CLEP US History II

Answer: E - William Howard Taft was miserable during his presidency but experienced a moderate amount of executive success before facing his predecessor and eventual successor (Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, respectively) during his reelection campaign. Taft was hurt by Roosevelt’s entry into the race; Roosevelt had handpicked Taft as his successor four years earlier but came to view Taft as “too weak.” Taft and Roosevelt split the Republican base (though Roosevelt ran on the Progressive Party ticket), paving the way for Democrat Woodrow Wilson to win the White House. (Note: Taft is best remembered for being the robust president who got stuck in a White House bathtub. After his presidency, he was named Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, which was the federal job he truly wanted all along. His dream job agreed with him so well that he slimmed down considerably in his final years.)