AH Challenge: Make this 1988 possible and plausible in you own way.

Red: Dole/Stassen
Blue: Kennedy/Hart

How can we make this 1988 election happen like this?

1988 Dole-Stassen vs Kennedy-Duke.PNG
 
Wow. I actually have a TL draft where Dole is president in '88 and runs against Ted Kennedy (Though Stassen wasn't his running mate, and the electoral result was different)

Since this is a similar situation, I'll just use the summary:
In 1961 a US-backed revolt overthrows Castro. Kennedy uses this victory to avoid getting the US into a regional conflict in SE Asia and wins the 1964 election against Goldwater. Kennedy's sudden death from Addison's in '66 leads to Johnson becoming president, who then sends troops into Vietnam. While campaigning for the '68 Democratic nomination against Eugene McCarthy, Johnson is suddenly killed by Sirhan B. Sirhan, putting Speaker McCormack in charge, and giving McCarthy the nomination.
McCarthy uses the martyr status of his predecesors to beat Nixon and withdraw most troops from Vietnam, but his pacifistic stance and a poor economy lead to a victory in '72 for Ronald Reagan. The economy doesn't improve, however, and Reagan is thrown out in favor of Bobbie Kennedy in '76.
Bobbie is popular, and cruises to victory over former Secretary of Defense George H.W. Bush in 1980, but a deranged lunatic hoping to impress Jodie Foster cuts his second term short, giving the White House to VP Jimmy Carter, who then activates a 12 year old amendement and nominates Geraldine Ferraro to be VP.
Carter is unable to maintain the Kennedy legacy, and he loses in '84 to Governor Bob Dole. Dole's hardline stance against communism makes him a popular man, and he easily defeats the Democrat ticket of Ted Kennedy and Gary Hart.

Well? Do I win?
 
Last edited:
Very good Jim, I was impressed.

Anyone else can still make another one, and make it SERIOUS *refers to my first reply, which wasn't serious*.
 
Well, now, y'all are forgetting one thing.

He didn't say *which* Kennedy was Dole's oppoent.

So...

1963: JFk elects to skip Dallas after suddenly suffering severe back trauma from a fall. Though mildly better as '64 dawns, he is incapacitated enough, as his Addison's Disease progresses, that he chooses not to run in '64. (He also suffered from serious back pain, from what I'd heard.)

1964: Lyndon Johnson wins election, in something of a sympathy vote. Civil Rights legislation passes, as some consider this a Kennedy legacy.

Without the strain from the Presidency, JFK's Addison's Disease isn't quite as bad. When LBJ gets less and less popular, JFK is urged to run again.

1968: JFK wins re-election, the 2nd man to ever win 2 non-secutive terms. Despite his popularity, he refuses to support an amendment that would change the Constitution to only forbid more than 2 consecutive terms.

1972: Richard Nixon is elected; his trips to China and the USSR in his first year, combined with successfully keeping the Yom Kppur War from becoming a World War III, give him great support, meaning as he pulls U.S. forces out of Vietnam in 1975, he is considered a hero enough that he doesn't try to pull any dirty tricks such as Watergate. Harold Stassen is in the Nixon cabinet in the late 1970s, where he proves himself worthy as a leader in a few areas.

1973: Arab oil embargo does make economy weak; whie Nixon isn't as impacted by it in his first term, by his 2nd the economy is the main issue.

1976: Robert Kennedy runs for the White House, but loses to the incumbant Nixon. However, he makes a very strong showing.

1980: Trying to impress someone, John Hinckley fatally shoots Ronald Reagan, the probable Republican front-runner. He had considered President Nixon, but never got the chance, and felt the Republican front-runner would be the best bet instead. George H.W. Bush thus becomes the Republican nominee.

1980: On the Democratic side, Robert Kennedy tries for the Democratic nomination, but is in a close battle with Jimmy Carter before being shot by Sirhan Sirhan. However, because of the assassination of Reagan earlier, there is enough security Kennedy is only badly wounded. Instead, Carter wins the nomination, and the Presidency. RFK will be in a wheelchair the rest of his life.

1984: Robert Dole defeats Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale, as Carter is seen as weak on foreign policy, and Dole reminds some of the strong Republican foreign policy of the Nixon White House.

1988: Now sufficiently recovered, Robert Kennedy would like to make another try at the White House. However, Dole is incredibly popular, and it's doubtful he could win; relations with the USSR have cooled considerably, and Dole is getting some credit for winning the Cold War.

Democratic Party officials decide to let RFK try, anyway, as they worry that people will remember FJK's incapacity and worry that RJK will suffer the same fate. Therefore, he is nominated, and loses by a fairly large margin, tho it's not an electoral blowout.

1988: Meanwhile, Robert Dole's VP dies in office in early 1988. (Candidates?) Dole, feeling sorry for Harold Stassen, names him VP, figuring he will nominate someone else at the convention in a few months. However, a large outpouring of support, and the fact that the Democrats have nominated a man who isn't as likely to win, makes him keep Satassen.

(Note: if you wanted *Ted* Kennedy, then you could probably have RFK assassinate in 1976, Scoop Jackson run, then Carter in '80, and Ted Kennedy in '88. Wonder what the latest is you could put JFK in there? He'd have only been 71.)
 
Last edited:
I liked that, good job.

You can make a Ted Kennedy and JFK if you want.

In my possible TL, it'd be Bob Dole/Harold Stassen vs Ted Kennedy/Gary Hart.
 
Top