AHC: The largest number of former POTUS (and living POTUS) possible in 2015
- Thread starter TPL99
- Start date
Theoretically, the number could be upwards of 100, although that many presidential assassinations/resignations/deaths in office is probably bordering on ASB. There's been 56 elections to date (per some quick Googling), so anywhere between 55 and 100? Take your pick.
Perhaps, the genetics would contribute to JFK. In addition he could not have Addison's disease. There could be possible that he arrived at 98 in 2015.
GeographyDude
Gone Fishin'
prior to former President Ronald Reagan going on to the great beyond on June 5th, 2004, say in the month before, the former Presidents then still alive were as follows:
former Acting President Alexander Haig*,
Gerald Ford,
Jimmy Carter,
Ronald Reagan,
George Bush, Sr,
Bill Clinton,
So, in Spring of 2004, I list six former presidents or former acting presidents still alive.
* And yes, in the last months of Watergate, I think Nixon's Chief of Staff Al Haig was in many ways essentially acting president or at least co-president, and should receive credit for such.
former Acting President Alexander Haig*,
Gerald Ford,
Jimmy Carter,
Ronald Reagan,
George Bush, Sr,
Bill Clinton,
So, in Spring of 2004, I list six former presidents or former acting presidents still alive.
* And yes, in the last months of Watergate, I think Nixon's Chief of Staff Al Haig was in many ways essentially acting president or at least co-president, and should receive credit for such.
I'm thinking something like this to have the most number of living present-day Presidents
POD: Reagan Decides not to run in 1980
1977-1981 (Jimmy Carter)
1981-1989 (George H.W. Bush/Bob Dole)
- George H.W. Bush manages to beat Bob Dole in a closely fought Republican primary and is forced to select him as a Vice President. He beats Carter for many of the same reasons that Reagan did (Iran Hostages, Stagflation). The economy rebounds so he beats a John Glenn/Gary Hart ticket by a solid margin, but by no means an OTL 1984 landslide. A cooling economy plus leaks about the Iran-Contra affair led to an anti-Republican mood in 1988 and the ticket of Joe Biden/Al Gore wins 320-218 victory over the Dole/du Pont ticket.
1989-1997 (Joe Biden/Al Gore)
- Joe Biden is seen by many as the greatest president of the 20th century. Under his first term, the Soviet Union collapsed while the UN intervention in Iraq managed to remove Saddam Hussein from power. On the economic front, he was able to pass the Free Trade Agreement with Canada which many considered responsible for the economic growth of the 1990s and he was able to establish a public option for American healthcare. His landslide victory over the Donald Rumsfeld/Dan Quayle ticket discredited the hard right within the Republican Party for a generation.
1997-2001 (Al Gore/Douglas Wilder)
- Al Gore is seen by many as being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He fought off an aggressive challenge from the George W. Bush/Lamar Alexander ticket, losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college. However, that electoral victory was a poisoned chalice. The 5/15 bombings in 1998 resulted in 2,000 fatalities as 7 transcontinental flights were blown up over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Dot Com bubble of the late 1990s burst were the two events that made the Gore presidency a one-term one. Many Americans blamed the Gore administration for ignoring the threat of Islamic terrorism and for encouraging the Dot Com boom. In 2000, he lost to the John McCain/Elizabeth Dole ticket after Americans wanted a more aggressive foreign policy.
2001-2009 (John McCain/Elizabeth Dole)
- The McCain administration is characterized by a combination of successes in foreign policy and missed opportunities in domestic policy. In his first term, he managed to capture Osama Bin Laden after the Gore administration failed to capture him under his watch. In his second term, pro-democracy movements swept the middle east removing many of America's most hated dicatators from power; most notably Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Islamic Government of Iran. However, his domestic policies would be much more questionable. His decision to deregulate the American financial sector led to the 2008 Economic crisis which led to the Republican ticket having the worst performance since Goldwater. As well, social Conservatives in the Republican Party were enraged over his appointment of the moderate Edith Brown Clement as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after Rehnquist's death.
2009-2013 (John Edwards/Evan Bayh)
- In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, the John Edwards/Evan Bayh ticket set out making sweeping reforms to the American financial sector. To some extent they were successful in that the Economy in 2015 is better than in OTL. On the foreign policy front, the election of a Communist Government in Russia caused many to question if we were heading back to the ways of the Cold War. However, the Edwards administration would be best remembered for two events regarding the president's personal life. The first was the loss of his wife Elizabeth in 2010 to cancer. This means that he was seen as unbeatable heading into the 2012 election However, the second is what he would become more infamous for. In August 2012, the New York times found out that he had impregnated a 23-year old intern. Further investigation discovered that Edwards had carried on multiple affairs throughout his presidency, including some while Elizabeth was alive. As a result, a handsome Governor of Oklahoma who ran on restoring honor to the White House won an election that nobody thought the Republicans could win a year beforehand.
2013- (Steve Largent/John Kasich)
POD: Reagan Decides not to run in 1980
1977-1981 (Jimmy Carter)
1981-1989 (George H.W. Bush/Bob Dole)
- George H.W. Bush manages to beat Bob Dole in a closely fought Republican primary and is forced to select him as a Vice President. He beats Carter for many of the same reasons that Reagan did (Iran Hostages, Stagflation). The economy rebounds so he beats a John Glenn/Gary Hart ticket by a solid margin, but by no means an OTL 1984 landslide. A cooling economy plus leaks about the Iran-Contra affair led to an anti-Republican mood in 1988 and the ticket of Joe Biden/Al Gore wins 320-218 victory over the Dole/du Pont ticket.
1989-1997 (Joe Biden/Al Gore)
- Joe Biden is seen by many as the greatest president of the 20th century. Under his first term, the Soviet Union collapsed while the UN intervention in Iraq managed to remove Saddam Hussein from power. On the economic front, he was able to pass the Free Trade Agreement with Canada which many considered responsible for the economic growth of the 1990s and he was able to establish a public option for American healthcare. His landslide victory over the Donald Rumsfeld/Dan Quayle ticket discredited the hard right within the Republican Party for a generation.
1997-2001 (Al Gore/Douglas Wilder)
- Al Gore is seen by many as being at the wrong place at the wrong time. He fought off an aggressive challenge from the George W. Bush/Lamar Alexander ticket, losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college. However, that electoral victory was a poisoned chalice. The 5/15 bombings in 1998 resulted in 2,000 fatalities as 7 transcontinental flights were blown up over the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans and the Dot Com bubble of the late 1990s burst were the two events that made the Gore presidency a one-term one. Many Americans blamed the Gore administration for ignoring the threat of Islamic terrorism and for encouraging the Dot Com boom. In 2000, he lost to the John McCain/Elizabeth Dole ticket after Americans wanted a more aggressive foreign policy.
2001-2009 (John McCain/Elizabeth Dole)
- The McCain administration is characterized by a combination of successes in foreign policy and missed opportunities in domestic policy. In his first term, he managed to capture Osama Bin Laden after the Gore administration failed to capture him under his watch. In his second term, pro-democracy movements swept the middle east removing many of America's most hated dicatators from power; most notably Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Islamic Government of Iran. However, his domestic policies would be much more questionable. His decision to deregulate the American financial sector led to the 2008 Economic crisis which led to the Republican ticket having the worst performance since Goldwater. As well, social Conservatives in the Republican Party were enraged over his appointment of the moderate Edith Brown Clement as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after Rehnquist's death.
2009-2013 (John Edwards/Evan Bayh)
- In the aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, the John Edwards/Evan Bayh ticket set out making sweeping reforms to the American financial sector. To some extent they were successful in that the Economy in 2015 is better than in OTL. On the foreign policy front, the election of a Communist Government in Russia caused many to question if we were heading back to the ways of the Cold War. However, the Edwards administration would be best remembered for two events regarding the president's personal life. The first was the loss of his wife Elizabeth in 2010 to cancer. This means that he was seen as unbeatable heading into the 2012 election However, the second is what he would become more infamous for. In August 2012, the New York times found out that he had impregnated a 23-year old intern. Further investigation discovered that Edwards had carried on multiple affairs throughout his presidency, including some while Elizabeth was alive. As a result, a handsome Governor of Oklahoma who ran on restoring honor to the White House won an election that nobody thought the Republicans could win a year beforehand.
2013- (Steve Largent/John Kasich)
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Modify this, have Nixon choose Bush as his VP instead of Ford, and then have Bob Dole be the President from 1981-1989 adding an extra president.
Not a bad idea. In fact, I may make the Edwards scandal earlier to make a total of nine. Also tried to have as many living Vice Presidents as possible.
1974-1977 (George H.W Bush/Nelson Rockefeller)
1977-1981 (Fred Harris/Birch Bayh)
1981-1989 (Bob Dole/Dick Cheney)
1989-1997 (Joe Biden/Al Gore)
1997-2001 (Al Gore/Douglas Wilder)
2001-2009 (John McCain/Elizabeth Dole)
2009-2012 (John Edwards/Evan Bayh)
2012-2013 (Evan Bayh/John Kerry)
2013- (Steve Largent/John Kasich)
Nope. Never got sworn-in. Never invoked the 25th. Wasn't president any more than Edith Wilson was, and has far less claim to the role than Dick Cheney.
The only acting president who could legitimately call himself President of the United States was George H.W. Bush, and only because he actually was elected president later on.
GeographyDude
Gone Fishin'
A case can be made that Al Haig was the steadying influence even on foreign policy and, especially since Dick Nixon was never all that interested in domestic policy, a case that Al had even more than a 50% role there. And for a number of months at that.
And a weaker case for the troika of James Baker, Ed Meese, Mike Deaver while President Reagan was recuperating in the hospital following the assassination attempt.
Whatever the wording of the 25th Amendment, the couple of times or maybe the handful of times (?) it's actually been needed, it hasn't exactly worked out that way.
And a weaker case for the troika of James Baker, Ed Meese, Mike Deaver while President Reagan was recuperating in the hospital following the assassination attempt.
Whatever the wording of the 25th Amendment, the couple of times or maybe the handful of times (?) it's actually been needed, it hasn't exactly worked out that way.