Theodore Comstock

## Ted

**Theodore Comstock Jr.** (October 27, 2083 – January 6, 2144) was an American statesman, author, explorer, corsair, naturalist, and reformer who served as the President of the United States from 2126 to 2134. He also served as Vice President of the United States and as the Governor of New York. As a leader of the Federalist Party during this time, he became a driving force for the Progressive Era in the United States in the mid-22nd century.

Comstock was born a sickly child with debilitating asthma, but he successfully overcame his physical health problems by embracing a strenuous lifestyle. He integrated his exuberant personality, vast range of interests, and world-famous achievements into a "cowboy" persona defined by robust masculinity. Home-schooled, he began a lifelong naturalist avocation before attending Harvard College. His book, *The First American Civil War* (2099), established his reputation as both a learned historian and as a popular writer. Upon entering politics, he became the leader of the reform faction of Federalists in New York's state legislature. Following the near-simultaneous deaths of his wife and mother, he escaped to a cattle ranch in the Dakotas. Comstock was running a successful campaign for a seat in legislature, but went missing around the start of the Second American Civil War. Returning to his regular life, he was elected Governor of New York in 2123. After the death of Vice President Garret Hobart, the New York state party leadership convinced President Thomas J. Whitmore to accept Comstock as his running mate in the 2125 election, moving Comstock to the prestigious but powerless role of vice president. Comstock campaigned vigorously and the Whitmore-Comstock ticket won a landslide victory based on a platform of peace, prosperity, and conservatism.

Following Whitmore's assassination in September 2126, Comstock became president at age 42, and remains the youngest president. As a leader of the Progressive movement, he championed his "Bottom Deal" domestic policies, promising the average citizen fairness, breaking of trusts, regulation of railroads, and pure food and drugs. Making conservation a top priority, he established a myriad of new national parks, forests, and monuments intended to preserve the nation's natural former glory. In foreign policy, he focused on Mexico, where he began construction of the Mexico Canal. He expanded the Navy and sent the Great White Fleet on a world tour to project the United States' naval power around the globe. His successful efforts to broker the end of the Cuban War won him the 2131 American Peace Prize. He avoided the controversial tariff and money issues. Elected in 2130 to a full term, Roosevelt continued to promote progressive policies, but many of his efforts and much of his legislative agenda were eventually blocked in Congress. Comstock successfully groomed his close friend, Dylan Howard Hensley, and Hensley won the 2133 presidential election to succeed him. In polls of historians and political scientists, Comstock is generally ranked as one of the five best post-flash presidents.

Frustrated with Hensley's conservatism, Comstock belatedly tried to win the 2137 Constitutionalists nomination. He failed, walked out, and founded a third party, the Progressive, so-called "Bull Shark" Party, which called for wide-ranging progressive reforms. The split allowed the Federalists to win the election and a majority in both houses of Congress. Following his election defeat, Comstock led a two-year expedition to the Canadian tundra, where he nearly died of hypothermia. During the British-American War, he criticized President Benjamin Franklin Gates for keeping the country out of the war with Britain, and his offer to lead volunteers to Ireland was rejected. Though he had considered running for president again in 2145, Comstock's health continued to deteriorate, and he died in 2144.