Taft usually proved a less adroit politician than Roosevelt and lacked the energy and personal magnetism, not to mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable.

His family and supporters threw their support to Roosevelt's old military companion, General Leonard Wood, who was ultimately defeated by Taft supporter Warren G. Harding.

In 1912, Harding gave the nominating speech for incumbent President William Howard Taft, who would later serve as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court during Harding's administration, at the embattled Republican National Convention in Chicago — before he completed his introduction, a fist fight ensued between the Taft supporters and the more progressive Roosevelt faction, but the speech was quite a personal success.

But his devotion to the law also often made Taft a slave to precedent, and less adroit in politics than Roosevelt ; he therefore lacked the flexibility, creativity and personal magnetism of his mentor, not to mention the publicity devices, the dedicated supporters, and the broad base of public support that made Roosevelt so formidable.

Thus, with the support of convention chairman Elihu Root, Taft's supporters outvoted Roosevelt's men, and the convention renominated incumbents William Howard Taft and James S. Sherman, making Sherman the first sitting vice-president to be nominated for re-election since John C. Calhoun in 1828.

" A lackluster speaker who did not mix well or glad-hand supporters, nevertheless Taft was a tireless worker with a broad range of policy and political interests.

Daugherty and Burton aligned themselves with supporters of William Howard Taft, Secretary of War in the Presidential administration of progressive Republican Theodore Roosevelt, and together the factional allies forced Foraker out of the U. S. Senate and into political retirement, aided by muckraking news reports that Foraker had received nearly $ 30, 000 as a political retainer from the Standard Oil Trust.

He performed this service for about $ 2, 000 per year from early 1908 until 1912 when President William Howard Taft removed Masterson from the position during Taft's purge of Roosevelt supporters from government positions.

2008 < http :// www. wilderness. org / Library / Documents / upload / Carrizo % 20World % 20Heritage % 20Talking % 20Points. pdf ></ ref > This idea was greatly opposed by The Independent Petroleum Association and the residents of the nearby city of Taft, while supporters of nomination included the City of San Luis Obispo, the San Luis Obispo Chamber of Commerce, and the San Luis Obispo Chapter of the League of Women Voters.

Upon his entry into the Senate, Smith was assigned to the committees on the District of Columbia, Geological Survey, Public Land, Irrigation and Reclamation, Railroads The 62nd United States Congress was in its second session at the time of his entry and, with the 1912 U. S. Presidential election approaching, the new Senator found the Republican majority split between Roosevelt and Taft supporters.

Unlike Roosevelt, Taft never attacked business or businessmen in his rhetoric.

He further attacked the tariff policies of Republican President William H. Taft.

Rejecting the adversarial stance of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson, he sought to make the Commerce Department a powerful service organization, empowered to forge cooperative voluntary partnerships between government and business.

At the end of his second term, Roosevelt promoted his friend William Howard Taft for the 1908 Republican nomination.

Fairbanks withdrew from the race, and would later support Taft for re-election against Roosevelt in the 1912 election.

Roosevelt certified William Howard Taft to be a genuine " progressive " in 1908, when Roosevelt pushed through the nomination of his Secretary of War for the Presidency.

While the crisis was building inside the Party, Roosevelt was touring Africa and Europe, to allow Taft to be his own man.

The battle between William Howard Taft | Taft and Roosevelt bitterly split the Republican Party ; Taft's people dominated the party until 1936.

Consequently, Taft lost the support of antitrust reformers ( who disliked his conservative rhetoric ), of big business ( which disliked his actions ), and of Roosevelt, who felt humiliated by his protégé.

More trouble came when Taft fired Gifford Pinchot, a leading conservationist and close ally of Roosevelt.

Roosevelt was attacking both the judiciary and the deep faith Republicans had in their judges ( most of whom had been appointed by McKinley, Roosevelt or Taft ).

In 1911, Taft responded with a vigorous stumping tour that allowed him to sign up most of the party leaders long before Roosevelt announced.

After he finally broke with Taft, Roosevelt saw himself as the only person who could save the Republican party from defeat in the upcoming Presidential election and announced himself as a candidate for the Republican nomination.

Roosevelt, however, had delayed too long, and Taft had already won the support of most party leaders in the country.

Roosevelt, stepping up his attack on judges, carried nine of the states that held preferential primaries, LaFollette took two, and Taft only one.

While Roosevelt was popular with the public, most Republican politicians and party leaders supported Taft, and their support proved difficult to counter in states without primaries.

1912: Wilson, Roosevelt, Taft, and Debs – The Election That Changed the Country.

As a Democrat ( after his criminal indictment by the Taft Administration ), Watson was an ardent supporter of Roosevelt.

In 1904, President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Taft Secretary of War in an effort to groom Taft, then his close political ally, into his handpicked presidential successor.

In 1908, he was offered the vice-presidential nomination by William Howard Taft, but he declined it to run again for Governor.

Eisenhower defeated Taft for the nomination, having won critical delegate votes from Texas.

In defeating Taft for the nomination, it became necessary for Eisenhower to appease the right wing Old Guard of the Republican Party ; his selection of Richard M. Nixon as the Vice-President on the ticket was designed in part for that purpose.

The Taft Administration saw the huge Honduran debt, over $ 120 miilion, as a contributing factor to this instability and began efforts to refinance the largely British debt with provisions for a United States customs receivership or some similar arrangement.

He is later awarded a Gold medal from U. S. President William Howard Taft for this feat.

President William Howard Taft devoted a considerable portion of his First Annual Message to Congress ( December 7, 1909 ) to the Liberian question, noting the close historical ties between the two countries that gave an opening for a wider intervention:

Every president since Taft, except for Jimmy Carter, threw out at least one ceremonial first ball or pitch for Opening Day, the All-Star Game, or the World Series, usually with much fanfare.

The fictional Taft University, where Susan teaches, was also a primary setting for the Spenser novel Playmates, and the non-Spenser novel Love and Glory.

He lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson, as the Taft conservatives gained control of the Republican party for decades to come.

He chose not to run for another term in 1908, and supported William Taft for the presidency, instead of Fairbanks.

Taft ignored the risks and tackled the tariff boldly, on the one hand encouraging reformers to fight for lower rates, and then cutting deals with conservative leaders that kept overall rates high.

The resulting Payne-Aldrich tariff of 1909 was too high for most reformers, but instead of blaming this on Senator Nelson Aldrich and big business, Taft took credit, calling it the best tariff ever.

In 1890, Taft was appointed Solicitor General of the United States and in 1891 a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Riding a wave of popular support for fellow Republican Roosevelt, Taft won an easy victory in his 1908 bid for the presidency.