Convention Interlude Number Two
Backstage at the Chicago Coliseum
11:37 am, June 19th, 1912
Warren Harding crossed the hot backstage of the Coliseum, eager to find someplace where he could get a decent lunch and perhaps a nice tumbler of scotch. He sighed; the speech had gone as well as could be expected, given the current environment in the hall. There had been a rather nasty fist fight inside the California delegation about a third of the way through his speech. He gave a rueful sigh, somehow that felt a fitting metaphor for the whole convention. It was like a fist fight, this election, bare-knuckled, bitter brawling and it was all the fault of that egotistical so-and-so. While he had supported Roosevelt before, he couldn’t bear to see one man tearing an entire party apart to indulge a petty personal feud. He was about to head down the stairs at the back of the stage to collect the cigar he knew Harry was saving for him when another man smacked into him, shouldering him aside. Almost instantly Harding realized that he would have to cancel his lunch plans as he watched Theodore Roosevelt stride purposefully towards the podium.
Section 52 of the Chicago Coliseum
11:38 am, June 19th, 1912
Frank Rossner (Rosenblum, really, but his parents, bless them, had changed it on the way over), was seriously considering smacking the man to his left. The fat little man with the porkpie hat and the tiny wire-rimmed glasses had first admonished him for rolling a cigarette, and had then swatted it out of his hand. It was good tobacco too, a Turkish blend he had bought specially for the convention. But he had refrained, especially after receiving an icy glare from the fat man’s ostensible wife, a woman who looked disposed to run him through with one of her hatpins. He redirected his attention to the stage. The last man had given a good speech for Taft, although Frank was more of a Roosevelt man himself. He ran a hand through his black hair and yawned, the boiling heat beginning to get to him. Suddenly, the curtains parted and there stood Theodore Roosevelt himself. The Coliseum resounded with the cheers of his supporters and the gasps of the pro-Taft crowd. Frank jumped to his feet and cheered wildly as the hero of San Juan Hill made his way to the podium. “My friends,” he began, as a tense hush fell over the crowd, “I have come to take my name out of contention for the Republican nomination.” The entire crowd, regardless of their feelings towards Roosevelt, gasped. “It has become apparent that certain factions in this party have conspired to obstruct the will of the electorate,” he continued, “and since this party does not wish to acknowledge the will of the people, the people will create their own party!” The Coliseum exploded in a deafening mixture of boos and cheers. Most of the rest of Roosevelt’s speech was inaudible over the rapidly growing chaos of the hall, but then suddenly all of Roosevelt’s supporters were streaming for the doors. Turning to leave, he looked straight at the now horrified couple, rolled himself a cigarette and blew a perfect smoke ring in the fat man’s face. Then he turned on his heel and dashed forward into the crush of people exiting the building and tumbling into the street, the air of a new, Progressive, dawn filling their lungs.
Sorry for the lack of promised updates, life stuff interfered. Mainly the final revisions on that Warren Harding paper (he was a BAMF, just as an FYI :wub
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@NikePhoros: I didn't say Roosevelt would win, I just said Taft would lose. And you should do something like that, maybe Taft until 1916 replaced by some sort of Progressive Republican like Hiram Johnson or by a Prog/Dem coalition with some sort of Progressive Dem President/Conservative-Southern Dem Veep (Carter Glass?)
@Milites: I don't see Roosevelt or La Follette as being good coalition partners, they were both headstrong and stubborn. Plus, La Follette was a bit paranoid and IIRC he and Roosevelt already hated each other by 1912.
Best thing about that quote? It's one hundred percent real, just changed the context.
@Agent Larkin, HistoryBuff and Kurty: We'll see, I'll say this much: it's between Roosevelt and Wilson.