No Chappaquidick

Would this have been enough to elect Ted Kennedy president in 1972 or later?

Hmmm maybe the Democrats chose to not give the ticket to Carter in 1980 leaving us with a Kennedy-Reagan election. If Reagan still wins Kennedy returns to the Senate letting some other guy be sacraficed to Reagan in 1984, but he comes roaring back in 1988 to beat Bush with Michael Dukakis as his runningmate.

I actually think that if it were not for the scandal Teddy would have run against Nixon in 72 and have run him relatively close but would have lost.

Teddy would have won in 1976.

However as is well know 1976 was a good election to lose. We would still have had Reagan.


Is there any chance of a FORMER President Kennedy returning to the Senate?

By the way Teddy could not nominate another candidate from Mass as a VP. The rules say that electors can only vote for 1 candidate in their home state. (Which is another reason why it is questionable whether Cheney has a legal right to be VP since his official Wyoming address is not specially convincing)