I think we've done this before, but basically the idea here is what else people who served in the White House could have done with their lives had they not become President. Political careers are okay, so long as the White House is not attained. Of course, non political roles are much more interesting. These alternate careers do not have to form a cohesive timeline, this is just brainstorming. To start with here are a few ideas for the President of the postwar era to the modern day.
Barack Obama
Professor of Constitutional Law.
George W. Bush
Baseball Commissioner
Bill Clinton
Jazz Musician
George H. W. Bush
Secretary of State
Ronald Reagan
A B list film actor who found success on television.
Jimmy Carter
Pastor
Gerald Ford
Football Star
Richard Nixon*
Editor in Chief of some conservative newspaper
Lyndon Johnson
Texan Television Tycoon
Jack Kennedy
Editor of the Boston Globe
Dwight Eisenhower:
Serves as President of Colombia University throughout his historical Presidential term
Harry Truman**
Failed businessman.
*This is something of a joke, considering how much Nixon loathed journalists historically, I thought that having him become a journalist would be funny. I understand the plausibility issue
** I can't see Truman having a successful career outside of politics, everything else he did was a failure.
Actually, Nixon once said, "If I had it to do all over again, I think I'd have been a sports writer."
So, one possibility would be beat writer for one of the LA papers, perhaps covering the Rams when they moved to LA in 1946, or maybe he covers the old Pacific Coast League and winds up a beat writer covering the Dodgers or Giants or Angles or A's or Pads. Maybe he ends up writing for The Sporting News or Sports Illustrated.
He was a HUGE sports fan and actually spent over an hour talking about football with Hunter S. Thompson once. (If Thompson was shooting straight and not pulling everyone's chain on that one...)
I like this even better for Nixon though:
President and Commissioner of the American Football League 1961-1969. NFL Commissioner 1970-1990.
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Reagan as a sportscaster is also a distinct possibility as one of his first jobs was calling Cubs games over the wire in Iowa, if I recall...
Ronald Reagan with Howard Cossell on Monday Night Football would have been funny as hell...
"Look-at-that-TACKLE...Ron. Theman just seemed to walk right out from under his head. Jack Tatum...THE ASSASSIN...strikes again...Bullet Bob Hayes...the victim."
"Well..whoa! That was a hard hit there, Howard! That'll teach 'em to try and go over the middle on this Raider backfield. He's shaking it off...he's coming off. 3rd and 5, now on the Cowboy 35. Howard, I think somebody oughta call Coach Landry."
"Why's that, Ron?"
"His shotgun's out of bullets."
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Bill Clinton: Concert Promoter always had a nice ring to it. Think about it. Between his charisma, business savvy and love of music, the guy probably would have been top dog for a good long run.
Bush 41 also would have made a pretty good MLB Commissioner BTW.