WI: Eisenhower 3rd Term

I had a discussion with somebody far more knowledgeable than me on the subject of history who suggested Eisenhower, hypothetically, could have tried to run for a third term despite his health problems.

Would this affect the Democrats' choice in candidate? Would Eisenhower be popular enough to win again? Would Nixon be dumped from the ticket? Would Eisenhower experience any Republican challengers after two full terms?
 
He would win in a cakewalk over Kennedy, somewhere between the results of '56 and '52.

However his health would have prevented any run on his part; he wouldn't have held up for a third term.
 
Would Kennedy even get the nomination against Eisenhower?

Maybe Stevenson's "third time's the charm" bid succeeds for another grudge match? :p
 
I had a discussion with somebody far more knowledgeable than me on the subject of history who suggested Eisenhower, hypothetically, could have tried to run for a third term despite his health problems.

Would this affect the Democrats' choice in candidate? Would Eisenhower be popular enough to win again? Would Nixon be dumped from the ticket? Would Eisenhower experience any Republican challengers after two full terms?

Ike would have won, but this is ASB because:

1. He didn't want to be President anymore; he didn't like the job during his second term
2. Ike was term-limited due to the 22nd Amendment
3. He was in very poor health, had suffered a heart attack while in office and would have almost certainly died if he had to deal with the foreign policy stresses of the early 1960s
 
Ike would have won, but this is ASB because:

1. He didn't want to be President anymore; he didn't like the job during his second term
2. Ike was term-limited due to the 22nd Amendment
3. He was in very poor health, had suffered a heart attack while in office and would have almost certainly died if he had to deal with the foreign policy stresses of the early 1960s

I've heard a lot of conflicting opinions on the first one, the second is yeah, and the third makes sense.

I understand why it didn't occur in OTL, but I'm curious how it could've gone ATL. Eliminating the 22nd Amendment doesn't butterfly Truman, and the other are really only changed by emotion. (Yes, Eisenhower's poor health can't be butterflied away, but his concern about it can be.)
 
I would wonder how Richard Nixon minus the attitudes he got from losing the 1960 elections would fare as President if Ike had died in office in a third term.
Would Nixon had said no to Vietnam?
 
You know, if Eisenhower died in 1963, around the same time as Kennedy in OTL, we could see a Nixon presidency for the next nine years, assuming Watergate's butterflied away by Nixon being done by 1972.
 
I think Nixon escalates the Viietnam war. tThat means we get an anti war movement that angers Nixon, so maybe there is a Watergate.
 
I don't think JFK runs against IKE in 60. He would wait. He was only 43 years old. I think HHH would be the nominee. In 64 I can see JFK running against Nixon. Same type race. Same result.
 

Ancientone

Banned
Ike dies during a *Cuban Missile Crisis. That would be interesting.

Now Ike pegging out from a heart attack at the moment of maximum stress and Nixon having to step in, untested and untried, at the last moment is an quite interesting scenario.
Now who would be Nixon's equivalent of backchannel Bobby?


Friends forever?
nixon-castro.jpg
 
I don't think JFK runs against IKE in 60. He would wait. He was only 43 years old.

The OP aside: Kennedy's attitude to his own health problems is a major subject all in itself. Personally I don't think he was for voluntarily foregoing '60 in OTL, both because he didn't want to risk trying to break that glass ceiling and assume the pressures of the job when he was in his fifties (in his fifties with Addison's/a back that's probably going bad again), and because, well, having a physically and mentally active dad is a boost to his campaign.

But a scenario where Ike is able to seek a third term, and the general is actually enthusiastic about it, that's different.

Probably Kefauver is the only Dem with a 'K' in his name who'd want to run against that.
 
Now Ike pegging out from a heart attack at the moment of maximum stress and Nixon having to step in, untested and untried,
I wouldn't exactly say 'untested and untried'. Nixon was practically the president during several weeks when Ike was struck with a heart attack in '55. Not quite the same thing, but not nothing, either.
 
Ike would have won, but this is ASB because:
2. Ike was term-limited due to the 22nd Amendment

Point 1 and 3 are pertinent, but point 2 is questionable. Had ratification of the 22nd amendment failed there is no direct reason to suspect that Eisenhower would not have remained a leading candidate for the Presidency and as far as I know there the lack of term limits would not lead by itself to guide him away from running in 1952. Therefore while it is certainly possible that no 22nd means no Ike via butterflies wings, that is not certain. Therefore a situation in which Eisenhower is elected in 1952 and reelected in 1956 and is theoretically eligible in 1960 does not strain plausbility in the slightest. Now in that circumstance I do not think Ike would run. But he might have played a stretched out will he or won't he game with the press, which could alter the dynamics of the race by itself.
 
The 22nd Amendment had no effect on presidential politics until 1960 any more so than the Washington tradition before it had. Truman was specifically allowed to run for further terms, and pulled out very early in 1952, and the same person I spoke with when starting this thread told me it was his belief Truman likely would've bowed out in any case.
 
The 22nd Amendment had no effect on presidential politics until 1960 any more so than the Washington tradition before it had. Truman was specifically allowed to run for further terms, and pulled out very early in 1952, and the same person I spoke with when starting this thread told me it was his belief Truman likely would've bowed out in any case.

There are small butterflies. Consider...
  • Kennedy being more hesitant in his 1960 campaign, fearing Ike will run again. He loses on the first ballot, and Johnson wins the nomination and election over Richard Nixon (Americans are disappointed Ike didn't run again, and so didn't have as much time to get used to Nixon).
  • Nixon behaving differently in 1972, because it won't be his last election.
  • Fearing Ronald Reagan will run and win again in 1988, the Democrats are more willing to get to the bottom of Iran-Contra, and Reagan is impeached.
  • The GOP impeaches Clinton earlier, leading to the Democrats taking Congress in 1998.

I don't think that any president would run for a third term (Ike: Age/fading interest, Reagan: Age, Clinton: Lewinsky/heart/Hillary would object, Obama: Probably lack of interest/Snubbing Hillary), but the possibility would create many butterflies.
 
Here is a thought, WI he had a different VP, (ideally Nixon loses 1950 Senate election)

Suppose there were a movement to nominate a Goldwater type candidate.

Might tht have persuaded Eisenhower to seek the nomination

NB in an election i 1960 with Ike of the ballot old versus you would be an issue as would be the General's health
 
Top