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Perhaps if Marshall Trotsky hadn't become the second leader of the USSR? - perhaps if there was a non-Jewish, classically Russian anti-Jewish leader, who then refused to allow large scale Jewish immigration from the USSR this would happen?

David Ben-Gurion felt he had to offer him the Presidency, but allegedly said "What the hell are we going to do if he says yes?" Einstein would have been President for about 3 years at the end of his life, I think the only difference really would be a different face on one of the NIS notes...

basically none - except for the mid 50s optimistic period when people said England was entering a new Elizabethan age, and Punk using the 1977 jubilee as a target ect. - very minor cultural stuff like that. The monarchy doesn't write the speeches of the times, but it sometimes changes the accent...

I'd also like to table an amendment: No person who has previously held the office of Prime Minister or Leader of the Opposition shall be eligible to become President of the Commonwealth of Great Britain.... Queen Elizabeth the Third? Fucking Aye! :D

I think it's not impossible that after QE2 dies, and Charles succeeds her then we might have a British Commonwealth by 2025. If that happens then it depends how the ceremonial President is elected: is it by popular vote, or by Parliament which is the case in many countries with ceremonial...

For the Paralympics: Murderball! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheelchair_rugby

You'd have to win Ramsay McDonald away form Philip Snowden and the orthodox economists in the civil service, and into agreement with J M Keynes and Lloyd-George to go for their plan of public works, deficit financing and devaluation - something that would be a radical and very controversial move...

anyone elected in 1928 would have been sworn in only about 6 months before the Great Crash begins, so it would be to late for them to implement any preventative policy change - even if they had the insight (with the knowledge and economic theory of the time) to see the problem coming. In order...

*applause*

In any war with the USA you have to consider geography primarily: the US has thousands of miles of ocean between it and a major aggressor. This not only means that Mexico or Canada would have to be conquered / persuaded to ally against the US to provide a launching point for an invasion, but the...

I thought of that too - it's plausible he might have settled somewhere else after the war, but what chance would he have stood getting elected? Besides - Georgia and Arkansas are small states too...

Well Addison's wasn't Kennedy's only health problem - according to the Robert Dallek biography he was also suffering from colitis and chronic prostatitis, and compression fractures of the spine - which needed heavy pain meds. At one point during campaigning in Connecticut his medicine bag was...

I'm watching The Best Man - a more attractive Adlai Stevenson (played by Henry Fonda) is facing of against an even more evil John F Kennedy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_Man_%28play%29 In the course of events each man gets some dirt on the other and attempts to use it to force the...

he's not Bad Ass, and I don't think he'd be widely regarded as a Great American (although that seems to be the least closely followed in all the time-lines so far)

Well he did well during the Watergate hearings didn't he? So perhaps he runs in 1976 instead of Jimmy Carter? Or - he was friends with Bob Dole - what if he were nominated as a Dole VP sometime during an alternate 1980s? The problem is: there is a very small window of time between the nation...

the initials: yes, once it occurred to me I couldn't resist - although I was kicking around the idea of someone called "omar bradley somethingorother" who would be the first Muslim President of the USA - who ever it was would probably need a similarly rock-solid military record in order to get...

OK, a quick go (a bit dull) Omar Bradley Lehman was born on 30 January 1962 in Warm Springs, Georgia to Dr Joseph Lehman (an African-American and WW2 veteran who studied medicine at Howard University) and Mary Lehman a schoolteacher. In 1965 Joseph Lehman was able to find and opportunity to do...

OK - also, any special reason for the date + place of birth? FDR's DOB was 30 Jan 1882 - he was 51 when sworn in. Can we have 30 Jan 1962 ? the extra time makes things a little easier with electoral cycles ;)

Is there a POD which means that Barack Obama / A. N. other Democratic president isn't in the White House? It would be hard for anyone similar to FDR in his program to be elected from the Republicans right now - or could it be a Tea Party member who will establish a "New Deal" of small...

from the opening post: (a) to be considered a Great American what does that actually mean? what sort of thing would a person have to have done / be in order to be thought of as a Great American? Any examples?