If US Presidents were poker cards which of the last five would you have traded in? That's for fun, but the death of former Senate Majority leader Howard Baker made me start wondering which of the four Presidents he could have served in place of might have been best for the country. He could not have served in place of Nixon. After the debacles of Benjamin Harrison and Warren G. Harding the Republicans learned that first-term Senators are a poor choice. (I wonder if Democrats are getting that now.) He would have been a better Vice Presidential choice in 1968 than Spiro Agnew. If Nixon had won that election more easily he might not have tapped the Watergate building in 1972 and completed his second term, making Baker the obvious choice in 1976. He surely would have done better than Gerald Ford and probably would have beaten Carter in 1976. (In that scenario he would not have been eligible in 1980.) If he lost to Carter anyway he would have been more useful than Ford in the years since. If Ford had not run in 1976 he might have gotten that election. Reagan was considered a little too conservative that year and other prospects might have watered the primaries down. Surely he would have done better than Carter, though the economy was bound to slump in the late 70s under any President. It almost certainly would not have been Carter beating him in 1980. Mondale, Jerry Brown and Frank Church would have been top prospects. If he got a second term we would have missed Carter and Reagan. 20 straight years of Republican Presidents would have set the country on a clear course at least. He tried for the White House in 1980. If he had won he could have done everything Reagan did without the medical problems and directed the party wisely ever since. He surely would have had an easier time than George H.W. Bush running for a second term, because he would not have promised no new taxes and would have delivered a more reasonable tax package when he raised them. Of all the words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: It might have been.
