AHC: President J Edgar Hoover

As it says on the tin. I once heard he was the most powerful man in the country and, well, power corrupts. What happens if the man behind the FBI decides he ought to prop his shoes in the Oval Office?
 
As it says on the tin. I once heard he was the most powerful man in the country and, well, power corrupts. What happens if the man behind the FBI decides he ought to prop his shoes in the Oval Office?

He fails. He has no political base at all. For one thing, he lives in DC.

For another, there's his interesting personal life; he really can't stand too much scrutiny.

And really, what's he going to do? His secret files have a lot of dirt on a lot of people, but how much can he get out of that? Can he blackmail the entire Republican or Democratic Party into nominating him? Blackmail the other party into letting him win? Blackmail the editors of major newspapers into endorsing him?

However - Hoover did want to be Attorney General at one time. If he had gotten the job, and a mass assassination removed the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, Senate President, and Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Defense, Hoover would be President.
 
He fails. He has no political base at all. For one thing, he lives in DC.

For another, there's his interesting personal life; he really can't stand too much scrutiny.

And really, what's he going to do? His secret files have a lot of dirt on a lot of people, but how much can he get out of that? Can he blackmail the entire Republican or Democratic Party into nominating him? Blackmail the other party into letting him win? Blackmail the editors of major newspapers into endorsing him?

However - Hoover did want to be Attorney General at one time. If he had gotten the job, and a mass assassination removed the President, Vice President, Speaker of the House, Senate President, and Secretaries of State, Treasury, and Defense, Hoover would be President.
Maybe a nuclear war could have rendered him president?
 
Have an alternative United States presidential election, 1960.

What about J. Edgar Hoover, gaining the Republican nomination with the support of New York, Governor Nelson Rockefeller and Senator, Barry Goldwater of Arizona.

This frightens off the democratic candidates, Senator Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota and Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts, leaving Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri, the only major nominee as Senate Majority Leader Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, chooses to not be nominated.

With J. Edgar Hoover and Governor Nelson Rockefeller, on the GOP, ticket they sweep enough votes to see a third term for the Republicans.
 
As it says on the tin. I once heard he was the most powerful man in the country and, well, power corrupts. What happens if the man behind the FBI decides he ought to prop his shoes in the Oval Office?

That's probably the most tricky bit in this challenge. A saw a documentary on Hoover many years ago, and there he was quoted as not being interested in the Presidency, as he would have been less powerful than in his FBI position. So in order to make the Presidency more attractive to him, the FBI has to get more restrictions somehow.
 
That's probably the most tricky bit in this challenge. A saw a documentary on Hoover many years ago, and there he was quoted as not being interested in the Presidency, as he would have been less powerful than in his FBI position. So in order to make the Presidency more attractive to him, the FBI has to get more restrictions somehow.

See, that's what I was thinking, too. I didn't think he had aspirations for it, but at what point does he really utilize his secret police for his own political capital. I'm sure he didn't do everything he could have in OTL, so it was a passing curiosity.
 
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