Lamenting the loss of Roosevelt's support, Taft wept, murmuring "Roosevelt was my closest friend." He never understood, nor did many others, what freated such a chasm between the two men. They began attacking each other in speeches, Taft calling Progressives "neurotics". Later Roosevelt would respond with name-calling including "puzzle wit" and "fathead". None of their oratory was fitting the office they held (or had held). At the Republican convention in Chicago, it quickly became clear that Taft would previal. Angered by what he perceived as an outrage, Roosevelt launched into a speech for his supporters, invoking Lincoln and God and ending with the phrase "We stand at Armageddon, and we battle for the Lord!"
He determined that a new party would be born with him as its candidate and his agenda on its platform. The Progressive Party met in early August and did just that, although Democratic candidate Woodrow Wilson favored many of the same reforms.
...
On election night, after a near fatal assassination attempt that had helped Roosevelt and his supporters to coin the term "Bull Moose" and the outpouring of sympathy from that, Taft, who had worked so hard to control the Republican Party despite Roosevelt's campaign, found himself controlling a party that barely even existed.
- Former President Theodore Roosevelt (P-NY)/Governor Hiram Johnson (P-CA); 276 electoral votes, 38.7% of the popular vote
- Governor Woodrow Wilson (D-NJ)/Governor Thomas R Marshall (D-IN); 251 electoral votes, 36.2% of the popular vote
- President William Howard Taft (R-OH)/Nicholas Murray Butler (R-NY); 4 electoral votes, 22.3% of the popular vote
- Eugene V Debbs (S-IN)/Emil Seidel (S-WI); 0 electoral votes, 2.2% of the popular vote
-The American President, by Kathryn Moore