Very Different Fifties

Who wins?


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sprite

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Okay. I would love to use the collective wisdom of this austere group.

Eisenhower dies sometime after the 1948 election.

Dewey tries his best backroom shenanigans in 52, but Taft gets the nomination and picks Bill Knowland for balance.

Stevenson flubs his convention speech and Kefauver gets the nomination after a deal with Harriman.

Taft/Knowland vs Kefauver/Harriman

Firstly, who wins? (see poll)

Secondly, do these VP choices make sense? Discuss.

EDIT: I would hasten to add. I would like people to vote on who they think would win. Not who they would like to win.
 
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I think Taft would narrowly win. Truman's approval ratings were in the 20s, Korea wasn't popular and the economy wasn't in that good of shape IRC. Taft dies as OTL and Knowland becomes President. I don't know enough to say what happens from there.
 
What's to say Dewey tries again, he knows damn well trying for the nomination again is taboo. He may choose to throw his weight behind someone else, who could triumph over Taft. Taft is still possible, but unlikely.

Kefauver in 52 is impossible, the Democrats weren't willing to nominate someone that progressive.
 
Taft would win; he'd become smarter by the 1950s and learned how to win over union members despite how much he infuriated their bosses. He won in the swing state of Ohio after all. It would be closer than OTL 1952, but he'd still win thanks to Truman's unpopularity.
 
After 16 years of Democrats it would be incredibly difficult for the Republicans to lose. Cakewalk for Taft though not on the scale of Eisenhower.
 

sprite

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What's to say Dewey tries again, he knows damn well trying for the nomination again is taboo. He may choose to throw his weight behind someone else, who could triumph over Taft. Taft is still possible, but unlikely.

Kefauver in 52 is impossible, the Democrats weren't willing to nominate someone that progressive.

Oh by that, i meant Dewey was working against Taft. Throwing his moustachioed moderate stuff around. Support split between moderates, enabling a Taft win.

As for Kefauver. My aim was to knock out Stevenson. His support, basically rested on a good speech.
 
Goodbye Joe

With Taft in the WH, it is possible he is able to undercut Tailgunner Joe's rabble-rousing (which he didn't do OTL). This could end with a milder Second Red Scare, and we would be spared the awfulness of Trumbo. He would probably die on schedule from pancreatic cancer, (unless being President means they catch it earlier, but in the early Fifties, the prognosis would not be good at all.)

This could also lead to interesting things such as the Interstate Highway System not existing, Nixon remaining a volatile Congressman from California, and the altering of Buckley's initiating the New Conservatism. (It would either enhance or destroy a moderate conservatism in the years ahead.)

So many butterflies, so little knowing.
 
This discussion is extremely interesting to me as I am pondering a slightly differing timeline leading to this election and I would not have Eisenhower as a candidate thus I too have Taft as the Republican front-runner, unless derailed by another Eastern establishment moderate. I assume Taft wins, with a closer margin, but enough to set off a more conservative Republican tone to politics with his incoming administration. I assume he still passes away and if Knowland is the VP then he becomes President in July of 1953.

Sadly I am not versed enough on Taft, beyond the Wikipedia page, to predict his Cabinet and policy proposals. I am even less versed on Knowland and do not have much more than a broad brush notion how he might proceed as President or succeed in the 1956 election or who he might oppose. Assuming he succeeds I at least see the JFK administration in 1960 still viable. I can see a lot of departures; therefore, I am very curious as to every insight into a Knowland Presidency.
 
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