AHC: Resignation's common place in US Presidencies

Make resignations common place in American Presidencies, the same way it is in the UK and Europe. Should it be possible, who would the be the most likely presidents to resign and in what way would this effect American politics?
 
I think part of the issue has been that the position of Vice-President hasn't been taken too seriously until relatively recently. I mean, the VP wasn't even the assumed successor in the next election until 1960-ish. (Except for Roosevelt/Truman, but then again those were special circumstances.) Wasn't part of the reason why Wilson didn't resign after his stroke because the general attitude was "Who the fuck is Thomas Marshall?"
 
I think part of the issue has been that the position of Vice-President hasn't been taken too seriously until relatively recently. I mean, the VP wasn't even the assumed successor in the next election until 1960-ish. (Except for Roosevelt/Truman, but then again those were special circumstances.) Wasn't part of the reason why Wilson didn't resign after his stroke because the general attitude was "Who the fuck is Thomas Marshall?"

If this is an issue, you need to make deaths of Presidents more common. Have John Adams die. There will be plenty of people around who participated in writing the constitution and can say definitively that Jefferson is meant to be President. Plus, I imagine Jefferson is much more of a commanding figure than John Tyler so his legitimacy might not be challenged in the same way.

Once the position of VP is legitimatized you solve some of the problems.
 
Have no tradition of term limits. The reason why British PMs resign is because they can keep getting re-elected indefinitely, and many don't want to.
 
I can't come up with anything that's not going to be called ASB.

Nixon resigned over Watergate, then Reagan resigns over Iran-Contra, Clinton resigns over Monica. By the time Bush enters office (or Gore?) it's seen that no president has peacefully left office after two full terms since Wilson.

Of course, butterflies from B should affect A to a point, so...
 
I can't come up with anything that's not going to be called ASB.

Nixon resigned over Watergate, then Reagan resigns over Iran-Contra, Clinton resigns over Monica. By the time Bush enters office (or Gore?) it's seen that no president has peacefully left office after two full terms since Wilson.

Of course, butterflies from B should affect A to a point, so...

What about Ike?
 
Perhaps have Wilson marry someone else who lets the cabinet force him to resign. That could set a precedent for presidents resigning when they are in ill health.
 
What about Ike?

You're quite right, I missed him somehow.

His ill health is made a bigger deal of in retrospect to make the curse seem more 'real', kind of like how some minor incidents in the Kennedy family are grandfathered into the 'Kennedy Curse'. Hell, it can happen with Wilson, too. Then you can say no president left office with two terms both peacefully and in good health since TR.
 
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