What would it have looked like if modern media reported on key events in presidential history? In this 6 minute video from Mike Purdy's Presidential History News, he reports "live" on the surprising election returns from the 1916 presidential election. www.PresidentialHistory.com.

1. http://www.PresidentialHistory.com

2. Presidential History News
• Late breaking election
returns from the 1916
presidential election
interrupts this “live” TV
newscast of the close
race for the White
House between
incumbent Woodrow
Wilson and challenger
Charles Evans
Hughes.
Woodrow Wilson
Charles Evans Hugheshttp://www.PresidentialHistory.com

3. Presidential History News
Based on Historical Facts
• Everything in this 6 minute is based on historical facts:
– Wilson and Hughes both went to bed on election night, November
7, 1916 thinking that Hughes had won the Presidency
– Hughes was not known as the most warm personality (“bearded
iceberg” is Theodore Roosevelt’s words)
– Wilson did have a scheme in which he contemplated resigning
before March 4, 1917. His plan was to appoint Hughes as
Secretary of State. Wilson and his vice president, Thomas
Marshall, would both then resign. According to the order of
succession in place then, Hughes would immediately become
President.
– Late returns from California pushed Wilson over the top in that
state that he won by less than 4,000 votes. With California, Wilson
had enough electoral votes for a second term in the White House.
– Hughes’ aide at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City where
Hughes was staying did have the interchange enacted in the
video. At the least, this is a strong apocryphal story.
http://www.PresidentialHistory.com

4. http://www.PresidentialHistory.com