Delta Force
Banned
What if RFK had been assassinated after winning the 1968 Democratic nomination for President?
WI: RFK Assassinated after Winning the 1968 Democratic Nomination
- Thread starter Delta Force
- Start date
Hmmmm....I would presume his VP steps into the top spot and picks a new VP. I'm just speculating though. I don't know what either of the parties would do in that situation. Do we know who he was thinking about as his potential running mate?
Well with a P.o.D Before 1900 anything could happen, his older brother JFK might run for a third term
The Confederate President, may emply that a southern Dixiecrat should be able to stand for the post of US persident.
American born Margaret Thatcher, could be the first female President
The possibities are endless.
Why would the vice president get the spot? It has always be the Chief Justice of the supreme court who is the succesor of a president dying in office, ever since President Roger B. Taney, took over from President William Harrison back in 1841.
President Salmon P. Chase took over from President Lincoln after his assassination in 1865
Sixteen years later, President Morrison Waite took over when President Garfield was assassinated in 1881.
After the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1945, Harlan F. Stone, became President, but then died himself one year in office to be suceed by President Earl Warren.
No one was really screaming butterflies and in the future he will remember to check what forum he put stuff in for fear of getting more responses like these.
Maybe King Richard II would sit down with the Democratic Party and discuss the future for its hard to work out what is best for the American Kingdom
No one was really screaming butterflies and in the future he will remember to check what forum he put stuff in for fear of getting more responses like these.
Maybe King Richard II would sit down with the Democratic Party and discuss the future for its hard to work out what is best for the American Kingdom
But Nixon's a Progressive-Conservative monarch.
Paul V McNutt
Banned
I am thinking that Humphrey might be his replacement. sSince the DNC would choose his replacement, I think HHH would enjoy support from them. He would endorse RFK's anti war stands and lead a united party to victory.
In the first place, I think it unlikely that RFK would have gotten the nomination, despite his victory in California. I give my reasons for this at https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/OKFkQVjHSrY/hAT7axb9HpMJ However, let's waive this objection and assume he does get the nomination. (Some people do think that his California victory might have induced previously Humphrey-leaning bosses to back him as the only candidate who could beat Nixon.) If he is subsequently assassinated, isn't a logical replacement Edward Kennedy? Remember that (1) this was before Chappaquiddick, (2) in OTL there was a draft-Teddy movement at the convention apparently encouraged by Mayor Daley (though some people thought that Daley's real purpose was to get Teddy on the ticket as *vice* presidential candidate), and (3) Teddy actually had some advantages over Bobby. He was less disliked by the Eugene McCarthy supporters--in OTL McCarthy said that after putting his own name in nomination on the first ballot (as a token gesture to his supporters), he would have been willing to step aside on subsequent ballots for Teddy--adding that this is something he would never have done for Robert...
Admittedly, choosing Teddy would seem a swipe at whoever RFK had chosen as his running mate--if the running mate is good enough to replace RFK after the latter is elected, why not before? But it's not that simple. Of course a running mate is supposed to be *qualified* to be president, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is considered the second-best person in the nation to be president. He is often chosen partly for "ticket-balancing" purposes, and would not be the first choice of either the convention or the presidential candidate strictly on his likely merits as president. Anyway, even if we grant that in general the running mate should get the presidential nomination in such cases, the prestige of the Kennedy name and the sense that EMK has a duty to take up the "mission" of his "martyred brothers" may make 1968 an exception. (Yes, I know that in OTL EMK refused the "draft" overtures, but this may be different--in this ATL his brother had already been nominated, and there would be a greater consensus among Democrats that his brother was the logical replacement.)
Admittedly, choosing Teddy would seem a swipe at whoever RFK had chosen as his running mate--if the running mate is good enough to replace RFK after the latter is elected, why not before? But it's not that simple. Of course a running mate is supposed to be *qualified* to be president, but that doesn't necessarily mean he is considered the second-best person in the nation to be president. He is often chosen partly for "ticket-balancing" purposes, and would not be the first choice of either the convention or the presidential candidate strictly on his likely merits as president. Anyway, even if we grant that in general the running mate should get the presidential nomination in such cases, the prestige of the Kennedy name and the sense that EMK has a duty to take up the "mission" of his "martyred brothers" may make 1968 an exception. (Yes, I know that in OTL EMK refused the "draft" overtures, but this may be different--in this ATL his brother had already been nominated, and there would be a greater consensus among Democrats that his brother was the logical replacement.)
Now that things are in the correct forum, any non-ASB responses?
While there's no real precedent, I'd imagine that whomever had selected as his VP would get the nod. Depending on who it is, it might be politically difficult to pass him over. If not, then Humphrey sounds like a logical alternative. I suppose it's way too late for LBJ to step back into the arena.
So who would he select as his VP then? John Glenn maybe? I understand that it was Bobby Kennedy who talked Glenn into running for the Senate in the first place. By 1968, the space program was on the verge of becoming the cornerstone of JFK's legacy. Plus, Glenn has a fair amount of foreign policy experience having served in World War II and Korea before becoming astronaut, which itself sent him traveling all over the world for training and PR purposes. And we know from OTL that he wanted to be President. If he was offered the Vice Presidency, I strongly doubt that he would say no.
As for who RFK, if nominated--which I repeat I think unlikely--would choose as his running mate, there was a lot of speculation that it might be Terry Sanford. (After all, the South was one of RFK's weaker areas and Sanford could help him there. His record on civil rights was sufficiently progressive that African Americans and white liberals would not object to him. Moreover, Sanford had been a Humphrey supporter, so his choice might help relations with the Humphrey camp.)
Delta Force
Banned
John Glenn hadn't held public office yet in 1968. He may have been picked for a Cabinet position in a Robert Kennedy administration, but it would be unusual (probably unprecedented) for someone with no political experience to be nominated for Vice President.
