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Since others are now doing more TLIAP (timeline in a post)s:

It wouldn't start till much later, of course, but the "Curse of Tecumseh which saw each president elected in a year ending in 0 from 1840 to 1900 really hit home in 1910.

it was the 2nd time a President had died in a year ending in 0. In retrospect, it was understandable - William Howard Taft was morbidly obese. When james S. Sherman became the 28th president some cheered because he was confused with the Sherman who started the Sherman anti-trust act. however, it was a different man, and a very conservative one at that.

Few recall that Taft had begun to go to the right a little, and suspicions are that he would have done so quite a bit had he lived. Instead, it was Sherman who was President, ironically with the same kidney ailment - Bright's Disease - which killed Chester Arthur, another man who succeeded to the ofice of President during the Tecumseh Curse.

Sherman - unlike Arthur - chose to run for re-election, only becasue he felt he had to hold the Party together against the intense bickering between Progressives and Conservatives. And, the Conservatives tended to hold sway - except that Sherman, gainst doctors' orders, went to the convention as a very ill man. he died in late June, days after winning a close renomination over Theodore Roosevelt.

Now, the Convention had to reconvene, and Secretary of State Philander Knox - who had become the 29th President - insisted he should run, while Theodore Roosevelt pressed the GOP - which had very narrowly chosen Sherman - to choose him instead, creating just as much fuss as the Democrats did.

The conservatives, however, disliking Roosevelt and seeing little hope for him winning with the appeal of the Democrats once they nominated Woodrow Wilson, began to fuss about having their own party, perhaps drwing some conservative Democrats, too. While that party was gathering in September, hwoever, Woodrow Wilson died in a tragic train crash.(1)

Suddenly, the Democrats were reconvening, and Champ Clark, who had nearly been nominated anyway, was selected as an emergency nominee, with Thomas Marshall again as VP. Conservatives were a little more happy with him and the Conservative movement fizzed...

until October when a mentally ill man shot TR in the head in Milwaukee, killing him. Suddenly, all sorts of presidents and candidates were gone, and the GOP was in disarray. They decided to nominate Philander Knox anyway now, rather than him being chosen as a Conservative Party choice.

Clark won the 1912 election, and even without Roosevelt's presence, Clark and other Democrats pushed through an amendment creating a single 6-year term for the Presidency, rather than any number of 4-year terms.

The Clark administration, knowing the nation was weary from all of the shock of the candidate deaths and assassinations, maintained a somewhat Progressive agenda, though, knowing there was still an interest in it, but the main problem came when, without needing to worry about a re-election run, the Zimmerman Telegram pushed the US into war. While declaration had come after what would have been the 1916 election, already wthere were cries that - had the amendment not passed in early 1916 - Clark *never* would have pushed for war because he would be worried bout re-election. Politics can get somewhat fact-challenged that way at times.

So, the more isolationist Clark had been pressured to declare war by a very unhappy Congress. and this led the Democrats to fare very poorly in the 1918 elections. Ironically for Tecumseh Curse theorists, Clark died in 1920, so had the amendment not passed, he, too, would have died in office.

instead, former general Leonard Wood was elected to help the nation through the war nd then - as he promised, anyway - to isolationism. His service in Cuba allowed him to be compared favorably to the stricken TR, and he provided an impressive presence at the Paris Peace Conference. But, his attempts to be involved in diplomacy lacked the prestige of what some leaders might have had, and he was able to do little in his term in office.

Next came Herbert Hoover, who did little in his Presidency, but given the Great Depression which began with a year left in it, some say that he "got lucky," that without the limit he might have been President for several years of it. Instead if twas his successor, Franklin Roosevelt, who had to deal with it after his successful terms as Governor of New York.(2)

FDR, ironically, is the one for whom the amendment was overturned. He failed in his court-packing scheme, with after he'd begun many public works and other projects to help America through the Depression, he was so beloved that he did push through an amendment repealing the the 6-year term one and going back to 4 year terms, only stipulating that there could be no more than 3 consecutive before sitting out for 2 terms, as a nod to the GOP which complained that the Democrats would et the benefit of an amendment which they had opposed when it was a GOP candidate who was so popular.

Ultimately, after over 13 years in office, Roosevelt's health gave way. John Nance Garner had tried to oppose him in 1936 and lost, thus leaving the door open for FDR to urge selection of Henry Wallace as his VP. however, he was seen as too liberal, and FDR, having already pushed through the amendment so he could run, knew it was foolish not to. Thankfully, he had an alternative.

Paul V. McNutt of Indiana had supported him in 1930 and had considered a run himself, but when FDR chose to run instead, with the amendment passing, he'd agreed to support Roosevelt to help sideline Garner, whom Roosevelt felt was much too conservative and who hadn't even supported the New Deal McNutt had become VP in '36 and again in '40. he'd reluctantly accepted he might be in '44 again, knowing Roosevelt didn't have a lot longer to live. In fact, rumor has it FDR was considering stepping down in favor of McNutt anyway.

Instead, he died in May of 1944, allowing McNutt to be the President who saw the US through the end of WW2. He would be defeated for re-election in 1948 by Thomas Dewey, but in his almost 5 years of office, he performed admirably. Indeed, many wonder who might have been President had the amendment never been passed in the first place. FDR would have had to appoint someone as his running mate in 1940, but who?

Since FDR's death and McNutt's ascension, no President has died in office. Dewey's 3 terms are seen as very successful and as leading the US in the Cold War at a time when it made slow, steady progress in many areas in Civil Rights - .some would say that, ironically, he, too, was fulfilling the role TR would have as a Progressive, but in a much more egalitarian age. He was very young and vibrant, though, and despite calls for others to do so, no President since has served more than 2 terms, either.

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(1) Almost happened OTL, he just needs to be in a different part of the train, which this could create.

(2) Without being in the cabinet as long, he takes a different path, doesn't contract polio, and is a viable candidate earlier.

(3) OTL he opposed FDR for nomination in 1936, but it was a bid for re-election, here it's understandable as the amendment doesn't pass that fast, and they reach an agreement.

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Going to be pretty busy so might be my last TL for a good long while, though a baseball one or two are possible. But, either way, thanks for reading this and all my others, and please check out my books, too.
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