As everyone has probably noticed, I've never bothered creating articles for the POTUS elections for '44, '48, and '52 as depicted in the story "Joe Steele". The primary reason is that "Steele" ran unopposed in all three of those elections, so there isn't the usual frills of discussing campaign issues, etc.
However, since we have subsequently altered our formatting to inclue OTL comparisons, I am rethinking that position. There are some useful things to be said about each election in the context of that TL's history (especially '44, the first time a POTUS went unopposed since 1820).
- Fun fact: Both Presidents who ran unopposed were veterans of the Delaware crossing on Christmas of '76. No other veterans of that action were ever elected President. Turtle Fan 19:53, July 27, 2011 (UTC)
It also occured to me that it might be nice to have at least one article for a 1950s election, however tenuous. TR 21:14, July 25, 2011 (UTC)
- Yeah, I'll go along with that. Turtle Fan 19:53, July 27, 2011 (UTC)
- Donut. (Incidentally, did we ever get into the double entendre value of "donut" and "bump"?) TR 16:04, July 27, 2011 (UTC)
- Don't believe so. Turtle Fan 19:53, July 27, 2011 (UTC)
- Hmm, what a lost opportunity.
Getting back to topic: having finished the 1952 article up, I have to say, having the JS "Steele won" contrasted with the OTL summary really puts into stark terms just how scary a dictatorship like Steele's actually is. TR 21:07, July 28, 2011 (UTC)
- I always thought it was weird how such a teddy-bear old man in real life like Nance Garner tried to be Bolshevik-style ruthless in this story.
- I'll give Garner the benefit of the doubt and suggest that he realized in order to restore democracy, he needed to remove the last bits of Steele's reign.
- Also, regarding the '52 article - I don't recall the two losers to Hoover being arrested and shot. I had the impression they all sent gun men on each other, and Hoover survived his hit while managing to kill Molotov and Garner at the same time. Jelay14 03:15, July 29, 2011 (UTC)
- Could be. I might pop by the library and review. TR 15:06, July 29, 2011 (UTC)
All these years later[]
I don't know why I decided to look at the old forum posts. Obviously, the decision to include the elections of '44, '48, and '52 were justified by HT's decision to write the novel. TR (talk) 17:50, September 6, 2016 (UTC)