U.S. presidential election, 1928

[Virginian87]

If this was 1928, no one would have wanted a Tammany Wet Catholic for President.

Good call.  Terrible, terrible candidate. 

[opebo]

If this was 1928, no one would have wanted a Tammany Wet Catholic for President.

Good call.  Terrible, terrible candidate. 

Just because the boobs alive in 1928 wouldn't have liked the candidates doesn't mean we can't, PBrunsel.  I would, as would any enlightened person, have voted for the 'wet' candidate, regardless of any other issues. 

As for the corruption, that is not very harmful, and the Republicans were easily as corrupt as Tammany anyway.  And generally Tammany-style patronage had a mild redistributionist effect, and certainly had a good Keynesian effect. 

[minionofmidas]

Nobody wanted one? He polled awfully well for that...
Either Dem on alcohol, or ACLU founder member, Norman Thomas (Socialist). Sorta depends on the state.

[Gustaf]

Smith, out of distaste for Republican corruption, distaste for the anti-Catholicism and dismay at the death of Progressive republicanism.

What Republican corruption? You talking about the deceased halfwit, Harding?

Hoover was a "progressive," by all means.

Mostly the Tea Pot Dome, or whatever it was called, yes. But considering how the GOP won the 1924 election despite it I would have wanted them punished, I think. And I don't believe Hoover was a progressive (you might view him as too leftist, yes, but the Progressive Republicans were pretty much over by 1928). I would probably have voted for Bob LaFolette in 1924 and been a Roosevelt supporter back in his days, so I would have been displeased with the rooting out of Progressive Republicans.

[Gustaf]

Hoover actually had a lot of accomplished. They were just all bad.

Black Tuesday, of course, was not the "cause" of the Great Depression.

What do you mean by that? I thought the disappearance of the somewha artificial wealth based on over-priced stocks was what triggered fall in investments, consumption, etc and then harmed over-producing farmers and the like, as demand collapsed.

[ag]

Two very decent candidates. I, probably, would have chosen that year to defect from Reps to Dems (mainly cultural appeal here: New York City urban ethnic wet running against an openly racist campaign - a report of a single KKK cross burning, would, probably, be enough to determine my vote).  Both were moderate progressives. Smith's later opposition to New Deal arose, mostly, of his jelousy of his former Leutenant Governor, FDR, who, as he correctly realized, got to the Presidency, in part, because he was a WASP, whereas Smith wasn't. Both were highly qualified - it would, perhaps, be impossible to find a pair with better executive (and, in Smith's case, also legislative) cv. Both, probably, would be identically powerless at the start of the depression.

[Dave from Michigan]

Hoover