[metsgeek]

The conventions are over. The candidates have been named. Now is the time to decide. Please vote to decide who will succeed William Jennings Bryan as President of the United States.

Here's a bit of presidential history since the onset of the Haemorrhagic Flu:

• April 4, 1892 - President Benjamin Harrison succumbs to the flu, dying in office 51 years to the day after his grandfather, William Henry Harrison, died of pneumonia in office.
• April 5, 1892 - Vice President Levi P. Morton is sworn in as the 24th President of the United States
• March - July 1892 - Haemorrhagic Flu sweeps across the country. 43 members of Congress die during this period. Another 18 are afflicted, but survive in a weakened state.
• June 25, 1892 - President Morton declares martial law, suspending the upcoming elections and dismissing Congress "until further notice"
• Winter 1892 - Food Riots break out in New York City, Boston, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Baltimore. Death tolls are estimated at 8,000
• March 1893 - President Morton closes the borders to all "unnecessary individuals", beginning a 2 year period of severe isolation from the rest of the world.
• 1893-1895 - Rationing is instituted. The United States enters a period of deep economic depression. Urban populations decrease as many families begin a vast movement to rural areas. The populations of Nevada, Montana, Utah, California, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico nearly double.
• August 1895 - A council of international health organizations officially announces that adult cases have drastically reduced to less than 1 in 1000. Though children are still at risk, it is believed that humanity has naturally gained defenses against the pandemic.
• December 12, 1895 - President Morton rescinds martial law.
• January 14, 1896 - Congress convenes for its first full session in over 3 years.
• February 5, 1896 - President Morton announces that elections will resume this fall. Candidates immediately come out of the woodwork.
• May 29, 1896 - William Jennings Bryan is chosen in a landslide at the 1896 Democratic National Convention over Grover Cleveland and Adlai Stevenson
• November 22, 1896 - William Jenning Bryan convincingly defeats President Morton to become 25th President of the United States .
• November 26, 1900 - President Bryan wins reelection handily over Republican challenger William McKinley

THE CANDIDATES

DEMOCRAT:
PRESIDENT: WILLIAM GOEBEL - Governor of Kentucky
VICE PRESIDENT: WOODROW WILSON - U.S. Senator from New Jersey



PLATFORM

• Pro-suffrage
• Pro Women's Rights/Civil Rights
• Pro-Union
• Staunch opponent of child labor. Favors complete outlaw of such practice.
• Somewhat isolationist, yet opposes the recent European conflict between Austria-Hungary and D.H.R.V. (see main thread for details)
• Favors universal education mandated by the federal government

REPUBLICAN:
PRESIDENT: MORGAN BULKELEY - Governor of Connecticut
VICE PRESIDENT: SAMUEL PENNYPACKER - Governor of Pennsylvania



PLATFORM

• Favors Big Business. Anti-Union
• Opposes Prohibition Laws
• Favors Suffrage
• Proponent of limiting labor for children under 12 to 4 hrs/day, 20 hrs/week
• Favors Neutrality in European Conflict
• Favors state-run education guidelines