Alternate Careers of American Presidents.

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.
 
Alright, I'm going to try to get creative and come up with different stuff:

George W. Bush - Best selling author, famous for popularizing the alternate history genre. He majored in history and his writing style isn't bad, so I figure it could happen.

Bill Clinton - Surgeon General. When he was young he was interested in three things: Music, Medicine, and Politics. The last is OTL, the first has been done to death. Nobody ever seems to mention the second one.

George H.W. Bush - member of The Wall Street Journal editorial board. Why not? He got his degree in economics from Yale. Let's say he doesn't move west to get into the oil business and does something on Wall Street instead. He tries to launch a political career but it flops in the liberal northeast. He then makes the switch over to political commentary and eventually ends up in journalism where he works his way up to a prestigious position.

Ronald Reagan - Radical labor activist. He was President of the Screen Actors Guild. It seems like a logical step.

Jimmy Carter - Head of the Nuclear Power Plant at Three Mile Island (he worked on nuclear subs, so I figure it could happen)

Gerald Ford - NFL Football coach. Making him a player seems a bit cliche. Especially considering that during the era he would have played, football players made less than many other professions. Coaching on the other hand is more plausible. He was an assistant coach at Yale while attending their law school. Let's say he has a relatively successful law career, and then in the 1950s when football begins to gain more popularity he leaves to pursue his passion.

Richard Nixon - President of Harvard Law School. His older brother isn't as sick, so he goes to Harvard instead of Wittier. From there the butterflies take over. I always thought he would make an interesting college professor.

Lyndon Johnson - Newspaper mogul. He editted the school newspaper in college.

John Kennedy - Cattle rancher in Arizona. He worked at a cattle ranch one summer during his college years. Maybe he finds that the dry Arizona air helps with one of his countless medical problems and relocates there permanently after graduation. I know it's a long shot, but coming up with something new for someone who has been studied at such great lengths is hard.

Dwight Eisenhower - 3rd President of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (AKA head of the Jehovah's Witnesses). His mom was really into the religion, and she even let them use the house for their meetings. Let's say it rubs off on him and he can't go to Westpoint (JH's are very very pacifist, his mother opposed his decision in OTL).
 
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