3rd Term Teddy Roosevelt

Please go easy on the noob

What would happen if Theodore Roselvelt decided to run for a 3rd term?
Obviously I think he'll win the election, but what happens next?
 
Well, which do we go by? Title or post? I can't tell. I think the thread is about Teddy, but the title says Franklin...
EDIT: Thank you for the title change.

If I go by thread, which I think is meant, then i don't really know. However, I can tell yo0u that the Frst World War will be rather different. With Teddy building up the US military, both power blocs will want to kep an eye on the other side of the Pond, and will be even more wary of US involvement than OTL. What this means for the greater war is entirely too hard to predict.

If I go by title, then I must say that FDR would either not run again, or would be voted out. WWII took a toll on him, and he'd been in office for a long time. I don't think he'd get another term, either way. If he did, though, then the US is going to be a bit harder on the Soviets during the Berlin Crisis, and the Korean War, with wary Soviets, is hard to predict.

Please, anyone with more knowledge on these subjects, help me. I can only do so much...
 
You may like LacheyS's In His Own Right

LacheyS said:
Prologue: In His Own Right is based upon the supposition that, following the assassination of US President William McKinley, the Republican Party became very concerned with the behaviour of his successor, Theodore Roosevelt. The Republican Party "kingmaker", Mark Hanna, in our timeline, decided to prepare for a challenge to Roosevelt for the Republican Party nomination in 1904, but died before such a challenge could be raised. As our point of divergence, Hanna lives for three months longer than he did in our timeline and has the chance to not only develop the support base for such a challenge, but to disrupt the confidence of the Administration, and most particularly, the President himself. This results in a change of attitude and behaviour in the person of President Roosevelt, which in turn, affects the world around him. We open our story on Election Night, 1904, with Roosevelt having won the nomination after Hanna's death.
 
Please go easy on the noob

What would happen if Theodore Roselvelt decided to run for a 3rd term?
Obviously I think he'll win the election, but what happens next?

Let's assume that TR was able to persuade Taft to step aside for 1912 (a bit of a tall order but humor me...). Then, with a united GOP behind him, he'd send Woodrow Wilson packing rather efficiently in the election. To be sure, TR would ensure the navy grew substantially, all the while reassuring Great Britain that there was no threat implied (and with TR's good relations with Whitehall, that would seem to be no problem).

Many say the Great War would have been different: I maintain there might not have been one at all. Don't forget that TR enjoyed enormous prestige in the ministries of Europe (see, for example, that picture of him on horseback in animated conversation with Kaiser Wilhelm II) and that he had the credentials as a mediator from the Russo-Japanese War (and a Nobel Peace Prize to back that up). I suggest TR may well have been able to mediate a settlement between Serbia and Austria-Hungary that would have meant there would have been no shots fired by military units on either side.

Now we're talking about a decade in which America is at peace, the economy is apparently booming, and an immensely popular president is in the White House. There would be no reason that TR wouldn't run again in 1916...and the Democrats would be outside looking in until at least 1920 if not beyond.
 
Let's assume that TR was able to persuade Taft to step aside for 1912 (a bit of a tall order but humor me...). Then, with a united GOP behind him, he'd send Woodrow Wilson packing rather efficiently in the election. To be sure, TR would ensure the navy grew substantially, all the while reassuring Great Britain that there was no threat implied (and with TR's good relations with Whitehall, that would seem to be no problem).

Many say the Great War would have been different: I maintain there might not have been one at all. Don't forget that TR enjoyed enormous prestige in the ministries of Europe (see, for example, that picture of him on horseback in animated conversation with Kaiser Wilhelm II) and that he had the credentials as a mediator from the Russo-Japanese War (and a Nobel Peace Prize to back that up). I suggest TR may well have been able to mediate a settlement between Serbia and Austria-Hungary that would have meant there would have been no shots fired by military units on either side.

Now we're talking about a decade in which America is at peace, the economy is apparently booming, and an immensely popular president is in the White House. There would be no reason that TR wouldn't run again in 1916...and the Democrats would be outside looking in until at least 1920 if not beyond.

I agree with much of this up to the bit about a 4th term. I think this would rub against the American tradition too much. Also Teddy wanted to pass the torch to Elihu Root, his heir apparent. I would see Root winning the Republican nomination with TR's backing in 1916.

There are some other subtle domestic impacts---no segregation of the civil service, no Prohibition, no closing of Storyville resulting in a slower diffusion of jazz.
 
I think TR would have declared war over the Lustitania, if he did not manage to get the US in on the Entente side earlier.

Does this speed an Allied victory?

Is the US more divided than in OTL over the war and does this make a difference.

If the US were at war in 1916 would TR seek a 4th term?
 
If Teddy won in 1912, then I agree that he would be pushing much harder for American intervention in World War I. I think that he would be able to use the "Bully Pulpit" to stoke American willingness to go to war. I don't know if he would go for the 4th term in 1916, perhaps he backs General Leonard Wood?
 
Cheerfully taking on all comers:

* I have to disagree with the concept of no additional term in 1916: TR would have been riding high with little to deter him. Moreover, Root's time for the White House had come and gone: TR wanted him in 1908 but couldn't convince him to run or set aside his (Root's) reservations about the electability of someone associated so closely with Wall Street.
* Also, I disagree on the inevitability of a general European conflict: don't forget that TR offered mediation to two major powers (Russia and Japan) while still fairly new; he wouldn't have been shy about doing it again to the major powers of Europe but with a lot more experience and prestige to back him up. I could see both the British (urged on by Cecil Spring-Rice) and the Germans (the foreign ministry taking its cue from the personal relationship between the Kaiser and the president) urging a mediated solution to the crisis--and also don't forget that the war was nearly averted in OTL as it was. Rooseveltian mediation would have obviated a real conflict in the summer of 1914.

So here we are in 1916: the world is at peace; the US economy is booming; the president has just won his second Nobel Peace Prize; he's a superb stump speaker and is tremendously popular (outside the old Confederate states, anyway). And on top of it all, he's only 57 years old, approaching 58 just before the election. Why would he want to step aside, and who's going to take it from him in the GOP? I suspect strongly that the GOP would be more than willing to nominate him yet again if he wanted it--and quite likely he would.

The Democrats would have a much larger problem. I question whether Wilson, having been beaten once, would try again; Oscar Underwood is a regional candidate at best; the other lights of the Democrats pale next to TR. It wouldn't surprise me if they couldn't agree on anyone and turned to a retread as a compromise candidate (in this case, read "sacrificial lamb") in the person of William Jennings Bryan.

Bryan's message is stale by now, and the election isn't even close. The Republicans carry 37 of the 48 states, and just miss taking Texas and Virginia by a total of fewer than 4,000 votes. With that, the progressive forces are clearly in control, meaning:

* Prohibition won't make it out of committee hearings in Congress.
* An anti-lynching law with teeth, on the other hand, will--and will pass over the usual southern filibuster.
* The 8 hour day becomes law.

By 1920, TR has decided that it's time to retire and enjoy life: he's a grandfather now and wants to devote time to that new role. Enter his nominal successor, Secretary of the Treasury Charles Gates Dawes...
 
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