were it not for the duffel coat and the hair.

[Alternate History Geek]

Frederick Douglass?

[lord caedus]

Originally Posted by V-J

Ron Paul missed the gilded age by a mere century.

Oh snap. filler

[Pellegrino Shots]

Republicans:

Ida B. Wells
Frederick Douglas
Booker Washington
T.R.M. Howard
James Meredith
Hiram Fong

Democrats:

Daniel Inouye
"Honest" John Kelly
Joseph P. Kennedy

[Turquoise Blue]

James Buchanan could have been a better president. No doubt about it.

Hmm... Debs in the 1930s? His Socialist Party could have won the election and displaced either the Dems or the GOP.

[Vizio]

Maybe Cesar Chavez?

[Stolengood]

Originally Posted by BillyShears

Oh dear God no!

Pray tell, why not?

Originally Posted by Pellegrino Shots

Joseph P. Kennedy

Are you INSANE?

[David Floyd]

William Jennings Bryan and Scoop Jackson...

[Dumanios]

Well, we have Frederick Douglas, Ron Paul, Martin Luther King Jr., Theodore Roosevelt (in the 1912 election), Strom Thurmond, Eugene Debs, the list goes on, depending on how much better or worse society is than OTL.

[Bureaucromancer]

Inouye and King are the two that I really long for... Barbara Boxer also comes to mind, though it's still in the realm of possibility she might run.

[LegionoftheUnitedStates]

Originally Posted by BillyShears

Oh dear God no!

I think a Labour Prime Minister Rowan Williams has its merits but the beard would've stopped him.

I'm also of the camp that thinks Michael Foot would've been a good PM were it not for the duffel coat and the hair.

I first read that as Rowan Atkinson...

[Badshah]

Originally Posted by LegionoftheUnitedStates

I first read that as Rowan Atkinson...

Me too.

[Pellegrino Shots]

Originally Posted by Stolengood

Pray tell, why not?

Are you INSANE?

I interpret the question as people who could have been president if the prejudices of the time didn’t exist. Hence Douglas or Fong or Kelly. I think Kennedy could have had a shot in that scenario if not for the obvious anti-Catholic prejudices that existed in the 30s in the country. Al Smith’s 1928 campaign was influenced by anti-catholic sentiment, and according to Wikipedia, in 1935 Kennedy’s wealth had increased to $180 million (equivalent to $3.05 billion today). I think that anyone with $3.05 billion could be president. But in 1932 there was no way that the Democrats would nominate another catholic after the Al Smith defeat. I’m not saying he’d have an easy election, or win, or be a great president. But I think the Smith campaign closed the door on Catholics in national politics for several decades.

[mattep74]

Mona Sahlin as Swedish PM in 1995 instead of Göran Persson. Just have the media behave as in the 60ths and not try to find errors in politicans.

Yngve Holmberg as Swedish PM in 1968 if we changed to a one chamber parliament before 68.

[Archibald]

Mo Udall sounds an obvious choice...

[Derek Jackson]

No Lenin and earlier Civil Rights success in the US Paul Robeson??