Polk was one of the very few RAT Presidents that wasn’t total shite, but I wonder what kind of President Clay would have been.
KY and TN were good voting states, voted Whig until 1856. Ky, the #1 Whig/proto-whig state outside of New England even opposed Andrew Jackson. Such a shame it went RAT later on.
Clay was opposed to the annexation of Texas because he knew it would lead to a war with Mexico. He knew that the lands taken from Mexico in war would reopen the Missouri Compromise for renegotiation. He remembered just how close the nation came to disunion in 1820 over that negotiation, and he believed that opening it up again could possibly lead to disunion and civil war. He clearly saw the risk of annexing Texas.
Polk ran on one issue only: He would annex Texas. If he could do it in his first term, he would not run for re-election.
Remini believes that if the election had not been stolen, Clay would have left the Texas issue alone, there would have been no war with Mexico, and the Civil War could have been avoided or at least delayed.
He also believed that had Clay managed to hold off his tuberculosis and live another decade, he could have played "good cop" in the Senate while Lincoln played "bad cop" in the White House, thus managing to prevent the South from seceding.