WI: Roosevelt 1920

Theodore Roosevelt was considered a likely candidate for the GOP Presidential Nomination in 1920 before he passed away in 1919. Let's say his health let's him stay alive a little longer and he gets the nomination - who does he pick as a running mate? How does it affect the Democratic Nomination? (More likely that Wilson can get renominated like he wanted? Certainly no FDR as VP.) How does the election go?

Presuming he wins and can stay alive at least for a full term, how does it fair and what does he push for and accomplish in the first four years of the 1920s?
 
Shamelessly recycling one of my old soc.history.what-if posts:

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Edmund Morris's recent *Theodore Agonistes: The Last Years of President
Theodore Roosevelt* offers an interesting re-evaluation of TR's much-
maligned final term in office (1921 until his death during a trip to
Alaska in 1923).

These years have too often been seen as a rather sad anticlimax to
Roosevelt's career. For one thing, there has been far too much attention
given to the oil-lease scandals. Granted, TR made a misjudgment in
appointing Albert Fall Secretary of the Interior. But a misjudgment is
all it was, and a rather understandable one, too, in view of Fall's being
a fellow Rough Rider. (I think that was the crucial factor--I doubt that
any other president would have appointed Fall.) There is no indication
that TR himself was involved in the scandals, and as Morris points out,
the actual terms of the leases were quite favorable to the United States.
Morris also points out that for every Fall, TR appointed several very able
cabinet officers, such as Elihu Root as Secretary of State and Herbert
Hoover as Secretary of Commerce. He also notes some of Roosevelt's
constructive acocmplishments, such as creation of the Bureau of the Budget
(previously, each department simply submitted its projected expenses
without reference to an overall plan), a reduction of wartime taxes
(though he did not carry tax reduction as far as conservatives wanted),
the conclusion of separate peace treaties with the Central Powers, etc. It
is true that TR's refusal to pardon Eugene Debs and other political
prisoners looks mean-spirited today, but realistically what president
would have dared to free them at that time? And of course pacifists
accuse TR of "sabotaging" plans for a world disarmament conference, but
when that conference was finally held under President Root, its
accomplishments turned out to be merely temporary and may even have harmed
the US by lulling it into a false sense of security. Furthermore, TR was
not nearly as hostile to labor or lax in antitrust enforcement as Root or
Coolidge would be.

One important point Morris makes is that TR's nomination in 1920 was by no
means inevitable. Despite his years of vehement attacks on Wilson, his
gradual turning away from radical reform in social pollicy, etc., some of
the GOP's Old Guard would never forgive him for splitting the party in
1912. In the end he got the nomination only through an unlikely deal with
Pennsylvania's TR-hating boss Boies Penrose to get Penrose's man Philander
Knox as TR's running mate. (Penrose thought that TR would not live very
long; what he did not realize was that Knox's life would be even shorter.)
Any thoughts about who the GOP would be likely to nominate if TR had died
in, say, 1919? This would mean both no President Root from 1923-5 (btw I
have toyed with a TL featuring one or even two full terms for Root, but
this is almost ASB territory; at the age of 79 in 1924 Root was not going
to run) and probably no President Coolidge from 1925 to 1933. (Of course,
"what if the 1924 GOP convention had chosen someone other than Governor
Coolidge" is another interesting question--Coolidge was after all
something of a surprise choice. Maybe Secretary of Commerce Hoover could
have been chosen instead, though still viewed with suspicion by some of
the Old Guard.)
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/RoQvNCApzN0/DqCrcNsqpsMJ

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One way I would modify that post today: It now seems to me less likely that TR would appoint Hoover to a high position, for reasons I indicate at https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...over-in-a-tr-adminstration-after-1920.314820/
 
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Roosevelt is not going to be a very good president. Congress, which is quite conservative, will try to drag Roosevelt to the right and restore "normalcy", but Roosevelt is the president of the Progressive Era. I'd expect very few laws to be created, and ultimately, his third term would be considered his worst.
 
Really? Roosevelt appointing Fall? I hardly think so. There would be far better, abler administrators available--say, Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts.

And who says Congress in 1921 will be as conservative ITTL as it was IOTL? I suspect Roosevelt would have had considerable coattails in getting at least quasi-progressives elected, so that this term wouldn't be quite the mediocrity others suggest. Sorry, sports fans: I maintain that the one POD--TR surviving long enough to run and win in 1920--would have had ripple effects sufficient that you really can't say all else would be as it was IOTL.
 
And who says Congress in 1921 will be as conservative ITTL as it was IOTL? I suspect Roosevelt would have had considerable coattails in getting at least quasi-progressives elected, so that this term wouldn't be quite the mediocrity others suggest. Sorry, sports fans: I maintain that the one POD--TR surviving long enough to run and win in 1920--would have had ripple effects sufficient that you really can't say all else would be as it was IOTL.

The public was in a conservative mood, and they wanted a conservative president after Wilson showed the "failure" of progressivism. I do think Congress would be less conservative, but it would be quite conservative and would come to clashes with Roosevelt.

And I agree that all else would not be as OTL. For one, FDR is almost certainly butterflied away, and that alters everything to do with the twentieth century. Even before that, I'm not sure if Coolidge is the Republican nominee in 1924, and TR may moderate Congress somewhat; this means that the Great Depression will not be as bad as OTL.
 
Really? Roosevelt appointing Fall? I hardly think so. There would be far better, abler administrators available--say, Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts.

We're talking about the Department of the Interior, which is traditionally filled by a westerner. And Fall was not only popular in New Mexico but was after all a fellow Rough Rider and friend of TR's. One hould not read Fall's post-Teapot Dome reputation into the Albert Fall of 1920.

"Scenes of TR in a western setting; the man on TR's immediate left appears to be Albert B. Fall, Senator from New Mexico (1913-1921) and four unidentified men, two wearing Western hats, who may be Rough Riders; a woman is barely visible directly behind TR."
 
David, I did a little bit of digging and it looks like Fall was a Captain in an Infantry Division in the Spanish-American War.
 
His health was completely broken by 1919. What health the bullet he took in 1912 didn't take away, the Amazon trip a couple of years later did. The nail in the coffin (if you'll forgive the poorly worded pun) was Quentin Roosevelt's death in France in 1918. That tragedy pretty much crushed him emotionally. Even if he made it to 1920, I really don't see him having the heart or the energy to run in a presidential campaign.

Hand waving all of those issues away is only half the problem. He would need to get the party elites/bosses on his side to get the nomination. He had made a lot of enemies within the party after running in 1912, which arguably cost the Republicans the election. He's going to need to closet some of his progressive platform, and tack to the right a bit to get the party back on his side. of course who he selects as a running mate may help his efforts here. Perhaps General Leonard Wood would be a good pick. Not only were Wood and Roosevelt personally and professionally close, but Wood was popular with Republicans (especially Senator Henry Cabot Lodge).

Assuming the Roosevelt/Wood ticket wins, I foresee Roosevelt maintaining most of Harding's domestic policies (though maybe not as pro-business). I do think that U.S. foreign policy would be more engaged and perhaps interventionist (though only so much due to the mood of the American people). It's possible that Roosevelt will push for admittance to the League of Nations; as long as changes are made that are amendable to the Republicans.

If Roosevelt dies during this term (which is a distinct possibility), then Wood assumes the office. That could lead to all sorts of interesting butterflies. Perhaps more importantly, Roosevelt becomes the first President to serve more than two terms (granted they weren't consecutive). Might we see an earlier attempt at a 22nd Amendment? If so, and if it succeeds, this might make 1940 fairly interesting.......politically speaking.
 
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And who says Congress in 1921 will be as conservative ITTL as it was IOTL? I suspect Roosevelt would have had considerable coattails in getting at least quasi-progressives elected, so that this term wouldn't be quite the mediocrity others suggest. Sorry, sports fans: I maintain that the one POD--TR surviving long enough to run and win in 1920--would have had ripple effects sufficient that you really can't say all else would be as it was IOTL.

These Progressives would have to be nominated before they could be elected. There's no reason for the results of Republican Congressional Primaries or caucuses to be affected by TR winning the Presidential nomination.
 
These Progressives would have to be nominated before they could be elected. There's no reason for the results of Republican Congressional Primaries or caucuses to be affected by TR winning the Presidential nomination.

Excepting I'm not sure it was primaries and caucuses that chose the down ballot candidates anymore than the Presidential Nominee.
 
Excepting I'm not sure it was primaries and caucuses that chose the down ballot candidates anymore than the Presidential Nominee.

Then who did?

My point is that they were likely to be chosen (by whatever method) independently of the Presidential race. There may have been instances where a Congressional Primary (in the minority of States which had Primaries) might take place at the same time as the Presidential one, but this would be rare. So it's not at all obvious that having TR running for the Presidential nomination would have any major effect on who got nominated for Congress.
 
The POD is he does not take his trip to Brazil. Also spare the life obis son. He would be very frustrated with conservative Congress and public.
 
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