And Taft really did continue TR’s policies during his term, just not with TR’s flamboyance. Nonetheless, Taft was far less remarkable as President than as Chief Justice, which is the job he wanted all along. He was happy to be out of the White House, and absolutely delighted 8 years later when Harding appointed him Chief Justice, quite possibly the only good move Harding ever made. He ran a caretaker presidency, but a very active SCOTUS.
Yeah, it was a fascinating election, with the incumbent president coming in third. Roosevelt was still that popular. However, he drew progressives of all parties into the race. There were never that many progressive Republicans because Progressives were effectively liberal and the core of the Republican party had already moved to an approximation of what we today consider conservative. The Democrats still had the extremely conservative southern wing that also rejected Progressive doctrine. They were essentially a third party movement that lucked out in having the leading celebrity of the day as their figurehead.
Taft, remember, never wanted to be President. He wanted to be chief justice. When he was named to the Supreme Court he was so happy that he lost the 80 pounds that makes him recognizable as our fattest president.
Bare facts are fun. Facts wrapped in context are knowledge. It’s much more interesting to me to understand why the Republicans had this unique streak than just look at the raw numbers. And it helps explain why the streak was unique and why we shouldn’t expect it to ever happen again.