1952: Taft/Ives v. Stevenson/Sparkman

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Democrats:
Governor Adlai Stevenson (Illinois)
Senator John Sparkman (Alabama)

Republicans:
Senator Robert Taft (Ohio)
Senator Irving Ives (New York)

[pragmatic liberal]

By the time of the '52 Republican convention, Taft had already promised to name Douglas MacArthur as his running mate. Even so, I'd expect that a Stevenson-Taft race would have been much closer than Stevenson-Eisenhower, but given the depth of Truman's unpopularity and the fact that it was a Republican year, I'm guessing Taft would have prevailed by 2-4 points.

The map would have looked something like this:

Taft: 288
Stevenson: 243

[Lincoln Republican]

Taft was a major political figure in 1952, respected and capable.

Ives provides a moderate balance to the conservative Taft.

Taft and Ives win by a landslide, slightly smaller than the Eisenhower victory.

No way Stevenson and Sparkman make any headway in 1952, following 20 years of Democratic administrations, and with an extremely unpopular President, Truman, on the way out.

Any credible Reublican wins by a comfortable to landslide margin in 1952.

Vice President Ives becomes President on July 31, 1953, upon the untimely death of President Taft.   

Taft/Ives                         351
Stevenson/Sparkman     180

[LiberalLibertarian]

This is a tough one, because Taft and Stevenson were both so unlikable, they lacked that "it" factor that Eisenhower and today, Obama has. People would be less keen on Stevenson for his, "I'm rich, I'm haughty taughty, and I was born with a silver spoon in my mouth, and I'm smarter and better than you" attitude. Taft would turn people off for his droniness. It would be a two issue campaign- civil rights, and Korea. Many anti-civil rights Americans would be inclined to go for Stevenson because of Sparkan, while anti war people would go for Taft. This would be tough, and it's a very good scenario, Sarah Palin= Epic Failure (which I agree with). I will make my electoral map.