Three Strikes and You're Out!

Theodore Roosevelt was very popular and well like heading into the election year of 1908, but had made it clear he would not run again. Hand picking his successor, Roosevelt decided William Howard Taft was the best man to take his place and continue his policies. Taft had been Secretary of War and also territorial governor of the Philippines. Opposing Taft in the election was none other than William Jennings Bryan, trying for the third time to capture the White House, and like the previous two times, he would find success hard to come by. With Roosevelt's backing, Taft won fairly easy, carrying all the north and almost the entire Midwest. For Bryan, this would prove the last time he ran for president, although he considered a run in 1920. Bryan went on to serve in Woodrow Wilson's administration and became famous for arguing in the Scopes Monkey Trial in the early 1920's, dying shortly after the verdict was announced. Taft and his running mate, James Sherman, took office in March of 1909, and Roosevelt left soon to travel the world. Taft's presidency was fairly controversial, as he alienated conservatives and progressives like Teddy Roosevelt. Taft was a strict believer in the judicial system, and never attacked business in public the way Roosevelt had. When Roosevelt returned from his safari, he discovered Taft had backed off of some of his policies, and by the time the 1912 election rolled around, Roosevelt had formed his own party to oppose Taft. Most Bryan items from this election are common, unless it's a jugate button of larger sizes or some 3-D items and posters, which can be more rare. The easiest way to tell which election a Bryan item is from is his age and the VP candidate on jugate items. He ran with three different VP candidates, Sewall, Stevenson, and Kern, so knowing this can help you identify which campaign the item belongs to. As for Taft items, many single picture buttons can be found for less than $20, with some larger and more colorful jugates being very expensive, and any 3-D items or posters can be considered scarce. Some of the items shown here are a few common Taft buttons, a Taft postcard, a Taft poster, a Taft cigar band from his pre-presidential days, and a couple Bryan postcards from 1908. The only item shown that would be considered rare or scarce is the Taft/Sherman poster, since paper items from over 100 years ago are hard to find in good shape.