1952: The Democratic ticket is Sid McMath/Adlai Stevenson

[Blow by blow, the passion dies]

Would McMath do better or worse than his VP in OTL?

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

Would McMath do better or worse than his VP in OTL?

About the same.  The 1952 election was a combination of Democrat Fatigue and Liking Ike a LOT.  Eisenhower was the most genuinely heroic nominee for President in the 20th century.  He was the military leader of the Allies.  How big is that?  He was well-liked and he was very non-controversial.  He won the Great War.  I don't know if either party could find anyone with the kind of National stature that Eisenhower enjoyed in 1952.  People liked Ike, and for sound reasons that they could articulate.

[Fuzzy Bear Loves Christian Missionaries]

McMath lost his primary in 1952.

McMath was part of the GI revolt in Arkansas where GIs back from the war ran from all sort of offices and unseated lots of old courthouse pols.  McMath was a progressive in Arkansas politics, anti-Dixiecrat and in line with Brooks Hays and Bill Fulbright moreso than Gov. Laney (who waffled on the issue of the Dixiecrats) and Sen. John McClellan (a conservative Democrat). 

McMath is a forgotten figure, but he is considered by many to be the greatest Governor of Arkansas, along with Winthrop Rockefeller, two (2) Governors of Arkansas that actually had MORAL courage.  He still would have been a nobody to Eisenhower's World Class Credentials.  1952 was a non-partisan election in many ways because of Eisenhower.