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IOTL, certain conservative Bourbon Democrats wanted former President Grover Cleveland to run in 1904 against Theodore Roosevelt. Cleveland ultimately declined to run, as did the choice of the party's populist left branch, William Jennings Bryan. The Democratic nominee in 1904 ended up being New York lawyer Alton B. Parker, a Bourbon Democrat and outdoorsman who was absolutely blown out of the water by Roosevelt. Cleveland had been largely discredited when he left office in 1897, but he had managed to come back from being discredited before; Cleveland is most famously the only President to serve non-consecutively.

So if Cleveland decides to run in 1904, is he able to get the Democratic nomination? If he does decide to run, does that spur on William Jennings Bryan to run to try and stop Cleveland? Cleveland wouldn't have beaten Roosevelt, but would his showing be any better than Parker's?

And the most interesting question of all: let's say McKinley isn't assassinated in 1901 and Charles Fairbanks (or a similar figure) becomes the Republican nominee in 1904. Would Cleveland be able to beat Fairbanks, and if so, what would his third term look like?
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