The maddest anarchist (assassin makes Charles Fairbanks president)

"As a form of life insurance for President Roosevelt, the nomination of Senator Fairbanks as Vice-President would be intelligible. Certainly, the maddest anarchist would never think of killing Roosevelt to make Fairbanks President. For other grounds for his selection, however, one would search in vain..." *The Nation*, June 23, 1904. https://books.google.com/books?id=zV45AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA483

Let's say it happens! Not that this particular anarchist believes that Fairbanks will make a better president than TR; he just favors killing presidents and other lackeys of the capitalists on principle. (He might even be motivated by a "the worse, the better" attitude--at least with Fairbanks the workers won't have any illusion the government is anything but a tool of the bosses, etc. But probably even that is too subtle for the assassin's mind.)

So the US gets a conservative president in the midst of the Progressive Era--though probably even Fairbanks will have to make concessions to the spirit of the age (e.g., the Pure Food and Drug Act). Can Fairbanks win in 1908? Unlike Taft, he won't have TR around to boost him.
 
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Then Taft would not have run for POTUS in
1908(IOTL he did only because TR virtually
forced him to). The Republicans put up a most lackluster candidate(who the heck
could they have nominated- “Uncle” Joe Cannon? Lodge? Or even Fairbanks?)(La
Follette would have made a good candidate but the GOP ever picking him is, of course,
completely ASB). Result: Bryan is actually
elected POTUS.
 
Then Taft would not have run for POTUS in
1908(IOTL he did only because TR virtually
forced him to). The Republicans put up a most lackluster candidate(who the heck
could they have nominated- “Uncle” Joe Cannon? Lodge? Or even Fairbanks?)(La
Follette would have made a good candidate but the GOP ever picking him is, of course,
completely ASB). Result: Bryan is actually
elected POTUS.

Probably the GOP candidate with the best chance of winning would be Hughes. (Yes, I know they thought the same thing in 1916--and they may have been right, despite Hughes' narrow loss that year.)

If they do nominate Fairbanks for a full term, the race will certainly be much closer than Taft vs. Bryan in OTL--but I wouldn't rule Fairbanks out, because Bryan is such a polarizing figure.
 
Ouch- David, I utterly forgot about Hughes.
He would have been liberal enough to attract
@ least some progressive support, conser-
vative enough to hold on to the G.O.P. Old
Guard. I have no doubt he would have beaten Bryan in 1908(heck, he would, IOTL,
come within a whisker of beating Wilson 8
years later, proving his vote-getting ability).
 
"Let's say it happens! Not that this particular anarchist believes that Fairbanks will make a better president than TR; he just favors killing presidents and other lackeys of the capitalists on principle. (He might even be motivated by a "the worse, the better" attitude--at least with Fairbanks the workers won't have any illusion the government is anything but a tool of the bosses, etc. But probably even that is too subtle for the assassin's mind.)

Well there as Aristotel already said: "There is no great genius without some touch of madness."

With a bit of luck the The Panic of 1907 spirals out of control. According to wiki: "United States financial crisis that took place over a three-week period starting in mid-October, when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on banks and trust companies. The 1907 panic eventually spread throughout the nation when many state and local banks and businesses entered bankruptcy."

And there is a potential POD as well "The panic might have deepened if not for the intervention of financier J. P. Morgan, who pledged large sums of his own money, and convinced other New York bankers to do the same, to shore up the banking system. This highlighted the impotence of the nation's Independent Treasury system, which managed the nation's money supply, yet was unable to inject liquidity back into the market. By November, the financial contagion had largely ended, only to be replaced by a further crisis. This was due to the heavy borrowing of a large brokerage firm that used the stock of Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TC&I) as collateral. Collapse of TC&I's stock price was averted by an emergency takeover by Morgan's U.S. Steel Corporation—a move approved by anti-monopolist president Theodore Roosevelt."

Have Morgan get a heart attack during the crisis due to all the stress and your are left with an arch conservative president at the helm of an economic collapse facing chaos and labour unrests, probably radicalizing all sides further.

A (mad) anarchist's dream come true.
 
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