By “realistic answers” I basically mean people who would have stood a realistic chance of actually becoming President… so, no “Jerry Garcia”'s, please. In the history of the US, which one person who never made it to the Presidency would you award the White House to if you had the power? Bonus points if it’s someone who was an actual major-party Presidential candidate.
I’ll go with Benjamin Franklin. He might actually not have made a good President, but it would have been interesting.
Mitt Romney couldn’t possibly do worse than Obama.
Nixon and Kennedy nearly tied. Two states would have made the difference. Nixon was very strong in foreign policy. I think he would have handled Viet Nam differently and avoided the escalation. Maybe he wouldn’t have stumbled into the Watergate fiasco. Something we’ll never know.
Historically, I’m not that familiar with candidates that ran and didn’t win the presidency.
Oh yes he could!
That’s funny. As I remember it, Nixon did get to be president, escalated things in Vietnam (not to mention neighboring countries) considerably, yet still somehow managed to lose the war.
And somehow his presidency did not work out too well, either for the country or for Nixon’s own reputation.
Of course if he had been elected earlier … well, I wonder how he would have handled the Cuban missile crisis? :eek:
Robert F. Kennedy had a decent shot at the job, and probably would have been okay at it. To be honest, I don’t think he would have been one of the greats. It’s even conceivable he wouldn’t have been as good as Nixon.
(But he certainly wouldn’t have been as bad as Nixon!)
Adlai Stevenson, who also had an outside shot at it, might have been okay. Hard to know if he had the guts to stand up to communism. On the other hand, he might have let the diplomats do the job we pay them for, and the world might have been a better place.
John Anderson or H. Ross Perot? Sorry, no. Much too limited.
Robert La Follette? Well, maybe.
William Jennings Bryan? Hm… My instinct is to say, “Oh, fuck, no,” but I don’t know if that’s fair. Maybe he would have risen to the occasion.
Barry Goldwater? I don’t think so…but I’ll confess immediately to prejudice. Anyone want to speak for him? Would he have done the right things, or only right-wing things?
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…
(deep breath)
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!! Gold, Jerry.
John Wayne would’ve been effective in the role, much like Reagan.
Garret Hobart came really close to becoming President and from what I’ve heard about him he would have done a good job. (Hobart was McKinley’s first Vice President. He died in office in 1899 at the age of 55. If he had lived, he undoubtedly would have been re-elected with McKinley in 1900 and would have assumed the Presidency when McKinley was assassinated.)
It’s often said that Milton Eisenhower was better qualified than the brother who did become president.
I’d like to suggest Robert Taft, senator from Ohio and son of President Taft. Although he died too soon (1953) if he had been elected in 1948 (a possibility if he could have gotten the nomination instead of Dewey) and lived out his 8-year term to 1956, I think this country would have ended up very different.
I always thought that Allen Drury’s character Orrin Knox was modeled on Robert Taft. Especially in the later books, after Advise and Consent, where he successfully ran for president. Not, particularly, the way he was portrayed in the film.
Wasn’t Taft an isolationist? I wonder how that would have played out during the Korean War. Would he have let China have South Korea? Would he have let China have Taiwan?
Barbara Jordan was born in the wrong time and place, but if she’d been born in 1966 instead of 1936, maybe she would have been the first black president-- or the second, and the first woman.
I think if Tsongas hadn’t become ill again, he had a really good shot at the dem primary.
I think Chappaquiddick ruined Ted Kennedy’s chances at the presidency, buy were it not for that, he could have been Carter’s VP, and then run against Bush (pere). Bush had none of Reagan’s charisma, and won only because Dukakis was a mistake. Kennedy could have been a two-termer, and the southern Clinton would have been a good running mate. I think an incumbent Clinton-Gore would have beaten Bush (fils) in 2000 (albeit, I have no idea who the Reps would have run in 1996; Bush [fils]-Quayle? …nah; Dole?). I don’t know who the Reps would have run in 2004, but if it were McCain-Palin, Chaney-Palin, or Cheney-McCain, I think Gore-H. Clinton, or Gore-Obama could have won.
I kind of doubt that any person on earth could do a good job as President right now. Simply put, the President of the USA has too many duties, oversight of too many departments and offices and bureaus, too many symbolic duties (such as attending funerals), and too many national and world events to comment on.
It’s certainly true that Obama has made the problem worse for himself by insisting on posing as an expert on everything, including things where the President shouldn’t be involved. (The Zimmerman/Martin case comes to mind.) However, the job of President would be overwhelming even for someone who didn’t wade into such fiascoes.
I think he would have done a whole lot better.
Henry Clay. His ability to get factions to make concessions would’ve helped forestall the Civil War, maybe even avert it. Slavery could’ve been allowed to die its slow, natural death.
ITR: An African-American shouldn’t share thoughts about the violent, unprovoked death of an African-American teen?
Yes I will speak for Goldwater, todays right wingers would call him a liberal. He was a sensible man, would have made a great president if Americans hadn’t been so scared by that stupid commercial .
Goldwater wasn’t about to drop a bomb on anyone, nor would electing him have caused tghe US to get bombed.Thaddeus Stevens?
George McGovern.
How about Thomas Dewey? The guy that the newspapers erroneously declared President. He was Gov of New York (1943–1954).
Would he have been better or worse than Truman?
James M. Cox would have made a much better president than Warren Harding – and he had a particularly fine VP candidate running with him.