I’m not going to spoil anything but you’ve predicted two future developments for Hearst in here and I’ll leave it at that! (He did not have a law degree though so the Court is not one of them).Poor Hearst - must be hard to be so young and to suddenly feel like your best days were in the past. Its pretty standard for people to dig in deeper when, to use a favorite Stephen King phrase of mine, "things get soft around the edges" - but it's rarely a good idea. I'm honestly somewhat surprised that, with Hearst's continued popularity and young age (and his ego), that he hasn't at least floated runnign for a third term. Obviously the tensions with the Confederacy offer some justification - and though the legacy of Washington is hard to overcome, what better way to show that a new generation has risen to prominence when such archaic traditions might be cast aside as the young nation reaches its maturity.
Hopefully he has a long and successful post-Presidency. Unlike Teddy in OTL, he doesn't seem to be a man of passionate hobbies and intellectual pursuits to keep him busy (though maybe he throws himself into his memoirs and shows off a new literary bent). If anyone is going to go into a post-Presidential political career, it's likely Hearst - I could see him angling for a New York Senate race or, of course, the Court (though I suspect that the Court wouldn't fit his temperment in the least). At the very least, he is certainly going to become a powerbroker and grand old man in the Democratic Party.
Im glad you find the take humanizing, at least. WRH was a complicated man who IOTL definitely became a big asshole in the back half of his life but many portrayals of him seem to be caricature, and I hope Ive at least avoided that.
Yes indeed… watch this space, because there’ll be some staying power…Happy to see Al Smith and Frances Perkins enter the narrative.