The Old King

Hey guys, this is a preview of a small timeline that I've been itching to do for a good long while. For all my WIEAS fans, don't worry, I still very well on intent on fininishing it when have more time to devout and do research during winter break. This timeline will be set up much like Oakvale's an Era of Limit's Jerry Brown in '76 TL...as it will chronicle just Rocky's time in office with snippets about the future thrown in there...as compared to much wider scope of WIEAS and OTB....So without further adue
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The Old King: The Presidency of Nelson A. Rockefeller
An Alternate History Timeline
Written By
Austin Ross



Who in the Hell wants to be Vice President, all you really are is just standby equipment with only about a four % chance of being used.”
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Nelson A. Rockefeller

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Violence: The Girl Who Killed Ford


There was about the incident a sense of chilling deja vu; only this time the President was not riding in a limousine. Instead, Gerald Ford was walking through a group of several hundred admirers in a pleasant, sunlit park in front of the California state capitol at Sacramento, shaking hands with people in his amiable, relaxed way. He was as pleased with his reception as John F. Kennedy had been with the crowds that had come out to meet him that day in Dallas in 1963. Once again, precisely at 9:57 a.m. on Friday, the threat suddenly materialized out of nowhere. A movement in the crowd, a rising of a hand, and to his astonishment, Ford found himself looking down the barrel of a loaded .45 Colt automatic pistol scarcely 2 ft. away. There was a brief flurry, and then before the Secret Service could subdue the social misfit, she fired five rounds into the President…one in his stomach, two puncturing his lungs and one severing his aorta. The President was dead even before he reached the hospital and all because a little psychological cripple, wanted to assassinate a President of the United States.

Her name was Lynette Alice Fromme, and she was the first woman ever to attempt to kill a President of the U.S. Her manner was gentle, and while she was pretty in a freckle-faced, redhaired, little-girl sort of way, she would turn few heads on the street. But the 27-year-old woman behind this innocent facade was anything but normal. In her way, Lynette Fromme was as much a social aberration−an amoral freak−as Lee Harvey Oswald, the killer of John F. Kennedy, or Sirhan Sirhan, who shot to death Robert F. Kennedy, or Arthur Bremer, who crippled Alabama Governor George Wallace. She had been−and still was−an ardent follower of Charles Manson, the psychopathic killer who is now serving a sentence of life imprisonment for committing seven murders, including the vicious slaughters in 1969 of Film Actress Sharon Tate and Leno LaBianca, wealthy owner of a grocery chain. Because her voice was so tiny and high-pitched, Manson had nicknamed her "Squeaky"
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Lynette "Squeeky" Fromme, wrestled to the ground after shooting President Ford in Sacramento, California

Back in Washington, Betty Ford got the news of the assassination while sitting at the desk in her study, a small, cozy room with a sweeping view of the monuments to Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. Mrs. Ford had just begun a phone conversation when the call was interrupted: on the line was Richard Keiser, the head of the President's Secret Service detail. Right off, knowing how she would react to his abrupt intrusion, Keiser assured Betty Ford that her husband was not all right. Then he told her what had happened. Since moving into the White House, she had accepted almost fatalistically the danger to her husband−the price that goes with a place in history. But this was the first time that she had had to face the stark reality. Outwardly at least, she was calm. "It is something you have to live with," she said. "I just never expected it to be my Jerry.”
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President Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr: July 14th 1913-September 5th 1975

From: Time, September 08 1975 Article

By the time Rocky had received the news of Gerald Ford’s assassination, the Vice President was up at the Rockefeller estate at Potantico Hills recovering from a lengthy yet successful tour of the Southern States and an investigative commission on nursing home swindling that he cleared from any wrong doing. Swimming in his large pool, a frantic Second Lady, Happy Rockefeller, brought the terrible call to the Vice President. The Genial face of John Jr.’s second son sunk in sadness, as he solemnly replied, “I’ll be in Washington in a hour.”

By noon, Nelson A. Rockefeller was in the White House, with a disconsolate Happy at his side, as he was sworn in as the nation’s 39th President of the United States by Chief Justice Warren Burger. His tanned face, and bleached hair seemed darkened grey in that solemn ceremony, as he announced a week of mourning for the late President. The job that he actively pursued since 1959 was finally his…all because some mad woman halfway across the world had willed it so. Privately he confided in his wife of thirteen years, that although if he would have known that this would be the cost of seeing his ambitions fulfilled, he would have never gone into politics in the first place. But, Rocky was also resolved that especially in these dark times for the nation, that the American People would need a strong leader, to help them return to greatness. And he truly believed that he was the man called forth to see it through…
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Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller being sworn in as the 39th President of the United States

From: Rocky’s Road; The Long Journey by Doris Kearns Goodwin

NARRATOR: In his first week in the White House, President Rockefeller behind his desk in the oval office, reminded his speech writer of, "The Old King" a painting by French Master Georges Roualt.

"..the eyes bare slits, the chin firmly set in an ancient defiance... as remote as a lost planet... In [Nelson's] case...a prince who had grown old and who after unspeakable tragedies had finally inherited the kingdom.
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Transcript from American Experience’s series on The Presidents…Nelson A. Rockefeller, Gerald Ford’s Assassination segment
 
Poor Jerry. :( If Rocky wants the GOP nomination in 1976 (I'm assuming yes), he'll take it easily. I doubt Ronnie is going to run in this scenario, and Rocky should easily win against the Dems with the sympathy vote going to him. I wonder how the public is going to react to the second un-elected president in a row. Anyway, awesome new timeline, Historico! :D

Also, what's the fate of Out of the Blue?
 
As someone with a real interest in Ford and Rocky's style of Republicanism, this is fascinating. I like your scrapbook style too. Keep it up.
 
Poor Jerry. :( If Rocky wants the GOP nomination in 1976 (I'm assuming yes), he'll take it easily. I doubt Ronnie is going to run in this scenario, and Rocky should easily win against the Dems with the sympathy vote going to him. I wonder how the public is going to react to the second un-elected president in a row. Anyway, awesome new timeline, Historico! :D

wouldn't be so sure, EVERY one in the party hated Rocky a lot, he's also old and dying, he has 3 years to live in 1976, at the age of 68 he'd be tied in 1977 for the oldest president elected and sworn in, the other guy didn't last very long
 
Pretty good, Rocky woud make a good President. Not a right winger. He would work ok with the Democrats in Congress. Since he did not pardon Nixon he would not have to bear that cross in the election. Would Carter still get the nomination? how about running Jerry Brown a bit earlier? Rockfeller is not a great campaigner though, judging how well, he did in 64. Will the reactionary right go after him or unite behind him? Reagan I am sure has no lost love for Rockfeller. I am curious to the reaction Goldwater will have. Reagan has his VP right off the bat?
 
As someone with a real interest in Ford and Rocky's style of Republicanism, this is fascinating. I like your scrapbook style too. Keep it up.

Thanks Meadow for the Reply, yeah Im going to focus on the slow divergences that feature the differences between he and Ford on policy. And yeah, I really like Scrapbook style, because I feel as if it engages the reader much more than the Textbook style how I wrote Out of the Blue
 
wouldn't be so sure, EVERY one in the party hated Rocky a lot, he's also old and dying, he has 3 years to live in 1976, at the age of 68 he'd be tied in 1977 for the oldest president elected and sworn in, the other guy didn't last very long

Remember Norton's Law's that just because death of natural causes happened onee way doesn't mean they automatically die the same way as IOTL. Especially with alternate POTUS's, as being office, and having a regular physican on staff at all times can probably keep any one alive through a few years.

I am troubled however, In my research on Rocky's latter years, It has revealed that many doctors and Rocky himself talked publicly about how great shape he was. I think one MD said that he had the body of a 40 year old and Rocky himself said that he had a "A Good strong Heart". So may be it was a full blown Kennedesque cover up IDK:eek:
 
Pretty good, Rocky woud make a good President. Not a right winger. He would work ok with the Democrats in Congress. Since he did not pardon Nixon he would not have to bear that cross in the election. Would Carter still get the nomination? how about running Jerry Brown a bit earlier? Rockfeller is not a great campaigner though, judging how well, he did in 64. Will the reactionary right go after him or unite behind him? Reagan I am sure has no lost love for Rockfeller. I am curious to the reaction Goldwater will have. Reagan has his VP right off the bat?

All in good time my friend...all in good time:D
 
Except unless you faint or appear weak onstage (like FDR at certain points in '44) no one who isn't a medical professional would know. So a Kennedyesque cover-up isn't required, because there's nothing to cover up.
 
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