Would FDR become POTUS without polio?

I don't think he does. Without being stricken with polio, Roosevelt probably doesn't take a break from politics, and thus, probably runs for the Senate or Governorship much earlier that OTL. If he goes for the Senate, that gives him a voting record to run against, and, that, combined with the fact that Senators very seldom get elected President, plays against him, in my mind.

If he does get elected Governor earlier, I think that makes him 'old news' politically a lot faster, and he probably gets the Democratic presidential nomination earlier than OTL as well. IIRC, his speech at the 1924 Democratic National Convention (in which he nominated Smith) was so good that the delegates, had he not been so afflicted with polio and still in the early stages of recovery, considered nominating Roosevelt right then and there instead.

If Roosevelt does manage to become President, he's not going to be the same Roosevelt that we know from OTL, either. Roosevelt's affliction with polio changed the way he viewed the world and took him from being a Wilsonian liberal to the social democrat that he governed as, galvanizing Roosevelt toward the concerns of the disadvantaged and the out of luck.
 
without Polio (or Guillain-Barré syndrome) FDR had never become U.S. President

It was this illness that changed him, make FDR to a fighter and winner
Roosevelt refused to accept that he was permanently paralyzed from wast down.
he laboriously taught himself to walk a short distance by swiveling his torso while supporting himself with iron braces and a cane!

there this anecdote
were Roosevelt (in wheelchair) in arguments with his Generals
"that's impossible, mister President" declare one General
Roosevelt rise up of his wheelchair
"Nothing is impossible" he counter...
 
FDR as Bourbon? I like this idea. TNF, please elaborate. ;)


Ooo yes do.

I see both President Roosevelts as great men because they fought through adversity (be it childhood illness/weakness or Polio) and came out the other side with a can-do attitude. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He could still be POTUS, but could he be the type of POTUS that could handle the Great Depression? Maybe not...
 
Ooo yes do.

I see both President Roosevelts as great men because they fought through adversity (be it childhood illness/weakness or Polio) and came out the other side with a can-do attitude. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. He could still be POTUS, but could he be the type of POTUS that could handle the Great Depression? Maybe not...
And, of course, there is the possibility that he could still be the sort of POTUS that could handle the Great Depression, but would 'get in too soon' to do it. After all, if he already is President in 1929, and assuming that the Great Depression starts on schedule, even if he handles it better than Hoover did, he's still going to have a harder time being re-elected, and if he has been President since '25 (going from TNF's recollection, and assuming he wins the Presidency and not just the Democratic nomination), he's going to have the third-term issue against him as well.
 
Top