AH Challenge: Get Eugene McCarthy the Democratic nomination in 1968

POD must be after he almost wins the New Hampshire primary, so no "Johnson picks him as Vice-President in 1964" stuff.

Bonus points if he actually wins in November.
 

maverick

Banned
Hmmm...first is to get Bobby Kennedy out of the way, or get him to keep backing Gene. IIRC, Kennedy was backing McCarthy to spite Johnson, then once Johnson dropped out, RFK just ran himself.

Anyhow, say the anti-war people keep supporting Gene since Kennedy is dead or something.

McCarthy easily wins Wisconsin and Oregon as IOTL, New Jersey and Illinois too, so that leaves California, which would probably go to him as well.

In short order, he needs.

-Kennedy to be dead or incapacitated;
-A really strong VP to help united the party, which in any case won't keep Wallace from defecting or Johnson from hating McCarthy;
-Daley to work his magic on the soft delegates, as Roguebeaver might put it...

McCarthy winning? maybe if the Republican Convention is as hellish as the Democratic One, so we could have Reagan and Rockefeller vs McCarthy and Wallace.
 
Mav: first of all, RFK never backed Gene. They hated each other with a passion (among other things, McCarthy implied that RFK courted death by wearing a skullcap in Oregon), and Lowenstein & Co. approached Bobby in the fall of 1967 to be their standard-bearer. He refused for a variety of reasons, mainly because he wasn't sure the enterprise would succeed. RFK became known as the original "Hamlet on the Hudson" (unusual for him), and by New Hampshire, RFK basically told Gene to "Get the fuck out of my way, you were only the pathfinder". He didn't, as we know. Daley would never allow McCarthy to be nominated, and since 75% of the delegates were boss-controlled, I call ASB on a Gene McCarthy nomination. Both men would rather nominate Hubert than each other, and McCarthy even said so in an interview just before California. A VP McCarthy would be more plausible in 1964, when LBJ wants a Northeastern, relatively young Catholic whose name is not Robert F. Kennedy.

EDIT: If you want to unite the Democratic Party, you can have RFK as VP- if only for fundraising reasons, since he was the only Democrat who could bring in vast amounts of cash and compete with Nixon or Rocky in that field. Since they work well together, it keeps everyone happy and lines Bobby up for 1976 whether HHH wins reelection or not.
 
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To summarize: ASB. I've come to the conclusion through discussions with other Board USPol writers that Gene McCarthy could never be elected President. Among other things he was the leftist in that race. If Bobby lowered the octaves as Gene did, RFK would have been much less polarizing, won Oregon and been a contender for suburban votes. If Gene spoke like RFK did instead of his OTL professorial manner, he'd be a "Barry of the left".
 
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