Love it. Hoover's gone, and election season begins. Excerpts of MLK's testimony, when you can write them out.
Glad you liked the update, historybuff! I'll be sure to type up some of Dr. King's testimony when I get a chance, including the bits you've sent to me.
LBJ! LBJ! LBJ for the USA!
Chisholm's got no chance, but LBJ could offer her a place as a Secretary (State might be a bit high, but Interior would be a good option).
I like how you're writing Romney here, as a basically decent guy who wants to be a good leader but doesn't have the willingness to get his hands dirty that a Party leader needs. He's certainly getting moderate support but he risks another ACP incident (despite that party's humiliating collapse) if he's seen as too harsh on members of his own party. Sometimes, you have to show token restraint to Party members even if you're disgusted by them and want them gone.
Fingers crossed for LBJ 1972! One interesting thing coming up--assuming that the 26th still happened--is the lowered voting age, which will make appealing to younger demographics much more important, which means tacking left since young voters trend left. Johnson's going to be much stronger than McGovern OTL due to his demeanor and appeal to the lower-class base, which means he stands a good chance.
Also, did McGovern-Fraser happen? Because without Bobby Kennedy's assassination and the fallout, the presidential nomination process could easily be much more opaque than it is OTL. One way to solve this could be to have a scandal surrounding a rigged nomination in one of the parties (maybe upper-class Democrats try to sabotage LBJ and Chisholm and LBJ protests? Or the Republicans, who're already looking pretty split, have a similar kind of crisis?), which then forces the expansion of the primary system.
Thank you so much, Worffan! I'm really thrilled to hear that you guys are enjoying the characterization of President Romney thus far. Your description here is exactly what I'm going for and I'm glad to hear that that's coming across. As a politician, Romney is something of an interesting case. His personal ethics, moralistic attitude, and penchant for bi-partisan executive leadership were exactly the sort of qualities that made him a successful Governor of an industrialized swing state, but they can present challenges as you say, now that he's trying to lead a deeply divided national political party. The demise of the ACP has left the Republican Party with the opportunity to pick up social conservatives, but Romney is dragging his feet in some instances because doing so would go against his personal beliefs, something he is loathe to do. Romney is much more interested in governing than campaigning, but of course in the U.S. you can't have one without the other.
As for LBJ, Chisholm, and the other Democrats, their primary season is going to be very interesting this year. With the President seeming very beatable and the nation in an uncertain mood, it could be anyone's chance to catapult themselves into the White House. The 26th Amendment was still ratified (though ITTL it is the 25th Amendment), meaning Johnson and the others will need to appeal to young people in addition to other demographics if they want to sew themselves up a victory. As for LBJ's chances, I won't elaborate here beyond saying that even as the sole southern candidate, he's got a long way to go before the convention...
Well, Hoover's dead; good riddance to him...
Like the characterization of Romney here and, well, Earl Butz being a...well...asshole doesn't surprise me (if Earl were in the same room as Berry Gordy after those comments, Berry would knock him out without a second thought)...
I'm rooting for LBJ, too; I wonder who Arthur Bremer is going to target ITTL, with George Wallace out of the race...
"For All We Know" was a cover version of a song sung by Larry Meredith for the movie Lovers and Other Strangers that was covered by the Carpenters and released in January of 1971, so congrats for continuing the pattern (BTW, hope Karen manages to live longer ITTL)...
Waiting for more, @President_Lincoln...
Thank you, Unknown! The streak lives on!