I have some general ideas for a TL where Eisenhower has just a few more health problems, like his mini-stroke coming a tad early - and he chooses not to run in '56. I don't know if it'll ever be written, but first I had a question.
I'm presuming that Nixon gets the nod. I read where Dewey helped convince Ike to keep Nixon, so I imagine the two were close. While GOP leaders wouldn't want Dewey to run for President again after his '48 loss (and '44, but that was excusable), they might take him as a VP choice. And, Nixon would probably have a fairly easy win over Stevenson.
However, would Nixon want him? In retrospect, they're both more on the liberal side of the ticket, but on the other hand, Nixon appears a bit more conservative (or at least moderate) looking at it from 1956 eyes. So the ticket could work while not alienating too many in the GOP.
I guess Nixon's kind of hard to paint in general, which is sort of how I'd portry him in this kind of a TL; without the bitterness of the '60 defeat laying heavy on him in '68, but still with a burning desire to succeed, to be looked at positively, to have the American people love him as one of the greatest ever, perhaps.
Which inspires the title, "To Be The Best" - which would not only represent Nixon's lofty desires, but the idea that America, to win the PR battle over Communism, would have that same burning desire, to show people it's the best alternative. (Not that he doesn't try to find ways to pit the USSSR and China against each other in an era when they're seemingly very close.)
But, gain, the idea's only in the planning stages, and wouldn't bear nearly as in depth as others, if I would know I had time to start it and complete it up to a reasonable point. For isntance, I won't be naming every single Cabinet appointment, though I might name a few.
Edit: Forgot to add, I don't usually do a lot of descriptive dialogue and such in straight timelines, unlike my books which have a lot. However, I have this image of Nixon telling Ted Williams, "What you said (about being a ballplayer), that's the same thing I want. I want to walk down the street and have people say, 'There goes the best darned President who ever lived.'"