Senate Leaders as President

[True Democrat]

Note: This alternate election timeline is adapted from an idea by TommyC1776 found in this thread.

This timeline begins with the 1952 election, however a couple of things are different from beforehand:

Truman didn't pick Alben Barkley for VP at the 1948 convention.  He instead chose Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson (who resigns after he accepts the nomination), an unlikely choice.  The results of the election are very similar, with Truman still winning.  Barkley is currently Senate Majority Leader.

The 22nd amendment has not as yet been ratified as of the 1952 presidential election season.  A number of states have ratified, but it has not yet reached three fourths of hte number of states.

Robert Taft is currently Senate Minority Leader, winning a close vote over Kenneth S. Wherry after the 1950 midterm elections.

Those are all the changes.  Here starts the timeline:

At the Republican convention in Chicago, most experts believe that going into the convention it is tied neck and neck between Eisenhower and Taft.  Eisenhower and his campaign associates, in an effort to steal away Taft delegates (mostly from the South) put forward a motion to enact "Fair Play."  In a very close vote, it is rejected 616-590.  This enables Taft to keep many of his delegates.

On the first ballot, neither Eisenhower nor Taft can get a majority:
(604 votes needed to win):
Taft: 561
Eisenhower: 534
Warren: 81
Stassen: 20
MacArthur: 10

After the first ballot, MacArthur drops out and endorses Taft over resentment from not being able to capitalize on his time as general like Eisenhower.  Stassen refuses to drop out, which hurts Eisenhower.  Finnally, Taft makes a surprising deal with Warren.  Taft agrees to once again make Warren the VP candidate if he asks his delegates to vote for him.  This strategy works, and on Taft wins the nomination on the second ballot:
Taft: 627
Eisenhower: 565
Stassen: 14

[True Democrat]

For the Republican VP spot, Warren is once again placed as VP on the ticket.

A few weeks later, the Democrats also meet at Chicago.  The main contenders are:

Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson
Georgia Senator Richard B. Russell
Tennesse Senator Estes Kefauver
Ambassador Averell Harriman

Vice President Vinson decides not to run, hoping to return to the Supreme Court.

The first ballot looks like this:
Kefauver: 340
Stevenson: 273
Russell: 268
Harriman: 123.5
Kerr: 65
Barkley: 48.5
Dever: 37.5
Humphrey: 26
Fulbright: 22
Others: 26.5

Needed to win: 616

On the second ballot, most of the favorite sons drop out, leaving a close race between Stevenson, Kefauver, and Russell.  Barkley also surprisingly gets a lot more votes:

Kefauver: 371
Stevenson: 299.5
Russell: 298.5
Harriman: 111
Barkley: 82
Others: 68

Harriman drops out after this ballot, but makes no endorsement.  Stevenson was hoping to get his endorsement, but Harriman decided against picking sides.  Many of his delegates end up flowing to Barkley, who is emerging as a compromise candidate.  Stevenson comes close to winning on this ballot, but cannot get victory quite yet.  The third ballot:

Stevenson: 512
Kefauver: 403
Barkley: 138
Russell: 132
Others: 45

The fourth ballot sees Russell drop out and Barkley rise even further.  The infighting between Stevenson and Kefauver has now reached such a peak that Truman hopes to intervene to stop the party from dividing.  The fourth ballot shows what is essentially a three way tie:

Stevenson: 451.5
Kefauver: 370
Barkley: 349.5
Others: 59

Truman now intervenes.  He gets Harriman, Russell, and Humphrey to endorse Barkley so that a compromise between the different sides of the party can be formed.  With this new support and Stevenson sinking fast, Barkely is able to claim victory on the fifth ballot (at least after switches occur):

Candidate: Vote (Votes after switches)
Barkley: 600.5 (711.5)
Kefauver: 305.5 (261.5)
Stevenson: 289 (239)
Others: 35 (18)

Alben Barkley, the liberal Majority Leader of Congress, has emerged as a compromise candidate to win the Democratic nomination at the age of 75.

For Vice President, Barkley chooses liberal ally and popular Kefauver, who faces minimal competition and easily wins the first ballot.

The first post convention polls show the following:
Taft/Warren: 56%
Barkley/Kefauver: 40%
Other/Undecided: 4%

With an unpopular war raging in Korea, Taft is easily ahead.  Barkley knows his only chance is for winning is to break with extremely unpopular Truman.  In mid-October, Barkley breaks with Truman on the war.  Although he loses the support of some Democrats, he more than makes up for this in gains from independents and Republicans.  A poll after this speech:

Taft/Warren: 50%
Barkley/Kefauver: 44%
Other/Undecided: 6%

Barkley then goes on a successful speaking tour attacking Taft for his isolationist views.  Furthermore, he shows Taft's willingness to repeal much of the New Deal.  Taft attempts to fight back, but inconsistent statements with VP candidate Warren severely hurt his credibility.  The final poll a week before the election:

Taft/Warren: 49%
Barkley/Kefauver: 47%
Other/Undecided: 4%

With Barkley's numbers rising fast, some predict that he can win.  However, the majority of pundits think Taft can hold onto victory on election day.

As the returns come in on election, it is evident it is going to be a very close election.  Taft is getting much more support in the South compared to past Republicans.  However, Barkley is doing very well in the Northeast.  Although the election is not decided by New York, Barkley wins it an extremely close race by only 0.299%, or 21,406 votes.  In the end, Barkley wins the electoral college by a fairly wide margin (although a number of close wins in big states actually make it close than it looks).  The popular vote is also close:


Barkley/Kefauver: 31,123,398 votes (50.40%), 316 electoral votes
Taft/Warren: 30,327,221 votes (49.11%), 215 electoral votes
Others: 301,323 votes (0.49%), 0 electoral votes

[True Democrat]

The Congressional elections for 1952 look like this:

Senate:
Democrats: 49 (+0)
Republicans: 46 (-1)
Independents: 1 (caucuses with Democrats)

House:
Democrats: 225 (-10)
Republicans: 215 (+10)
Independents: 1 (+0)

Barkley's first term progresses with his campaign promises.  He gets the US out of Korea by the end of 1953, with a ceasefire (just like in OTL).

Replacing Barkley as Senate Majority Leader is Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas.  The Republican leader in the Senate is still Robert Taft, but his death on August 4th puts William F. Knowland in that job.

Note: The way I'm going to run this timeline is by alternating between the past the present (going backwards) and having them meet (hopefully successfully) somewhere in the middle.