The Cowboy, the Commoner & the Corporate Lawyer: An Alternate Election of 1912

Who will be the next President?


  • Total voters
    46
  • Poll closed .
Who will be the next President of the United States?

225px-Elihu_Root%2C_bw_photo_portrait%2C_1902.jpg


Elihu Root of the Republican Party; the incumbent President, Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of State and War, as well as his chosen successor after leaving office in 1908. But as had been suspected by many commentators, his past as a corporate lawyer and many ties to Wall Street, led him to eventually abandon his predecessor's progressive, trustbusting policies in favor of a staunchly pro-business platform, which precipitated a break in the political and personal relationship between Roosevelt and Root. The President campaigns on a platform of pro-business policy, mostly stressing the prosperity and sound economic success of the incumbent Republican administration. His running mate is the Vice President and former New York Governor, Charles Evans Hughes.

william_jennings_bryan.jpg

William Jennings Bryan of the Democratic Party; in what has been hailed as an astonishing political comeback, after twelve long years of wilderness, the Great Commoner has returned to the forefront of national politics and has for the third time, secured the Democratic nomination for President, with the defeats of 1896 and 1900 overshadowed by renewed hopes that the third time will be the charm for Bryan and that 1912 will be the year of vindication for the Commoner's cause. Bryan campaigns on a platform of opposition to the Root administration's pro-business policy, tariff protectionism, anti-Imperialism, prohibition, women's suffrage and "moral opposition" to Darwinism. At stake for Bryan is his life's work and legacy. If to loose this election again, he will be cast into political and historical oblivion. His running mate is New Jersey Governor and former President of Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson.

theodore-roosevelt.jpg


Theodore Roosevelt of the Progressive Party; The Hero of San Juan Hill, Cowboy of the Dakotas, 26th President of the United States, Roosevelt emerged from the unbearable inactivity of retirement, unable to contain the urge to return to fame and power, hoping to seize the Republican nomination from his onetime friend and successor Elihu Root, whom he believed to have betrayed the cause of reform, but failing to do so at the hands of the Party bosses. Undeterred, Roosevelt gathered his supporters at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago to announce the creation of a great third party, the Progressive Party or the Bull Moose Party, after his statement of being "as strong as a Bull Moose".

In his bid for an unprecedented third term, Roosevelt campaigns on a platform which aims to "dissolve the unholy alliance between crooked business and crooked politics", to continue the ardent trustbusting and zealous opposition to monopoly from his previous administration, to enact even more extensive and far-reaching conservation policies, the establishment of a Department of Labor and an arbitrary public health system, Civil Service Reform, women's suffrage, pensions for veterans, immigrant rights, among other things. The Progressives advertise Roosevelt as the rational balance between the Root Administration's "shameless subservience to business interests" and Bryan's "dangerous socialistic extremism". Roosevelt's running mate is former Chief of the Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot.
 
Sorry, a ticket of Root and Hughes would have two New Yorkers on it and would therefore forfeit NY's Electoral votes. In the days before politicians could easily move their residences, I do not see either Root or Hughes claiming to be from another state. Especially Root, who was born in one house and died in another on the Hamilton College campus where his father taught math and he was later Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
Elihu Root was indeed, a Wall Street lawyer but in his administration of the War and State Departments he often showed a progressivisism that was suprisingy to those who only knew him as a business lawyer.
Whether Root and TR would come to a parting of the ways just as Taft and TR did in OTL is a very good question. In OTL TR blamed Root for his defeat at the 1912 GOP convention when Root as Chairman consistently ruled in favor of the Taft forces. Root thought that TR was on an ego trip and showed no loyalty to eiother his party or his friend Taft. Although TR and Taft later reconciled, I don't believe that TR and Root ever did.
So I could easily see TR coming back from his safari and deciding that Root was not being nearly as good a President as TR thought he himself could be. The next question is wheter Root could hold onto the GOP nomination as Taft did in OTL. The answer may be that without someone as smart and tough as Root chairing the Convention, the Old Guard is overwhelmed by TR's forces. Ironically, Root needed Root in order to control the Convention.
However, if we assume that somehow Root wins renomination and we have a three corned race with Bryan as the Democratic nominee, I think that TR wins. Bryan is hardly the new, modern face of progressivism that Wilson was in OTL and Root is not nearly as friendly and loveable as Big Bill Taft.

AH
 
Was not Hughes a Supreme Court Justice? (I am not 100% certain but I think he was in 1912. He could have declared his residency as being DC so that NY electors could vote for him and his running mate?

I just voted and I concluded (having been assured that Bryan was a bit racist and knowing of Wilson's record on these issues) that TR would be the best person in the ticket.

I am not 100% certain that this is how I think the election would go.

Thinking about who would as distinct from who should win I think Bryan is in with a real chance- remember how comfortable Wilson's victory was in OTL?
 
As much as I love TR we have had plenty of discussions of a TR Presidency in 1912... vote for someone obscure like Root and see how History changes
 
I'd vote for TR or Root.

However, Bryan would win handily if this ever occurred due to vote splitting.
 
Sorry, a ticket of Root and Hughes would have two New Yorkers on it and would therefore forfeit NY's Electoral votes. In the days before politicians could easily move their residences, I do not see either Root or Hughes claiming to be from another state. Especially Root, who was born in one house and died in another on the Hamilton College campus where his father taught math and he was later Chairman of the Board of Trustees.
I overlooked the fact that Root and Hughes would make two New Yorkers. I was thinking of maybe Foraker, Fairbanks, Speaker Cannon or maybe even Philander Knox, as possible VP's for Root... but I guess there's no way to edit the poll so for the sake of continuity, we'll just go with Hughes.

Was not Hughes a Supreme Court Justice? (I am not 100% certain but I think he was in 1912. He could have declared his residency as being DC so that NY electors could vote for him and his running mate?

I just voted and I concluded (having been assured that Bryan was a bit racist and knowing of Wilson's record on these issues) that TR would be the best person in the ticket.

There is a bit of a dispute as to whether Bryan's racism was as sincere as Wilson's or whether he displayed some racist sentiment merely to gain the favor of Southern Democrats. I don't really know which is true but tend to go for the latter opinion. It's just hard for me to believe that someone as liberal and progressive as Bryan, who believes in women's suffrage and was opposed to Darwinism (used by many to scientifically justify racism) can't believe in any racial equality.
 
I think WJB/WW win for the same reason WW won in OTL 1912: TR & ER split the republican voter base just as TR and WHT did OTL.
 
Top