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.