AH Challenge: Fifty Presidents by 2001

Ok guys...It's been a while since I have put up a challenge...Ok, I couldn't remember if this has been done, but I thought it would be fun nonetheless. So come up with a POD post 1900 and a list of Presidents that lead up to the Fiftiest President being sworn into office in January 20th 2001?
 
In For All Time, I believe that Russ Feingold is the 50th president in 2000 (we know SMith is elected #51 in 2004, so it's not unreasonable to suppose that Feingold was 50, although given that this is FaT and he followed Gorton...).
 
This is a butterfly light list-and as such, might be a tad implausible
POD: Harry Truman killed in 1950.

33: Harry Truman 1945-1950*
34: Alben Barkley 1950-1953
35 Dwight Eisenhower 1953-1957*
36 Richard Nixon 1957-1961
37 John Kennedy 1961-1963*
38 Lyndon Johnson. 1963-1967*
39 Hubert Humphrey 1967-1969
40 Jim Rhodes 1969-1971*
41 John Volpe 1971-1973
42 Robert Kennedy 1973-1975*
43 George McGovern 1975-1977
44 Ronald Reagan 1977-1981*
45 Richard Schweiker 1981-1985
46 Robert Dole 1985-1987**
47: Jack Kemp 1987-1993
48 Paul Tsongas 1993-1997*
49 Jerry Brown 1997-2001
50:John McCain 2001-2009

* Died in office
**Resigned
 
Uhm, remove Roosevelt somehow, perhaps by establishing term limits earlier. That'll get one, maybe two more presidents in. After that, it'll be easy. Perhaps Roosevelt messes up badly enough to make people less trusting of presidents even earlier, and there are a few assassinations. The vice presidents who get power afterwards never get elected.

It's a bloody timeline, but it's not totally unbelievable. But would America be able to survive them?
 
Come on people let's see some lists, I really looking forward to seeing what crazy scenarios everyone comes up with...Here is mine.

For Want of a Climate

31. Herbert Hoover (R-CA): March 4th 1929-Febuary 15th 1932*
32. Charles Curtis(R-KA): February 15th-March 4th 1932*

33. Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY): March 4th 1932-Setember 8th 1935*
34. John N. Garner IV (D-TX): September 8th 1935-January 20th 1941

35. Wendell L. Willkie (R-NY): January 20th 1941-October 8th 1944*
36. Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI): October 8th 1944-January 20th 1945*
37. John W. Bricker(R-OH): January 20th 1945-November 1st 1950*
38. Douglas MacArthur(R-WI): November 1st 1950-January 20th 1953

39. Adlai E. Stevenson III (D-IL): January 20th 1953-January 20th 1961
40. Robert S. Kerr (D-OK): January 20th 1961-January 1st 1963*
41. John F. Kennedy (D-MA): January 1st 1963-March 31st 1968*
42. George A. Smathers (D-FL): March 31st 1968-January 20th 1969

43. Richard M. Nixon(R-CA): January 20th 1969-April 10th 1972*
44. Spiro T. Agnew(R-MD): April 10th 1972-October 10th 1973**
45. Nelson A. Rockefeller(R-NY): October 10th 1973-January 26th 1979*
46. Howard H. Baker Jr.(R-TN): January 26th 1979-January 20th 1981

47. Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA): January 20th 1981-January 20th 1989
48. Rueben Askew (D-FL): January 20th 1989-January 20th 1993

49. Jack Kemp(R-NY): January 20th 1993-January 20th 2001
50. Douglas Wilder (D-VA): January 20th 2001-???*

Notes

31. Giuseppe Zangara sticks to his original plan, and travels to Washington DC (disregarding its lack of a Mediterranean climate) to assassinate the sitting President. He is able to catch the President while he is playing his morning routine of Tennisball (A weird volleyball and Tennis combination). The President succumbed to his wounds a few hours later.

32. The 73 year old Kansan is sworn as the thirty-second President and becomes the first President with acknowledged non-European Ancestry (He was nearly Half-Native America). He also has the shortest term in office as he only serves for only 19 days.

33. Due to the minimal butterflies involving Hoover’s assassination, FDR’s 1st term goes pretty much unchanged from OTL. However ITTL, President Roosevelt maintains a good relationship with Huey Long. Seeing him as essential to his reelection campaign, President Roosevelt visited his friend’s home state of Louisiana. The President was addressing a joint session of the Louisiana state legislature with Huey Long at his side, when both he and the Senator were shot at by Carl Weiss. President Roosevelt is killed instantly while; Senator Long succumbed to his wounds two days later.

35. President Willkie, the former businessman who narrowly won the 1940 election over Cactus Jack. The man, who rallied the nation after the attack on Pearl Harbor to fight a Second World War against the Axis nations, finally succumbed to Heart disease while on the campaign trail for reelection.

36. With the death of Vice President McNary on February 25th 1944 due to the spread of a malignant Brain Tumor, there was a vacancy in the Vice Presidency. Due to that vacancy, Secretary of State Arthur H. Vandenberg was sworn in as the 36th Presidency. His short term was mainly a caretaker Presidency before handing over the office to former Governor of Ohio, John Bricker…Willkie’s Vice Presidential running mate in the 1944 election.

37. After a resounding victory over former Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace in the 1948 election…President Bricker is assassinated by two Pro-Independence Puerto Ricans while outside his temporary residence of the Blair House.

40. The Sixty-six year old 40th President of the United States has a fatal heart attack while working in the oval office.

41. The nation would be shook to its core after the surprise death of their young and vibrant 41st President John F. Kennedy by a massive heart attack. The sudden death was mainly attributed to growing stress about what to do about the quagmire in Vietnam and his ridiculously high Cholesterol level.

43. Richard M. Nixon otherwise known as the comeback kid, after his close loss to Vice President Kerr in the 1960 election only to beat President Smathers as Governor of California in the 1968 election was assassinated by the crazed Arthur Bremer in Ottawa, Canada.

44. President Agnew became the first President to resign the Presidency due to criminal charges about his activities as Governor of Maryland. Those charges include tax evasion, money laundering and bribery.

45. Leader of the moderate wing of the Republican Party, President Rockefeller died at the age 70 from a heart attack under circumstances whose details have been covered up, but reportedly whilst having sex with his 25 year old mistress in the White House.

50. Although Seventy years old upon election day, not only is the popular former Governor of Virginia, the fiftieth President of the United States but he is also the first African American President as well.
 
hopefully this list isn't too ASB... i tried to get some ones on there we don't see as president every day.

33. Harry S Truman, Democrat, Missouri, 1945 - 1953.
Truman decides to run for a 3rd time, but is narrowly defeated by GOP challenger Robert Taft.

34. Robert A Taft, Republican, Ohio, 1953.
Taft dies four months into his presidency, of cancer.

35. Douglas MacArthur, Republican, Virginia, 1953-1957.
MacArthur's politics are frightening to the majority of Americans, who overwhelmingly elect his Democratic challengers.

36. Estes Kefauver, Democrat, Tennessee, 1957-1963.
Kefauver is elected, despite flack for not pushing for civil rights, but dies of natural causes in his second term.

37. Adlai Stevenson, Democrat, Illinois, 1963-1965.
Stevenson is relected after assuming the office from Kefauver, but dies of natural causes in the summer of 1965. His vice presidential pick, a sop to the southern conservative wing of the party, is now elevated.

38. George Wallace, Democrat, Alabama, 1965-1968.
President Wallace is assassinated by a Black Panther in early 1968, throwing the year into confusion, elevating the Speaker of the House for the first time and effectively causing a split in the Democratic party between the conservative southerners, led by Strom Thurmond and Richard Russell, and the liberal progressives, led by John Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.

39. Charles Halleck, Republican, Indiana, 1968-1969.
Speaker of the House Halleck is elevated to the presidency, but is challenged at the convention.

40, Nelson Rockefeller, Republican, New York, 1969-1973.
Rockefeller pushes for civil rights against an increasingly conservative congress, but has the misfortune to rule over an era signaled by unease with the wars in Vietnam and the Congo, a drastically recessing economy, the failed space race, and a growing culture war.

41. Hubert Humphrey, Progressive/Liberal (the PLP), Minnesota, 1973-1978.
Humphrey reigns over the 'Booming 70s', but dies of natural causes.

42. John Conyers, PLP, Michigan, 1978-1981.
The first African-American vice president becomes the first African-American president, but he also becomes the first to be impeached (but not removed) by corruption charges. This combined with a populist movement that's grown angry about high taxes ensures his defeat.

43. Philip Crane, Republican, Illinois, 1981-1985.
President Crane is highly unpopular with liberals and is assassinated after winning re-election.

44. George H.W. Bush, Republican, Texas, 1985-1989.
Conservatives who flocked to Crane now flock back to the Democrats over Bush's centrist rationalism.

45. Jimmy Swaggart, Democrat, Louisiana, 1989-1991.
President Swaggart becomes the first to be successfully impeached from office for corruption.

46. James Traficant, Democrat, Ohio, 1991.
And Vice President Traficant becomes the second.

47. James Wright, Democrat, Texas, 1990-1993.
For the second time in U.S. history, the Speaker of the House becomes President. Wright is beaten in a vicious threeway race in 1992.

48. Michael Rockefeller, Republican, New York, 1993-1997.
He vows to only serve one term.

49. Mickey Leland, PLP, Texas, 1997-2000.
President Leland does not, but gets it anyway.

50. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Republican, Arkansas, 2001-?
President Kirkpatrick becomes the first female president in history on the turn of the century.
 

maverick

Banned
With some cheating, thanks to presidential assassins...it gets kind of random by the end though...


37 Richard Nixon 1969-1972 (assassinated by Bremer)
38 Spiro Agnew 1972-1973 (resigned)
39 Robert H. Finch 1973-1975 (Assassinated by Lynette Fromme)
40 John Connally 1975-1977
41 Henry Jackson 1977-1978 (Heart Attack)
42 Jimmy Carter 1978-1981
43 Ronald Reagan 1981-1981 (Assassinated by Hinkcley)
44 George Bush 1981-1985
45 Gary Hart 1985-1988 (Resigns)
46 Michael Dukakis 1987-1989
47 Bob Dole 1989-1993
48 Mario Cuomo 1993-1997
49 JEB Bush 1997-1999 (resigns)
50 Donald Rumsfeld 1999-2000
 
For want of stability...

List of Presidents of the United States of America, 1933-2009

32. Franklin D. Roosevelt (D-NY) (1933-1945)
33. Harry S. Truman (D-MO) (1945-1950)
34. Alben W. Barkley (D-KY) (1950-1953) [1]
35. Dwight D. Eisenhower (R-KS) (1953-1955) [2]
36. Richard M. Nixon (R-CA) (1955-1961)
37. John F. Kennedy (D-MA) (1961-1963) [3]
38. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX) (1963-1969)
39. George W. Romney (R-MI) (1969-1973)
40. Henry M. Jackson (D-WA) (1973-1978) [4]
41. James E. Carter (D-GA) (1978-1979) [5]
42. Walter F. Mondale (D-MN) (1979-1981)
43. Ronald W. Reagan (R-CA) (1981) [6]
44. George H.W. Bush (R-TX) (1981-1986) [7]
45. Robert J. Dole (R-KS) (1986-1989)
46. Michael S. Dukakis (D-MA) (1989-1993)
47. H. Ross Perot (I-TX) (1993-1997) [8]
48. John S. McCain (R-AZ) (1997-1998) [9]
49. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) (1998-2001)
50. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-CT) (2001-2009)

[1] Assassinated by Puerto Rican nationalists.
[2] Died of a heart attack.
[3] Assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas.
[4] Died of a heart attack.
[5] Assassinated by Raymond Lee Harvey in Los Angeles, California.
[6] Assassinated by John Hinckley, Jr. in Washington, D.C.
[7] Impeached for his involvement in the Iran-Contra affair.
[8] Elected President as a result of dissatisfaction with Republican corruption and Democratic incompetence in the midst of an economic crisis. Hamstrung by a bipartisan Congress that worked together to defeat his reforms, thus, lost Presidential election of 1996 to John McCain.
[9] Died of a heart attack.



Vice Presidents of the United States, 1933-2009

32. John N. Garner (D-TX) (1933-1941)
33. Henry A. Wallace (D-IA) (1941-1945)
34. Harry S. Truman (D-MO) (1945)
35. Alben W. Barkley (D-KY) (1949-1950)
36. Richard M. Nixon (R-CA) (1953-1955)
37. Henry Cabot Lodge (R-MA) (1957-1961)
38. Lyndon B. Johnson (D-TX) (1961-1963)
39. Hubert H. Humphrey (D-MN) (1963-1969)
40. Ronald W. Reagan (R-CA) (1969-1973)
41. James E. Carter (D-GA) (1973-1978)
42. Walter F. Mondale (D-MN) (1978-1979)
43. Ernest S. Hollings (D-SC) (1979-1981)
44. George H.W. Bush (R-CA) (1981)
45. Robert J. Dole (R-KS) (1981-1986)
46. Jack F. Kemp (R-NY) (1986-1989)
47. Lloyd M. Bentsen (D-TX) (1989-1993)
48. James B. Stockdale (I-IL) (1993-1997)
49. Richard G. Lugar (R-IN) (1997-1998)
50. Michael Huffington (R-CA) (1998-2001)
51. Albert A. Gore (D-TN) (2001-2009)

 
Butterfly-lite, admittedly, but I could just make up all of the names and get to 50, so I'll keep it this way:

25. William McKinley (R), 1897-1901, assassinated on schedule.
26. Theodore Roosevelt (R), 1901-1905, dumped by conservative wing of party at convention. (This is as close to a POD as you're going to get!)
27. Mark Hanna (R), 1905, survived sixteen more months than in OTL, died within a few months of taking office.
28. James Sherman (R), 1905-1909, took over after Hanna.
29. John A. Johnson (D), 1909, WJB doesn't run, Johnson beats Sherman in close election, but dies (as in OTL) September 1909.
30. George Turner (D), 1909-1913, Johnson's VP, took over for him, not renominated.
31. Woodrow Wilson (D), 1913-1916, resigned in November 1916 (as he threatened in OTL) after losing presidential election to
32. Charles Fairbanks (R), 1916-1918, died in office. Succeeded by his Vice-President
33. Theodore Roosevelt (R) 1918-1919, died in office. Succeeded by Secretary of State
34. Robert Bacon (R), 1919, died after two months in office, succeeded by Secretary of the Treasury
35. Andrew Mellon (R), 1919-1921, not renominated.
36. Warren Harding (R), 1921-1923, died in office. Succeeded by Vice-President
37. Asle Gronna (R), 1923, lives one year longer than in OTL, died in office. Succeeded by Secretary of State
38. Charles Evans Hughes (R), 1923-1929.
39. Guy D. Goff (R), 1929-1933, died in office two months before leaving office, succeeded by Vice-President
40. Hanford McNider (R), 1933. FDR gets assassinated by Zangara, so is replaced by VP-Elect
41. George Dern (D), 1933-1936 (Utah governor considered by FDR for VP in OTL). Dies in office, replaced by Secretary of State
42. Cordell Hull (D), 1936-1937.
43. William Borah (R) 1937-1940, died in office. Succeeded by Vice-President
44. William Knox (R) 1940-1944, died in office a few months earlier than OTL, succeeded by Vice-President
45. Charles McNary (R), 1944, died in office, succeeded by Secretary of State
46. John Foster Dulles (R), 1944-1945.
47. Cordell Hull (D), 1945-1948, resigned for medical reasons. Succeeded by Vice-President
48. James A. Roe (D), 1948-1950, assassinated by Puerto Rican nationalists, succeeded by Vice-President
49. Alben Barkley (D), 1950-1953, not nominated by party for 1952 election.
50. Estes Kefauver (D), 1953-

There you go, fiftieth president fifty-six years ago! :p
 
Ok guys...It's been a while since I have put up a challenge...Ok, I couldn't remember if this has been done, but I thought it would be fun nonetheless. So come up with a POD post 1900 and a list of Presidents that lead up to the Fiftiest President being sworn into office in January 20th 2001?

Simple - let's go Italy's route and have every President die or resign every two months to two years due to some scandal.
 
hopefully this list isn't too ASB... i tried to get some ones on there we don't see as president every day.

33. Harry S Truman, Democrat, Missouri, 1945 - 1953.
Truman decides to run for a 3rd time, but is narrowly defeated by GOP challenger Robert Taft.

34. Robert A Taft, Republican, Ohio, 1953.
Taft dies four months into his presidency, of cancer.

35. Douglas MacArthur, Republican, Virginia, 1953-1957.
MacArthur's politics are frightening to the majority of Americans, who overwhelmingly elect his Democratic challengers.

36. Estes Kefauver, Democrat, Tennessee, 1957-1963.
Kefauver is elected, despite flack for not pushing for civil rights, but dies of natural causes in his second term.

37. Adlai Stevenson, Democrat, Illinois, 1963-1965.
Stevenson is relected after assuming the office from Kefauver, but dies of natural causes in the summer of 1965. His vice presidential pick, a sop to the southern conservative wing of the party, is now elevated.

38. George Wallace, Democrat, Alabama, 1965-1968.
President Wallace is assassinated by a Black Panther in early 1968, throwing the year into confusion, elevating the Speaker of the House for the first time and effectively causing a split in the Democratic party between the conservative southerners, led by Strom Thurmond and Richard Russell, and the liberal progressives, led by John Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey.

39. Charles Halleck, Republican, Indiana, 1968-1969.
Speaker of the House Halleck is elevated to the presidency, but is challenged at the convention.

40, Nelson Rockefeller, Republican, New York, 1969-1973.
Rockefeller pushes for civil rights against an increasingly conservative congress, but has the misfortune to rule over an era signaled by unease with the wars in Vietnam and the Congo, a drastically recessing economy, the failed space race, and a growing culture war.

41. Hubert Humphrey, Progressive/Liberal (the PLP), Minnesota, 1973-1978.
Humphrey reigns over the 'Booming 70s', but dies of natural causes.

42. John Conyers, PLP, Michigan, 1978-1981.
The first African-American vice president becomes the first African-American president, but he also becomes the first to be impeached (but not removed) by corruption charges. This combined with a populist movement that's grown angry about high taxes ensures his defeat.

43. Philip Crane, Republican, Illinois, 1981-1985.
President Crane is highly unpopular with liberals and is assassinated after winning re-election.

44. George H.W. Bush, Republican, Texas, 1985-1989.
Conservatives who flocked to Crane now flock back to the Democrats over Bush's centrist rationalism.

45. Jimmy Swaggart, Democrat, Louisiana, 1989-1991.
President Swaggart becomes the first to be successfully impeached from office for corruption.

46. James Traficant, Democrat, Ohio, 1991.
And Vice President Traficant becomes the second.

47. James Wright, Democrat, Texas, 1990-1993.
For the second time in U.S. history, the Speaker of the House becomes President. Wright is beaten in a vicious threeway race in 1992.

48. Michael Rockefeller, Republican, New York, 1993-1997.
He vows to only serve one term.

49. Mickey Leland, PLP, Texas, 1997-2000.
President Leland does not, but gets it anyway.

50. Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Republican, Arkansas, 2001-?
President Kirkpatrick becomes the first female president in history on the turn of the century.

I remember President Swaggart's televised resignation speech in the Oval Office when he bawled like a baby and cried, "I have sinned against you."
 
PoD: Franklin Roosevelt gets killed by Giuseppe Zangara, so John Nance Garner assumes presidency.

32. John Nance Garner (D) (1933-1937)
33. Alf Landon (R) (1937-1941)
34. Huey Long (AF) (1941)[1]
35. Charles Lindbergh (AF) (1941-1950) [2]
36. Strom Thurmond (AF) (1950-1951) [3]
37. Sam Rayburn (D) (1951-1953) [4]
38. Robert Taft (R) (1953-1953) [5]
39. Douglas MacArthur (R) (1953-1961)
40. Richard Nixon (R) (1961-1963) [6]
41. Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. (R) (1963-1969)
42. Hubert Humphrey (D) (1969-1974) [7]
43. Ed Muskie (D) (1974-1977)
44. Ronald Reagan (R) (1977-1981) [8]
45. Howard Baker (R) (1981-1985)
46. Gary Hart (D) (1985-1987) [9]
47. Geraldine Ferraro (D) (1987-1989)
48. George H.W. Bush (R) (1989-1993)
49. Bill Clinton (D) (1993-2001)
50. George W. Bush (R) (2001-2009)
51. Barack Obama (D) (2009-)

AF = America First, created much earlier than OTL, to counter President Landons interventionism.

[1] Died of a heart attack upon receiving the DoW from Japan on December 7th, 1941.
[2] Was assasinated by Puerto Rican Nationalists in 1950.
[3] Was impeached, because of his order to shoot at protesters in Puerto Rico.
[4] Since Thurmond had no VP, the Speaker of the House became POTUS.
[5] Died of cancer after four months in office.
[6] Was assasinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.
[7] Resigned after the Watergate scandal.
[8] Was assasinated by John Hinckley Jr.
[9] Resigned after his affair with Donna Rice.
 
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