AHC: President (Ernest) King

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

Eisenhower made president. We have had threads discussing Patton and MacArthur being president.

Could King, the head of the Navy, have ever gotten elected president? Did he have any political ambitions?

I will admit that this was sparked by misunderstanding the MLK as president thread, but this should be a reasonable possibility, too. Actually more likely IMO than MLK, but I could be wrong.

 

[DD951]

I'd say that it was fairly unlikely, as in addition to having a rather abrasive personality not well suited for politics, he wasn't the biggest fan of politicians or democracy in general- according to the Genocide's article on him, his Naval War College thesis was about representative democracy being a source of weakness, including a passage expressing contempt for politicians and the electorate as basically being too dumb, arrogant, self-centered, and shortsighted to understand the causes & effects of events let alone form a coherent long-term strategy in either domestic or foreign policy.

Probably not someone who'd be interested in running for office, nor someone who really has any business being president in a democratic society if his policies & actions would reflect those beliefs at all.

However, some major butterflies would be needed just to get King in a position to be able to run for office if he wanted to- he had a debilitating stroke in 1947, which could very well prevent him from going into politics unless said butterflies have him retire considerably earlier, significantly change when TTL’s WW2 occurs, or improve his health.

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

I'd say that it was fairly unlikely, as in addition to having a rather abrasive personality not well suited for politics, he wasn't the biggest fan of politicians or democracy in general- according to the Genocide's article on him, his Naval War College thesis was about representative democracy being a source of weakness, including a passage expressing contempt for politicians and the electorate as basically being too dumb, arrogant, self-centered, and shortsighted to understand the causes & effects of events let alone form a coherent long-term strategy in either domestic or foreign policy.

Probably not someone who'd be interested in running for office, nor someone who really has any business being president in a democratic society if his policies & actions would reflect those beliefs at all.

However, some major butterflies would be needed just to get King in a position to be able to run for office if he wanted to- he had a debilitating stroke in 1947, which could very well prevent him from going into politics unless said butterflies have him retire considerably earlier, significantly change when TTL’s WW2 occurs, or improve his health.

Wow. Thank you. I didnt know most of that.