1960: An errant wind.

News Break July 1960: Unexpectedly high winds force a crash landing of a plane in route to the city of LA. Of note, Senator and presidential candidate Lyndon Johnson was on board. Several people were injured, including the senator, but no one was killed. The pilot is being commended on his skill, for without such, a much greater loss might have occurred. Senator Johnson is listed as being in serious, but stable condition.

Democratic Convention: Senator Johnson has withdrawn from the race, through a spokesperson, citing his injuries, and the lengthy recovery process that's to be involved. Senator Johnson plans to return to the senate, and continue to work for the people of Texas, and this great nation, when his well enough to do so.

Democratic Convention: John F. Kennedy is nominated as the presidential candidate of the democratic party. Privately, Kennedy meets with his closest staff, including his brother Robert, to decide on whom he'd prefer to be his running mate.

Democratic Convention: At Kennedy's request, Stuart Symington of Missouri is nominated as to be the vice presidential candidate. Senator Symington graciously accepts. The Kennedy/Symington ticket is born.
 
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You have me painted interested.

Stuart Symington is 16 years older, had served as the First Secretary of the Air Force and has the backing of former President Harry S. Truman, which could mean Truman, has a return to politics.

A Symington Administration could work well, would his influence affect any of Kennedy's Cabinet nominations or Presidencial decisions? For example, a more experienced mind influencing the Bay of Pigs?
 
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President Nixon in 1960 would certainly be much better than his 1968 incarnation, I'm intrigued.

Yes I assume JFK will win based on the opening, but without LBJ and with butterflies it is far far more likely that Nixon would take this. Heck not slamming his knee on the car door alone makes for a better Nixon in the debate, let along everything else. Regardless, I don't think anyone has messed around with VP 1960 for a while so I'm interested.

The Making of the President said:
It has been remarked about Symington that if born in Western Europe, the man would have been Prime Minister. His is a character that dominates parliament and the back room: in a group of four people he is matched by no American political figure, yet in a group of ten he is but persuasive, and in public he is flat, boring, and colorless.
 
I will preempt the LBJ "JFK couldn't win!" narrative. 1960 was Kennedy's election to lose. Nixon made serious early fumbles, ranging from Lodge being gaffe prone and a poor campaigner, to failing to intervene in regards to King, to pledging to campaign in all 50 states, to failing to campaign with Eisenhower's support until late in the game. Lodge just on his own, *woof*. The pledge to put a Black man in the cabinet made Black Americans feel he was disingenuous and trying to tell them what they'd want to hear, and alienated the South. Nixon had to catch up to Kennedy, which he did, but the narrative is not that Nixon was the presumed winner through the campaign. Therefore, I argue in your defense if you have Kennedy win.
 

I expect and am totally cool with JFK winning. I merely think it was more likely than not for Nixon to win, despite Nixon's poor campaigning a lot of things went right for JFK that could easily alter.

Well that and I expected someone to make the rousing JFK defence which sets the scene for the timeline better than my own ambivalent one would have :)
 
Should have the next installment soon. Ran into a snag, and was not happy with the direction. So I had to scrap my update, and change some things.

Hopefully for the better!
 
As of now I am suspending this story. I may or may not get back to it. I'm sorry. I haven't done enough research, and wasn't as prepared as I thought. Also, I've attempted to continue this twice, and ended up not liking where it went.

The first iteration essentially went down a path of RFK fan boy fantasy land. I'll admit, I'm a huge fan of RFK, but I was attempting to be more restrained here.

The second, featured a Democratic showdown between POTUS Symington (y'all knew where this was headed) vs. LBJ. (There was a reason he was kept alive) However, try as I might, I didn't like it, and found it a bit ASB to think Johnson would challenge his own parties' sitting president, especially so soon after an assassination.

Perhaps I'll try again after further research, and some time to digest the story.
 
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