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\nThe 29th Presidential election in American history took place on November 6, 1900, exactly 81 years before my birthday. Oh boy, we got ourselves another re-match! During William McKinley's first term, the United States by many accounts...\nThe 29th Presidential election in American history took place on November 6, 1900, exactly 81 years before my birthday. Oh boy, we got ourselves another re-match! During William McKinley's first term, the United States by many accounts became much stronger. The economy was back to being awesome, and the country had joined the \"Imperial Club.\" That's right, America was now officially imperialist country, thanks to becoming involved in the Spanish-American War. The United States easily defeated Spain, gaining its colonies Puerto Rico, Guam, the Philippines, and even Cuba for a little while. Sure, there were some shady sides to this war and its aftermath, like the Philippine-American War, which raged on. But Americans were feeling pretty darn good about themselves overall. The war represented American entry into world affairs, actually acting out what the Monroe Doctrine promised 75 years prior. Since then, the United States has had a pretty consistent role in policing various conflicts all over the world. Anyway, so McKinley was popular and easily renominated. However, his Vice President, Garret Hobart, had passed away, and McKinley needed a replacement to run with him. One name floating around was New York governor Theodore Roosevelt. He was the former Assistant Secretary of the Navy under McKinley, and a somewhat reckless war hero of the Spanish American War. Thomas C. Platt, the New York State Republican Party boss, hated Roosevelt and wanted him out of the state, so he pressured McKinley to agree to let him to be his running mate. Although Roosevelt wasn't too excited about the possibility of becoming Vice President, he accepted the nomination anyway. Early on, the Democrats were leaning toward nominating another Spanish American War hero, George Dewey, who was the Admiral of the Navy and from Vermont. Dewey made a fool out of himself, however, so that ultimately opened the door again to William Jennings Bryan, who still had a large force of passionate supporters. Adlai Stevenson was his running mate. Stevenson was the first former Vice President to win re-nomination for that position with a different presidential candidate. So it was another battle of the Williams! But let's not forget third party candidates. By this time, the Populist Party, or People's Party, had splintered. The faction known as the \"Fusion\" Populists again supported William Jennings Bryan for the nomination. But the \"Middle of the Road\" Populists nominated Wharton Barker, a publicist and investor from Pennsylvania, with Ignatius Donnelly, a former U.S. Representative from Minnesota and amateur scientist, as his running mate. The Prohibition Party was reunited and it felt so good. They nominated John Woolley, a lawyer, reformed alcoholic, and public speaker originally from Ohio. Henry Metcalf, a businessman from Boston, was Woolley's running mate. There were several other third parties, but the only one I will mention here is the Social Democratic Party, a new political party that began after a large group of people left the Socialist Labor Party. At their first convention in Indianapolis, they nominated Indiana native Eugene Debs as their candidate, who was famously known as a national union leader and one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World. Eugene Debs. Yep, get used to hearing that name in future episodes. The Social Democratic party nominated Job Harriman, a minister also from Indiana, as Debs' running mate. Again, it was a battle of the Williams, and this election was quite similar to the 1896 election, except this time the economy was in MUCH better shape, so Bryan's call for Free Silver did not gain as much traction. Also, this time around Bryan vocally attacked McKinley's imperialist foreign policy. While Bryan had supported the original war, he was against the continual occupation of the Philippines, saying McKinley had just replaced a bad Spanish tyranny with a bad American one. Just like last time, Bryan traveled across the country giving many many speeches, but Theodore Roosevelt also did the same. Roosevelt was young like Bryan, and had a lot of the same energy. He would end up being an important force to reckon with in this election.\n
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\n\nMr. Beat\n\n
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