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A joke from the mid-1950's:

First Democrat: Wouldn't it be terrible if Ike were to die and Nixon would become President?

Second Democrat: Or worse--if Sherman Adams were to die, and Ike would become President!

The joke reflected the power exercised by Sherman Adams, former Governor of New Hampshire, in the Eisenhower White House. His official title was Assistant to the President, but he was popularly know as Eisenhower's Chief of Staff (which indeed was how Eisenhower conceived Adams' role, although Ike eventually shied away from the characterization, saying "the politicians think it sounds too military"). Adams was a moderate Republican--he opposed Joe McCarthy, supported civil rights, and assisted in the appointment of Fred Morrow, the first African American to hold an executive position in the White House. These positions would be enough to cause grumbling from some on the GOP Right, but he got more widespread criticism for rejecting access to the President except to those he felt had the most pressing issues. This behavior earned Adams the nickname "The Abominable No-Man."

"Yet another nickname of Adams, 'The Boss,' reflected another criticism: the perceived belief that Adams wielded an incredible amount of power when it came to Presidential decisions. Though the suggestion that Adams would be 'Assistant President' rather than simply an assistant *to* Eisenhower went back at least as far as [Martin S.] Hayden's [1952] profile, some grumbled that Adams was influencing the President by choosing which people saw him and what matters were most important. This perception gained momentum after Eisenhower suffered a heart attack and Adams was instrumental in guiding the White House staff in their actions during the President's recovery. Eisenhower was quoted as saying, 'The only person who really understands what I'm trying to do is Sherman Adams.' A 1957 Newsweek article deemed Adams the 'second most powerful man in the White House.' Despite the accusations, Adams said in a 1957 interview that he wouldn't want to be President. 'You wouldn't have to be around here very long to see why I wouldn't want the job,' he said. http://downfalldictionary.blogspot.com/2009/09/sherman-adams-coating-of-scandal.html

Is there any way Adams could actually become President? I can think of one:

In 1952, just a couple of weeks before the GOP convention, Eisenhower suddenly dies of a heart attack (or if you think 1952 is a little too early for that, in a plane or car crash). His backers are unable to unite behind one candidate, and Taft wins the nomination. Taft knows that to win in November, he needs support from the Dewey-Eisenhower wing of the GOP, so he selects Sherman Adams as his running mate. Some reasons for this choice:

(1) Adams was already known as an Eisenhower Republican: He was one of six Governors endorsing Eisenhower for the Republican nomination for President in 1951. In September of that year, he announced that Eisenhower's name would be entered in the New Hampshire primary. He did much of the campaigning for the absent Ike to enable him to beat Taft in that crucial first primary. Before the convention, Eisenhower had chosen him as his floor manager.

(2) Yet despite this, Adams had credentials that would appeal to conservatives. He had been a businessman (in the logging industry) long before he entered politics--but not the kind of businessman who stayed in the office all the time: "Sherman Adams still carries the scars of the logging camps. He lost his upper front teeth when an unbalanced log skid came up and smacked him full-front. He was partly deafened by a flying chunk of wood that clipped him behind the left ear..." http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,866694,00.html (only available in full to subscribers) As Governor, his "clipped New Hampshire twang and calls for frugality made him a virtual poster boy for Republican balanced budget values of the time." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherman_Adams While Governor, he "trimmed the state's administrative offices by nearly half, reducing them from 83 to 43." http://downfalldictionary.blogspot.com/2009/09/sherman-adams-coating-of-scandal.html

In short, Adams can be sold to conservatives as a laconic Coolidge-style economizer and epitome of rural New England virtues; indeed, the liberal journalist Richard Rovere wrote of Adams as "a man cut from the same bolt of plain, hard cloth as the late Calvin Coolidge." http://books.google.com/books?q="cloth+as+the+late+calvin"

Admittedly, he had disadvantages as well: he came from a state with only four electoral votes, and his stony demeanor led him to be nicknamed "The Great Stone Face" after one of his state's most famous natural features. (He preferrred a related nickname, "The Rock.")

But anyway, let's say that Taft chooses Adams, the Taft-Adams ticket wins in November, and Taft dies of cancer on schedule in 1953. Though hardly telegenic the way Ike was, Adams is elected in his own right in 1956, thanks to peace and prosperity. (I have a fair idea of his domestic policy--Eisenhower-style "modern Republicanism"--but no idea how he would handle foreign policy: Hungary, Suez, etc.). He chooses as his running mate Senator Richard Nixon of California.

In his second term, is President Adams forced to resign after accusations of exerting influence in favor of Bernard Goldfine, who gave him (among other things) the famous vicuna coat--thus making Nixon President?...
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