AHC: President Fred McFeely Rogers

I remember watching this bit from Whose Line Is It Anyway, during the game World's Worst. The prompt was world's worst person to be president during a crisis, and at one point Drew Carey came down and said in his best Mr. Rogers impression, "We're having a crisis today. Can you say crisis?" While taking off his suit coat.

I remember seeing a lot of comments under the video saying how Mr Rogers would have been a great president. While I'm aware they were probably half kidding, it did make me curious. Is there a scenario where he could have become President of the United States? What would his legacy end up being? Given that he was a Republican, how different would the party be if he was president?
 
Without going into current politics, there have been some old threads on this forum that mistakenly came to the conclusion how certain people are 100% unelectable unless we go into some dystopian Twilight Zone world with Alien Space Bats distorting reality.


So considering that, I can't call anyone unelectable, including Fred Rogers. In fact, mister Rogers was one of the few universally loved people in America, to the point that it's probably off-limits for his political opponents to be running negative ads against him. According to Wikipedia, Fred Rogers was a registered Republican, which limits his window of opportunity somewhat. He's not stopping the Reagan hype train in the 1980s, and by 2000 he's too old to run. 1976 could be his chance to unseat Gerald Ford, as he could be seen as a viable alternative in the post-Watergate world compared to more polarizing figures like Ford and Reagan. Alternatively he could run in 1988 if George H. W. Bush decides not to run for whatever reason, as Jesse Jackson on the Democratic side of the arena has shown you didn't need a political background or any experience as a Senator or Governor to be a strong candidate and win more than a dozen primaries.
 
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Drew Carey came down and said in his best Mr. Rogers impression, "We're having a crisis today. Can you say crisis?"

For the record, I watched a fair bit of Mr. Rogers back in the day, and I'm pretty sure I never heard him use the "Can you say...?" line. I think that was an invention of comedians.
 
God that sounds weird.

Indeed. Though, in fairness, it was an appropriate thing to do, under the circumstances. You know how he opens the closet at the beginning to change into his sweater? One day, for a prank, his staff put a blow-up sex doll in, and when he saw it, he took it out and danced across the set with it.

When someone pulls that kind of joke on you, you pretty much have to go along with it.
 
It seems he was a registered Republican, so maybe he could run in 1980. He could also run in 1976 if Ford decides he’s not running for re-election for some reason, but that’s less likely. As others have mentioned, he would have the advantage of being one of the few almost universally loved people in America. I can’t find too much information about his political views, but it seems like he could at least be a decent president.
 
Actually, having done some more reading about the guy, this is a legitimately interesting idea. For whatever reason, let’s say that some time during the 1960s/70s he decides quit his show and run for some sort of public office, then he runs for President in 1980. From what I’ve gathered, he was anti-war, pro-civil rights, and once hosted an episode in the Soviet Union, but at the same time was anti-union and was a devout Christian. I imagine he’d start off supporting a variety of policies before eventually being forced to conform at least somewhat with the party establishment.
 
He would be unelectable.

Politics is, at its very best, a knife fight.


You might be surprised. In my lifetime, we had a B-list actor, a guy who couldn’t stop groping women, a guy whose biggest accomplishment before becoming President was trading away Sammy Sosa, a dude whose name sounded like Osama (and indeed the “Obama/Biden” campaign signs looking like “Osama bin Laden” at first glance) and…well, that guy. Everyone is unelectable until they’re elected.

I prefer President Roy Rogers McFeely.


Just don’t serve the cola warm.
 
The best way to get Mr. Rogers to the White House is, in my opinion, get him to Congress first. He needs a pet cause in addition to PBS; I’m not sure what that would be (awhile ago someone did a thread on Bob Ross becoming POTUS; I suggested a start in Congress with a focus on healthcare for veterans. Something like that here would work.)

Have him be a popular Republican, although a moderate one and one who is willing, in his own polite way, to tell the religious right to go fuck themselves (though Mr. Rogers telling Pat Robertson to go fuck himself would be the most epic thing ever.)

Then have John Hinckley Jr. actually kill Reagan, making Papa Bush President. His choice for VP? None other than Mr. Fred Rogers. So come 1988, Rogers rides a wave of GOP goodwill and defeats Tank Boy, becoming President.

And now the nicest man in America has to show down with the likes of Saddam Hussein. Damnit, if I had time and weren’t preoccupied with a novel, I’d try to write this shit.
 
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