What if Calvin Coolidge ran for the nomination of the Republican party in 1928. He was quite popular at the time. If he did run in 1928, would he win? Who would the democrats run against him? How would he have handled the stockmarket crash?
Coolidge probably wouldn't have implemented even Hoover's limited measures as a response to the Depression, and would lose in a landslide to FDR in 1932 (FDR having several orders of magnitude more personal charisma). The question is, how much more different would the Depression be, and how would that impact an FDR presidency?
Would Coolidge veto Smoot-Hartley as Hoover did IOTL? I think so, but in this case, the veto should be overriden. Besides the snowball effect of trade barriers, I remember reading that Smoot-Hartley alone translated to making the GD 6% worse for the economy than it otherwise would've been. Any Board economic experts care to translate that for us?
OOC: It translates as very bad...
On a side note doesn't Coolidge die in 1929? Doesn't he predict the Depression?
Coolidge died in 1933, its possible the pressures of the Presidency kill him sooner. But if he dies as per otl, we get President Dawes (assuming the Vice President is not dropped from the ticket in 1928, which is a possibility as he and Coolidge did not get along very well.) between Jan. 5 1933 and March 4 1933. It'd be the absolute lamest of lame duck Presidencies if Roosevelt defeats whoever the Republicans nominate in a landslide as he historically did.