Others in this thread have disposed of the red herring that Hamilton was ineligible to be President because he was born on St.Croix. This seems to come up whenerver the words "Hamilton" and "President" are used in the same sentence and the answer is always the same "read the Constitution".
I would like to deal with the charge that AH was a "power hungry imperialist" as portrayed in the John Adams miniseries. First of all, John Adams hated Hamilton. To Adams, Hamilton was the "bastard brat of a Scotch peddler". Literally true, but still still hitting Hamilton below the belt and ignoring the fact that Hamilton had overcome the stigma of his birth, his abject poverty and his "foreigness" to become a brave soldier, a leading lawyer and perhaps the best political economist of his time. Second of all, the HBO miniseries was based on McCullough's biography of Adams. A great read and a fine book, but McCullough had clearly fallen in love with his subject and could find no flaw in his character or his actions and no good in any one who opposed his hero. Finally, while the HBO miniseries was great TV, it was only OK history. It compressed events, omitted key events and personalities and distorted every character from Washington to Adams' children What it did to AH was the worst, presenting him as nothing more than a loony militarist, the Iago of the Washington Administration. As soon as it was announced that Rufus Sewell would play AH I knew that no good would come of it.
I would suggest to the members of this forum who wish to know more about the real AH and his contributions to the founding of the Republic that they read Ron Chernow's recent biography of him. It portrays him, accurately I believe, as an ambitious striver, touchy about his honor and truly interested in what he thought was the best for his adopted country. Clearly not right all the time, obviously impetuous in both politics and his personal life but an amazingly clear thinker when it came to the course America should take as a capitalist society based on merit, without slavery and with a powerful central government to advance the national interest.
And no, I do not think that AH could ever have become President. Even if the Maria Reynolds scandal had not come out before he tried to run, it would come out during any election because both Jefferson and Monroe knew about it and would not hesitate to use it against Hamilton. Whenever it did come out Hamilton's response would probalby be the same as it was in OTL. "I was not paying bribes, I was being blackmailed because of my extramaritial affair. My official actions are pure, my personal life is not". The only way I can see AH getting even close to the Presidency is if the Maria Reynolds affair never happens and what is the chance of that considering AH's normal proclivities (at least at that age). Even if AH could keep out of sexual trouble, his nature was to never keep a thought unspoke (or unwritten) and that did, and would, cause him untold political trouble.
So endeth the rant.