Who Is The Worst President America Never Had?

- George Wallace and Strom Thurmond, for obvious reasons.
- Wendell Wilkie, if he was really plotting to rule the world with Madame Chiang Kai-Shek.
- Spiro Agnew, because two crooks in a row really would've screwed up the country's politics.
- Barry Goldwater, for general reactionariness, and the belligerent surlyness of many of his supporters.
- Leon Trotsky. You just said it had to be a politician :p
- Joe Steele ;)

Strom 48... yea bad news; in his later life he reformed himself

1st member of the south carolina delegation to appoint a black staffer
voted to renew voting rights act
voted to renew civil rights act
voted to make MLK's birthday a holiday

also won 18 medals in ww2 in the 82nd airborne... he jumped on dday and had a 70 year record of public service

outside of his segregationist period (which he did reform himself from) he is one of the more distinguished citizens this country had in the 20th century
 

Japhy

Banned
Frankly, most "BRYAN--WORST PRESIDENT" boosters don't seem to be talking about the actual William Jennings Bryan, they're talking about "Matthew Harrison Brady", my Inherit the Wind-derived nickname for the popular misrepresentation of the man.

I'd say while Matthew Harrison Brady syndrome is a major part of it, the other problem is that Bryan isn't really consistent throughout his career on a lot of issues. While a handful of core values always remain over time its the shifting about between 1986 and 1924 that really taint the mans image. It helps paint an image of a demagogue and absolute politician who would go wherever he could get the most traction and get closer to power.

Mind you the question of "Who Exactly is the Real Bryan" is supposed to be a major part of my upteen times aborted Timeline centered on the man I never write but then, most people prefer to see him as a misguided danger with strains of "Old Time Religion" playing in the background.
 

Japhy

Banned
For my own picks I would throw in

-James V Forrestal: He was a decent fellow before 1945 but following a short little trip to shore during the Battle of Iwo Jima something snapped in the man. Hardliner Anti-Communism with a belief that the world was doomed to end in nuclear hell fire in his lifetime, his politics zig-zag issue to issue from Henry Wallace to Strom Thurmond, while he would have done some good there's alot of unpleasantness mixed in.. The growing crazy, behind the veneer of determination, hard work ethic, and moral strength means he could probably make it to the office, and then we have a suicidal nutcase with the nuclear football. And in 1948 there were some major Democrats who thought dumping Truman for him was a good move.

- Charles W Bryan: The younger brother of the previously mentioned William J, lacking most of the intellect, and the morals. The Democrats in 1924 would have put him one heartbeat away from the presidency, and that heartbeat (And the whole ticket) was one being backed by a bunch of bed sheet wearers. Sided with them in that wonderfully close vote that year at the convention to condemn the Klan or not. Fearing it would damage his chances he voted for the hooded order. I'd include John W Davis but I'm pretty sure most people already know about him.

-Robert Byrd, Richard B Russell, Jesse Helms, Barry Goldwater, Strom Thurmond: Obvious reasons, even if you really belived that they changed later in life, opposition to the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts in the 1960's shows a lack of moral character prohibitive to the top office. Other awful domestic and foreign policies certainly follow.

-James F. Byrnes is like the group I just listed, except he almost got the job, with FDR liking the Southern Segregationist for the post of VP in 1944, and only getting blocked by Party bosses who thought they couldn't bring in the votes for him.
 
Inspired by the current thread from the other side. Who would've been American's worst President, but was never elected?

(only restriction is that they have to have been realistically close to gaining the office, or becoming a politician. No FaT-style cult leaders or serial killers).

Me, I'd say, at least for this century, Joe McCarthy, Doug MacArthur, George Wallace, and Jesse Helms are up there.

OK, I know the OP said "no serial killers", but considering the context of "have to have been realistically close to... becoming a politician" I think one exception needs to be made: Ted Bundy. He was a rising star in the Republican Party in Washington State before he started killing (assuming he didn't kill that little girl in 1961), the Presidency would've been about as likely for him eventually as any significant local politician, on the order of perhaps 0.1% (as opposed to something like 0.000001% for an average Joe).

Here's a TL challenge: Get Ted Bundy elected President. He started working with the GOP in 1972, at the age of 26, so the earliest he could've run for POTUS would be 1984. More realistic would be somewhere between 1992 and 2004.

Could he have started getting his psychopathic rocks off, so to speak, through politics, and never felt the need to kill? OTL his killing spree started in 1974, assuming he's innocent of the 1961 murder some think he did. This means if the Repubs could've somehow given him enough satisfaction in his first two years with them, maybe he would've never been a serial killer.

Or, perhaps he becomes a serial killer as OTL but never gets caught, or the Party covers up for him. However, this probably butterflies away the Utah, Colorado, and Florida victims, but could mean more in Washington.

Or he could start as OTL but give up his gruesome hobby voluntarily out of fear of getting caught and ruining his career, or because he's too busy with work. Politics is quite demanding, it's hard to imagine an active major politician even having time for serial murder. Or maybe, just maybe, he finds politics enough of a rush that he loses the desire to kill....
 
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Aaron Burr anyone? A Burr presidency would have gone very, very poorly, and would have had extremely long-term effects on the country...
 
Strom 48... yea bad news; in his later life he reformed himself

1st member of the south carolina delegation to appoint a black staffer
voted to renew voting rights act
voted to renew civil rights act
voted to make MLK's birthday a holiday

also won 18 medals in ww2 in the 82nd airborne... he jumped on dday and had a 70 year record of public service

outside of his segregationist period (which he did reform himself from) he is one of the more distinguished citizens this country had in the 20th century

Thurmond may have reformed himself but his segregationist positions are what he is most known for and were the basis of his 1948 presidential campaign. His opposition to the growing support for Civil Rights in the Democratic Party is what prompted him to switch to the Republicans.

Thurmond tried to get John Lennon deported back in the 1970's.
 
Strom 48... yea bad news; in his later life he reformed himself

1st member of the south carolina delegation to appoint a black staffer
voted to renew voting rights act
voted to renew civil rights act
voted to make MLK's birthday a holiday

also won 18 medals in ww2 in the 82nd airborne... he jumped on dday and had a 70 year record of public service

outside of his segregationist period (which he did reform himself from) he is one of the more distinguished citizens this country had in the 20th century

No. Thurmond knew he just needed to lose 25% of the white vote and his ass was out where it belongs.

The man represents one of the most vile strains of American history and praising Thurmond, out of all of the Dixiecrats, is extremely offensive to the hundreds of millions of Americans regardless of skin color.
 
If we're going to include people with no known political ambitions - Phelps doesn't, does he? Please say he doesn't

Sorry, he does.

He ran in the Democratic primary for various statewide political offices, with his best showing at 30.8% of the vote in the primary for the Senate nomination in 1992.
 
Forget anyone else I suggested: Coleman Livingston Blease would have been beyond bad. Extreme racism (even for the time), corruption (makes the Senator from Sin City look squeaky clean), outright breaking of the law... just no. No. If anyone in this thread could accurately be described as evil, it's him.
 
Forget anyone else I suggested: Coleman Livingston Blease would have been beyond bad. Extreme racism (even for the time), corruption (makes the Senator from Sin City look squeaky clean), outright breaking of the law... just no. No.

He's one of my favorite alternate CS Presidents. :)

But don't worry, he and Theodore Bilbo and that ilk would never become President. Alfalfa Bill as FDR's VP on the other hand... :eek:
 
Thurmond may have reformed himself but his segregationist positions are what he is most known for and were the basis of his 1948 presidential campaign. His opposition to the growing support for Civil Rights in the Democratic Party is what prompted him to switch to the Republicans.

Thurmond tried to get John Lennon deported back in the 1970's.

He is best known for that; but he should be examined on the whole not just 1948

He had a more liberal voting record on race relations from the 70's on than much of the republican party, including leadership
 
No. Thurmond knew he just needed to lose 25% of the white vote and his ass was out where it belongs.

The man represents one of the most vile strains of American history and praising Thurmond, out of all of the Dixiecrats, is extremely offensive to the hundreds of millions of Americans regardless of skin color.

What part of he reformed himself later did I leave out?
 
Spiro Agnew - not only would he have been another crook, but another crook with a somewhat amusing name (after recently doing Nixon and Watergate in History at school, all we do is laugh at his name, it's become a running joke thanks to a campaign video we watched :D)
 
Spiro Agnew - not only would he have been another crook, but another crook with a somewhat amusing name (after recently doing Nixon and Watergate in History at school, all we do is laugh at his name, it's become a running joke thanks to a campaign video we watched :D)

The Laughing Agnew Ad? Agnew more reminds me of the phrase It's a World of Laughter, A World of Tears. God, I hope Nachos doesn't see this and put him in somewhere. :eek:

What part of he reformed himself later did I leave out?
There's a difference between voting more moderately to get reelected (in the good Republican year of 1978 he got only 55% of the vote) and publicly renouncing your past. That's the difference between Strom Thurmond and George Wallace. Strom Thurmond never reformed.

For god's sake, you don't see me shilling for Michael Moore, who is an infinitely better human being than Strom Thurmond.
 
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