POPULAR HISTORICAL QUESTIONS BEARING ON THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENCY
What would have been the result:
- if King George III of England had been a more benevolent sovereign and the American colonies had not revolted?
- if George Washington had sought political power rather than returning to his home at Mount Vernon after victory in the Revolutionary War against England?
- if Thomas Jefferson had not championed religious tolerance and freedom of worship?
- if Alexander Hamilton had refused to duel with Aaron Burr?
- if the North and South had reconciled and slavery had been abolished without civil war?
- if Abraham Lincoln-the most religiously discerning of American presidents-had not been assassinated and had lived on to direct Reconstruction?
- if Lincoln's successor, President Andrew Johnson, had been a wiser and more competent religionist, less ideological in his oratory?
- if Woodrow Wilson had thought in less absolutist religious terms as he sought to lead the United States into membership in the League of Nations and "make the world safe for democracy"?
- if Wilson's plans for lasting international peace had been accepted by the United States Senate?
- if Franklin Roosevelt had been assassinated (as he nearly was in Miami) before he took office?
- if Franklin Roosevelt had not initiated the New Deal and championed religious freedom worldwide?
- if Henry Wallace, rather than Harry Truman, had been Franklin Roosevelt's successor?
- if John F. Kennedy had not been assassinated? Could he have brought positive social and religious insights from Catholicism to the national ethos in the era of the Second Vatican Council?
- if Richard Nixon (truly affirming his Quaker heritage) had not collapsed morally in Watergate?
- if Ronald Reagan (inspired by his belief that God stands on the side of freedom) had failed to seize the opportunity to negotiate with Gorbachev and end the cold war?
- if George H. W. Bush had ordered American troops to go on to Baghdad during the first invasion of Iraq?
- if Bill Clinton had been more faithful to the teachings of his own Southern Baptist Church and not committed perjury in Monicagate? Or if he had resigned in repentance?
- if Hillary Clinton had divorced her husband because of his infidelities? If she had more successfully organized her political campaign for the presidency in 2008?
- if George W. Bush had followed the advice of both the pope and the bishops of his own denomination (Methodist) and had not ordered the invasion of Iran?
- if Barack Obama had not converted to Christianity?
