My thoughts on the above list as presented.
-Palmer is basically pro-police state, Harding is just a wimp who can't keep his friends in line.
Palmer.
-Hall is one of Harding's Friends in OTL, and the master of the Teapot Dome scandal. Stephenson is KKK and an omnious direction for the United States.
Stephenson.
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Al Capone is the notorious Chicago crime boss. He's definitely nastier than Hall.
-We've got a crooked populist (Long), a real racist asshole (Bilbo), and a Nazi (
Pelley). Got to go with the Nazi.
-Long/
Smith/Garner. Smith is a demagogue, Garner just likely to be ineffective. Definitely Smith.
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Ford/Wallace/Butler/Lindbergh. Hard call. I reject Avalon's silly video game reasoning, so Butler's out. Wallace is likely to screw up WWII, but Ford and Lindbergh are likely to take different courses of action. Lindbergh, though, is ultimately going to have WWII forced on him and will accept that responsibility. Ford is probably going to try to support Hitler.
-Wallace/
Taft. Lean towards Taft, who is likely to screw things worse than Wallace. Wallace will lead to a bad start with the Cold War, but Taft would probably be worse.
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MacArthur/Hiss/Browder. MacArthur means WWIII breaks out. Better Red than Dead, I'm afraid. Giving in to the Soviets on the fringes is nowhere near as bad as having Europe glow in the dark.
-Goldwater/
Cohn. Goldwater was a man of principle and while I disagree with what he stands for, Cohn is, on the other hand, a walking contradiction. A self hating gay, a self hating Jew. Cohn is crooked, he was willing to go the grave with the claim that he was dying of liver cancer and he's a McCarthyite. Cohn isn't as dystopic as others on this list, but he'll work for now.
Jones/
Manson/Agnew/LeMay. Agnew is extremely crooked, LeMay is extremely hawkish--but the Soviet Union is dead now, so neither of these are the end of the world. Jones is somewhat more insane than Manson, but I'm most concerned by their intentions. Jones was a sexual deviant who was coming apart under the use of drugs. Manson was a mesmerizing guru who built a murder cult to start a massive racial war. I'd have to say Manson, as Jones is probably more benign as PRESIDENT than he would be as a cult leader.
Jones/Albert/Eastland. Jones against a drunk and a racist? Jones Wins.
Haig/
Quayle. Neither of these characters is particularly dystopic. I tend towards Quayle as a male Sarah Palin over another a saner MacArthur type.
Kaczynski /Kevorkian. One wants to end technology, the other wants to allow people to end their lives? Not even close.
Bush/Liddy. A White Collar Criminal against a Blue Collar Criminal. Which won does more damage? Probably the White Collar one.
Blago/
Duke/RFK Ultimately, causing massive social and racial unrest trumps massive corruption or akward reasonings.
Blago/
WF's Ex How can she do such a thing? NO!!!
