New interactive timeline idea.

[Reluctant Republican]

Hey all. Being that I’m a complete nerd and have a bit of time on my hands for the next two weeks or so, and seeing as how I love alternative history, I’ve decided to start a timeline you can all participate in. Here’s how it will work. I’ll give a brief overview of the election, and then describe the Republican and Democratic candidates running for office. You guys then vote on who you want to be the nominees for both parties in that election , and based on who gets the most votes [as well as my own discretion, to insure that someone like Lyndon LaRouche never gets the Democratic nomination], those candidates will then advance to the general election. You’ll then get to vote, somewhat, on what happens during the campaigning, such as who has a slip of the tongue, who gets caught in a scandal, and so forth. Based on all this, I’ll then see who had the most effective general campaign, and combining their campaign with historical factors and issues,, will produce a winner. Then I’ll allow a few broad decisions to be made that discuss the administration of the President, and I’ll use those to determine the popularity of the President.

This probably sounds rather complicated, but I think it will be pretty straightforward, and it could be fun. I’ll likely stop after an election or two, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. So, anyone interested in this?

[Wakie]

Sounds good to me .... what year are you thinking about starting with?

[AndrewTX]

lol!!! I've totally been working on the same timeline idea for like, two weeks now. I've been writing mine that started in the 1992 elections.

[Reluctant Republican]

Sounds good to me .... what year are you thinking about starting with?

Thanks for your interest. On a side note, I’ve just noticed your timeline and am enjoying it so far

lol!!! I've totally been working on the same timeline idea for like, two weeks now. I've been writing mine that started in the 1992 elections.

Great! I don't want to steal anyone's idea, but I hope you continue with it. This is a format that could lead to many unique timelines.

As for the year, well, I've been thinking, and I'm thinking of starting with 1956. It seems like a strange place to start, but I have a few reasons I'm picking this year. The republican nomination is already decided, allowing me to concetrate on the Democratic nomination. and, the election is likely to be a landslide, so this will allow me to play around with the format and see what works best for me.

[AndrewTX]

You go for yours! If you started it in 1956, that would certainly be a good timeline.

[Reluctant Republican]

1956 Presidential Election

As 1956 begins, president Eisenhower announces that despite some health problems, he will seek a second term.  Vice president Nixon will also stay on the ticket. Most political commentators believe that Eisenhower, a popular president and war hero, will easily win a second term over any Democratic challenger. However, the Democrats still want to put up a fight, and so some notable Democrats announce that they are running for president. These include:

1952 nominee Adlai Stevenson
Tennessee senator Estes Kefauver
New York Governor Averell Harriman 

The Democrats gathered in Chicago on August 13th, and Stevenson is seen as the favorite to win the nomination. Politics is an ever fickle sport, however, and an upset is not out of the question. So, the first decision that you need to make, is who will be the Democratic nominee in 1956?

Here’s how voting works. I’ll list your choices, and you vote from them when you post. Your choices are:

1.Adlai Stevenson
2.Estes Kefauver
3.Averell Harriman 
4. Convention draft’s someone else [put choice here]







 


 

[Robespierre's Jaw]

What a great idea Reluctant Republican. Hopefully this TL turn's out to be really good. Now, I shall cast my vote for the who the Democratic nominee should be in 1956. I give my vote to Minnesota's 'Happy Warrior':

[X] Sen. Hubert Humphrey (MN)

[HappyWarrior]

I vote for good old Adlai.

[MasterJedi]

Adlai Stevenson

[TommyC1776]

Adlai.

[War on Want]

Adlai Stevenson.

[Reluctant Republican]

Thanks everyone for your votes. Here is the next part of the story.

The Democratic convention

The nominating phase of the convention opened with Democrats in low sprits. It seemed certain that Eisenhower was to win a second term, so many delegates felt that their mission was just to nominate a effective spokesperson for Democratic values. The biggest surprise came from a strong draft effort for Hubert Humphrey. Humphrey, a popular progressive figure in the party, had not put his name into consideration prior to the convention, but he let it be known that he would accept the nomination if it was offered to him.

Humphrey’s campaign started too late however, and most delegates had already been pledged to Stevenson, assuring him an easy win on the first ballot. Stevenson, hoping to excite the convention, decides to let them pick his vice presidential nominee. There is a varied list to chose from.

For your next decision, pick who the convention should select as Stevenson’s running mate.

1.Senator Estes Kefauver
2. Senator John F. Kennedy
3.Senator Albert Gore
4. Mayor Robert F. Wagner
5. Senator Hubert Humphrey
6. Someone else.

As a side note, I’m sorry if this is getting off to a slow start. However, after this decision, we’ll start with the real campaign, and things should get more interesting, hopefully. Finally, a note on voting. I’ve decided that the first decision to three votes is the one I’ll pick. This seems fair, but I'm willing to change this if there is objection to it.

[HappyWarrior]

I would like to start a draft movement for Henry Walllace as VP.

[War on Want]

Henry Wallace.

[SPC]

John Kennedy

[Sensei]

Albert Gore

[Wakie]

You must be logged in to read this quote.

^^^^^^^

[HappyWarrior]

Looks like it comes down to Gore versus Wallace.

[AndrewTX]

Gore

[HappyWarrior]

Darn it!  Thought Wallace might of had it

[Hash]

JFK

[MasterJedi]

Wallace

[Reluctant Republican]

Great to see so many votes. On with the show.

Democratic convention part 2

Stevenson’s decision to allow the convention to pick his running mate added much needed excitement to the affair. Instantly,  a jockeying for votes developed, and many names were considered. Only three men, however, had the support to get the VP nomination.

The first was a former VP, Henry Wallace. Wallace was a former Republican who had become a Democrat and served as Roosevelt’s VP from 1940 to1944, when he was dropped from the ticket for being to liberal. He failed to support Truman in 1948, instead opting to run as a progressive. Despite, or perhaps because of this, he still had a few fans in the Democratic party of 1956, and a rousing draft effort began to try to recruit him. His candidacy was hampered however, due to the fact that he was still seen as too liberal, and conservative  Democrats refused  to support him. Senator Strum Thurmond, the man who bolted from the Democratic party to run as a states rights candidate in 1948, went so far as to threaten another run if Wallace was nominated. As such, his potential candidacy quickly lost much of its luster.

This left two main candidates for the VP spot, John Kennedy and Estes Kefauver. Kennedy was a popular young senator from Massachusetts who was the son of a notable and much admired family. He was intensely charismatic as well, and his supporters hoped his charisma and youth would energize the ticket.

Kefauver, by contrast, had run against Stevenson for the nomination, and lacked the charisma that Kennedy had. However, his investigations into organized crime had endeared him to much of the public, [even as they ruined the careers of some prominent politicians] and he was seen as a man of integrity.

This was not enough, however, to beat Kennedy, who surged into the lead on the first ballot, just falling short of the required number of votes needed to be selected as the VP. Kefauver, realizing it was over, dropped out, and was expected to endorse Kennedy. To the shock of everyone at the convention, however, Kefauver instead endorsed his fellow Tennessee senator, Albert Gore, a compromise candidate who had managed to come in a distant third on the first ballot.

Gore was seen as the new face of Tennessee politics, as he had managed to defy the Tennessee party bosses and defeat their favored candidate for the senate in 1952.  Kefauver did not nominate him for his integrity, however. He merely had misgiving about Kennedy, and preferred his fellow Tennessee senator as the nominee. Many Democrats also felt that Thurmond and his supporters might bolt if Kennedy was nominated, so a southern VP was felt to be the only thing that could hold the party together. Gore was not the typical southern politician, however. He did not sign the southern manifesto, which opposed all efforts at school integration. This refusal kept him palatable for progressives in the party, and with Kefauver’s endorsement and the dropping out of many minor candidates, Gore won the vice presidential nomination on the second ballot.

Ticket in hand, Stevenson/Gore prepared for a rousing campaign with the heavily favored Eisenhower/Nixon. With polls showing Stevenson down almost twenty points to the popular president, however, was there any hope?

More to come later, so you'll have to wait a bit to vote. I welcome any predictions or suggestions on to how  to spice things up a bit. As always, thanks for reading.

[Reluctant Republican]

General election.

As the general campaign truly began in earnest, Stevenson came out swinging. He attacked Eisenhower on the economy, saying  that “More could be done, and that more must be done, to insure the well being of every American citizen.” He also attacked Eisenhower on his support for above ground nuclear testing, which Stevenson wanted to ban.  Finally, he favored  improving relations with the soviets, calling Eisenhower’s foreign policy “needlessly belligerent.”

Despite all his attacks however, polls two weeks from the race showed Eisenhower still well ahead. Knowing it was over, Stevenson was nonetheless determined to fight as hard as he could until the last vote had been cast. Two weeks from the election, however, Stevenson’s campaign got a bounce. T Coleman Andrews, the state rights candidate, offered to suspend his campaign and drop out, leaving the race between only Stevenson and Eisenhower. Andrews was a minor candidate, not even attracting a percent of the vote, but his withdraw could help Stevenson in the south. On the other hand, accepting the tepid endorsement of Andrews could hurt Stevenson amongst liberals. What then, should Stevenson do?

Vote below.

Accept Endorsement.
Don’t accept endorsement
Denounce the states rights party

I’m sorry at the utter lameness of this choice, as well as the fact that it may not entirely be historically accurate. However, I wanted to give you all a choice, even a minor one, into how the election played out, and this seemed the best way to do that. I also considered allowing a vote on if Eisenhower would have health problems that would force him to withdraw, but I ultimately decided on this choice. None of these options will give the election to Stevenson, but at least one of them will cause him to win a state that he failed to in RL.

[Hash]

Denounce the states rights party

Great TL/idea BTW