Best Shot At A "Second Cleveland"

Who has the best shot at non-consecutive terms after Grover Cleveland?

  • William H Taft(1909-1913)

    Votes: 3 5.5%
  • Herbert Hoover(1929-1933)

    Votes: 2 3.6%
  • Harry S Truman(1945-1953)

    Votes: 5 9.1%
  • Gerald Ford(1974-1977)

    Votes: 32 58.2%
  • Jimmy Carter(1977-1981)

    Votes: 6 10.9%
  • George HW Bush(1989-1993)

    Votes: 7 12.7%

  • Total voters
    55
Grover Cleveland wasn't the first ex-president to try and run for president, but he is the only one to ever succeed. With that in mind, I'm wondering what presidents who could've tried but didn't in our timeline had the best shot of pulling it off. For the sake of the argument, their OTL presidency is unchanged. However, it goes under these stipulations
  • Did not make a serious attempt IOTL(so T.R is out)
  • Are eligible under the 22nd amendment(so Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, Clinton, Bush Jr and Obama are out)
  • Are alive to do so(so Mckinley, Harding, FDR and Kennedy are out)
  • Didn't die during what would've been their term had they been elected four years after their leaving office(so Wilson, Coolidge and LBJ are out)
Cast your votes for who you think had the best shot, and explain/discuss why you feel this to be the case
 
Let’s say Ford decides to accept the offer to become Reagan’s running mate, their ticket wins in November ‘80, and then the Curse of Tippecanoe strikes Reagan in March ‘81, putting Ford in control at the White House.

That does make Ford president over two non-consecutive terms, albeit an unelected president in both instances.
 
Let’s say Ford decides to accept the offer to become Reagan’s running mate, their ticket wins in November ‘80, and then the Curse of Tippecanoe strikes Reagan in March ‘81, putting Ford in control at the White House.

That does make Ford president over two non-consecutive terms, albeit an unelected president in both instances.

Conspiracy theory people will love that.

I'm sure some people will say that Ford was 'Deep Throat' and he was the one who brought Nixon down before arranging for Reagan to be killed.
 
Have Reagan beat Ford in 76. Come 1980, Ford takes the nomination and proceeds to win the general election.

There was some talk of nominating Hoover in 1936 and 1940 OTL IIRC. If he spent the years from 1932-1940 organizing relief domestically and rebuilding his brand, coupled with the Democrats nominating somebody who wasn't FDR (Hull was FDR's desired successor IIRC, though Garner wanted the nomination also), maybe he could pull it out. But it'd be very very unlikely.


Ford is the most likely one though.



Truman offered to be Ike's VP in 1948.
Have Eisenhower-Truman be the 1948 Democratic ticket. Eisenhower is president form 1949-1957.
In 1950 or 1952, Truman returns to the Senate (which he contemplated OTL IIRC).

In 1956, Truman (age 72) is nominated for President and wins. In 1960 (age 76) he wins again. He then wins in 1964, 1968, and 1972 before dying on schedule in 1972. Don't question that an 88 year old man has been president for 18 years. America just rolled with it.
 
Surely the post-Cleveland president with the best chance to win a non-consecutive "second elective term" was Theodore Roosevelt...
 
Surely the post-Cleveland president with the best chance to win a non-consecutive "second elective term" was Theodore Roosevelt...
Yes, but I excluded him because he's both too obvious for serious debate(this is for the 2nd best shot in a sense) and I'm excluding anyone who made a serious effort(T.R was a third party candidate that performed better than a main party)
 
Yes, but I excluded him because he's both too obvious for serious debate(this is for the 2nd best shot in a sense) and I'm excluding anyone who made a serious effort(T.R was a third party candidate that performed better than a main party)

OK, I should have read the "did not make a serous effort." But maybe that would also exclude Ford who gave serious consideration in 1979 to running in 1980?
 
OK, I should have read the "did not make a serous effort." But maybe that would also exclude Ford who gave serious consideration in 1979 to running in 1980?
By serious effort, I mean "ranked high on the ballout IOTL". T.R did 2nd on the Republican 1912 ballout
 
I’m gonna agree Ford is definitely most likely. I could see Truman pull it off if he loses to Dewey narrowly in 1948 and comes back in 1952, winning due to buyer’s remorse.

For Carter or Bush things would have to go really bad for Reagan/Clinton to make that viable. And I outright can’t picture Hoover getting a nonconsecutive second term or Taft wanting one.
 
On a Truman narrowly defeated in 1948 running against President Dewey in 1952, I once wrote:

"I think that in 1952 if he returns to Washington at all (and I doubt it, because The Boss will probably not like the idea, and she can be persuasive...) it will be as US Senator from MO, where the GOP incumbent will be very vulnerable. I think Truman was happier in the Senate (whether as a member or presiding over it as VP) than in the White House. Anyway, I don't think the Democrats will want to run a presidential candidate whom Dewey can blame for the "loss" of China ("by the time I was inaugurated it was too late to save China" etc.)"

OTOH, Truman's agreeing to an Eisenhower-Truman ticket in 1948 https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/eisenhower-truman-democratic-ticket-in-1948.299036/ and then becoming president again after President Eisenhower is killed by Puerto Rican nationalists or has a fatal heart attack, etc. is a possibility.
 
Would he be allowed to run again in 1988?

Only if he didn't run (or was defeated) in '84.

He has (on this TL twice) served more than two years of "a term for which another person was elected President" and so is eligible for one elected term This may be consecutive or non-consecutive to his periods of unelected service.
 
A Vice Presidential vacancy after January 2015. Republicans refused reasonable nominations.

The deal is that Bill Clinton will be VP (he NOT being eligable to run in 2016. A President dies
 
Top