Best President you never had

[mongers]

Maj. Denis Healey

Indeed.

[Kleves]

W.T. Sherman
TR in 1912

[The Minsky Moment]

Hubert Humphrey.

Two big republican names not yet mentioned: Seward and Dole.
EDIT: and Wendell Willkie.

[CountDeMoney]

Two big republican names not yet mentioned: Seward and Dole.

PAY MOR ATTENTION 

[The Minsky Moment]

Two big republican names not yet mentioned: Seward and Dole.

PAY MOR ATTENTION 

ELIZABETH Dole 

[CountDeMoney]

Touche'. 

[crazy canuck]

Preston Manning.

I think that is true.  But at the time he had a real shot at power he had too many MPs who were complete wack jobs and so while he was a compelling leader his cabinet would have been pretty scary.

[MadImmortalMan]

Willkie is an interesting choice.


Maybe William H. Harrison. I mean technically, he was President for a bit, but still.

[Gups]

Maj. Denis Healey

Really?  No love for Kinnock?

I like Kinnock a lot. He was absolutely necessary to bring the Labour party back to electability and in fact I don't think anyone else could have done it. He also had a sense of humour, could take his drink and didn't mind getting in a ruck.

But he would have been a pretty shit PM IMO.

[Valmy]

Maybe William H. Harrison. I mean technically, he was President for a bit, but still.

Well he did pick John Tyler for VP.  That doesn't bode well.

[The Brain]

No idea. We don't remember losers in Sweden.

[Syt]

No idea. We don't remember losers in Sweden.

SO that's why Swedish history is such an obscure subject.

[Neil]

Preston Manning.

I think that is true.  But at the time he had a real shot at power he had too many MPs who were complete wack jobs and so while he was a compelling leader his cabinet would have been pretty scary.

I agree with you.  The very top of Reform was pretty good, but as you went down the hill, you rant into some people who would be doing the Tea Party thing if they were American.  The unification provided them with some depth, especially in Eastern Canada.

[The Brain]

No idea. We don't remember losers in Sweden.

SO that's why Swedish history is such an obscure subject.

We're too manly to care about history.

[Barrister]

Preston Manning.

I think that is true.  But at the time he had a real shot at power he had too many MPs who were complete wack jobs and so while he was a compelling leader his cabinet would have been pretty scary.

Disagree.

Now in '93 Reform would have been a disaster as a government.  Even in '97.

But when the Canadian Alliance was formed, Manning ran for leader.  He was defeated by Stockwell Day (who to my eternal shame I supported over Manning).  Day of course did disastrously as leader, but by 2000 many of the wingnuts were gone and there would have been a strong cabinet in a Manning-led government.

Another interesting historical "what if" would have been Robert Stanfield.  While I think he'd have been an improvement over Trudeau, I suspect his government would have been fairly ineffective, and thus not the "best PM we never had".