Poll

Should Roosevelt be President or Vice President?


  • Total voters
    10
I want to have Roosevelt and Wilson run on 1 ticket in 1912 but I don't know whether I should make Roosevelt President or Vice President
 
Well, I suppose you can accomplish it, but it's going to take a much earlier POD. Maybe a much stronger socialist movement leads to a Roosevelt-Wilson fusion ticket? Roosevelt would be on top due to being a former President. On the other hand, a socialist movement strong enough to force the Democrats and Republicans into a fusion would require a POD so far back that the Roosevelt presidency might be butterflied.

How are you planning on bringing this scenario about?
 
Wilson will definitely not be a #2, and Roosevelt will absolutely not be a #2. You'll need some sort of changes to Wilson's career for this to have any chance of happening.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Wilson will definitely not be a #2, and Roosevelt will absolutely not be a #2. You'll need some sort of changes to Wilson's career for this to have any chance of happening.
This, basically. The problem is that you have two fellows who are just not going to be happy unless they get the top-spot.

If TR doesn't get the top-spot, then he's out. No way is he going to go from POTUS to Veep. If Wilson accepts the VP, then I could see him doing what Nixon did forty years later--turning it into an important, active position. Maybe he'll focus more on the Congressional front while TR tackles the Executive.
 
I should have Wilson lose the govenor's race in 1910 perhaps to make him a weaker caniadate?
As for the Socialists all i can think of is to Fredercik Engels come to America and influence industrial workers
 
I should have Wilson lose the govenor's race in 1910 perhaps to make him a weaker caniadate?
As for the Socialists all i can think of is to Fredercik Engels come to America and influence industrial workers

Yeah the changes will have to be on the Wilson end of things, because Roosevelt in 1912 will be either:

1. the giant of American politics like in OTL 1912
2. frustrated in his presidential ambitions by the Republican machine, but still the most popular national political figure in decades.

These are the extremes, chances are Roosevelt would be somewhere between these points. Without a POD before 1898, Roosevelt cannot be a #2. The problem is that since he had such an early rise to national prominence Roosevelt will either still be a #1 or not a major public figure at all.

Your idea for Wilson is semi-plausible though.
 
Champ Clark, with someone from the northeast to balance the ticket. If this poll specifically relates to 1912, then maybe Bryan and ditto. You'd still get much the same set of domestic reforms, and these guys wouldn't be tempted to get involved in WW1.
 
Champ Clark, with someone from the northeast to balance the ticket. If this poll specifically relates to 1912, then maybe Bryan and ditto. You'd still get much the same set of domestic reforms, and these guys wouldn't be tempted to get involved in WW1.

not a bad idea..
 
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