AHC: Both major party presidential candidates over 70 (*not* in 2020)

Yes, I'll acknowledge that the fact that the three leading contenders for the Democratic nomination all being 70 by Election Day 2020 (as is the Republican incumbent) was what inspired this post--but it is not what I want to discuss. I want to discuss past elections (before or after 1900) when both major party nominees might be over 70.

1996: Bob Dole (R) vs. Lloyd Bentsen (D). (Bentsen has been a successful vice-president under the Dukakis administration of 1988-96. He wins the Democratic presidential nomination in 1996, due largely to a split in the liberal vote among his primary challengers. Alternatively, Dukakis may for some reason die in office.)

1996: Bob Dole (R) vs. Harris Wofford (D) (who was chosen as Bill Clinton's running mate in 1992 and became president when Clinton died in a helicopter crash).

1984: Ronald Reagan (R) vs Edmund Muskie (D). Mondale in this ATL has decided not to run for president in 1984 (instead he had successfully run for the Senate against Durenberger in 1982, pledging to serve out his term). So Muskie becomes the candidate of the moderately liberal Democratic Establishment types who backed Mondale in OTL.

1856: John McLean is the first Republican presidential candidate (he was a serious contender against Fremont for the nomination in OTL). Democrats after a deadlocked convention turn to William Marcy. (That leaves the Know Nothings--but some conservative Republicans hoped that Fillmore would withdraw in favor of McLean if the Republicans nominated the latter.)

1852: Democrats nominate Lewis Cass (this is perhaps most likely if they had lost with a candidate other than Cass in 1848--but even in OTL Cass led on the first nineteen ballots https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1852_Democratic_National_Convention). Whigs nominate Daniel Webster (Fillmore makes it clear he will not run, so southern and conservative northern Whigs rally behind Webster as the only man who can beat the Seward-backed Scott). The bitterness Webster felt about being turned down for the nomination may have hastened his death in OTL so maybe he lives at least until Election Day in this ATL.

Any other ideas? (I can see the Republicans nominating Levi Morton in 1896 but it's hard to think of a plausible Democratic nominee that year who was 70 or older).
 
I think it takes just one PoD to get septuagenarian President Alben Barkly on the ballot in 1952 (I think he was enough of a trusted party regular VP to have the Dems rally around him in the event of Truman dying), but a lot more difficult to get him facing, presumably, MacArthur.

Definitely more than one PoD to get Nelson Rockefeller as sitting POTUS and nominee in 1980. Way more than one. And I think we can discount his ability to come back from the political wilderness, alive and kicking, that year. And I just don't think the Democratic party would throw a 70 yr old up against him or any other GOPer that year, anyway.
 
Great idea for a challenge

Maybe Scoop Jackson vs Reagan in 1984? (Though I like the Muskie idea more since Scoop is inconveniently dead by then IOTL)

Governor Tom Bradley is VP nominee in 1988 for the winning ticket, faces off against Dole in 1996?

Edit: or Ford is picked in 1980 and in 1988 goes up against California Governor Tom Bradley.
 
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Elihu Root opted against the nomination in 1916 because of his age. Harding scandals come out early before he can gain momentum, the convention is again deadlocked, and when somebody - say Coolidge- offers to step in as vice president and help Root, that plus the fact that Americans don't want to be involved in foreign policy (and therefore he thinks his time will be rather tranquil), Root accepts promising to serve only one term.

Something prevents Cox from getting the left omentum to get to 2/3 majority, and with the convention in disarray after sixty or so ballots Champ Clark is turned to as someone who could have won in 1912. Democratic leaders figure it's a lost year so why not nominee for 70 year old Clark?

He ends up Surviving past the election anyway although this becomes a situation like 1872 when Greeley died.

Yes, perhaps a little more out there than some of these but someone had to do something with the conventions that have dozens of ballots.
 
1984: Ronald Reagan (R) vs Edmund Muskie (D). Mondale in this ATL has decided not to run for president in 1984 (instead he had successfully run for the Senate against Durenberger in 1982, pledging to serve out his term). So Muskie becomes the candidate of the moderately liberal Democratic Establishment types who backed Mondale in OTL.

You don't need to engage in this kind of shoe-horning here; Muskie was a serious contender for Carter's running mate. There was a lot of wariness from the Carterites about the old Muskie mercurialism, but IIRC the two men didn't hit it off personally either.

If Muskie pulls out all the stops, it's definitely possible you get former VP Muskie against Reagan in 1984.

I don't think Bentsen is running in '96 btw, even as an incumbent president, given his health. He's most likely to want to run as an incumbent president, but that's also most likely to bring forward his strokes or other health issues.
 
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I don't think Bentsen is running in '96 btw, even as an incumbent president, given his health. He's most likely to want to run as an incumbent president, but that's also most likely to bring forward his strokes or other health issues.

Did Bentsen have any particular health problems before his 1998 strokes?
 
(I can see the Republicans nominating Levi Morton in 1896 but it's hard to think of a plausible Democratic nominee that year who was 70 or older).
I remember that former Congressman William Morrison of Illinois had attempted to start up a campaign for the Presidency that year, and he'd have been (72) by election day, but there was a clear lack of support for his bid outside his native Illinois.

In 1908 you could match the Republican Speaker Joseph Canon of Illinois (then at the height of his power) against former Secretary of State Richard Olney of Massachusetts, assuming that the Bourbon Democrats managed to hold on for another four years and Roosevelt's Progressives were shunted aside within the Republican Party. Not all that plausible, but at least concievable.
 
If being actually 70 counts, how about this:
Obama is assassinated in late 2010/early 2011. Biden becomes president and vows to run and fulfill Obama's legacy. The sympathy for Obama means a lot of big-name Republicans stay out of the race seeing it as a lost cause-all but one. This leads to the race being between 70-year-old Joe Biden and 78-year-old Ron Paul.

If being actually 70 is too young, the above scenario in a world where Obama picked Sam Nunn as his running mate instead of Biden could also fit (Nunn would be 74 in 2012).
 
Did Bentsen have any particular health problems before his 1998 strokes?

I was sure he did, but I can't find any reference online.

Muskie could work for just about any of the 'outsider' candidates in 1976 btw. (Though it may still be just a touch too early for two Catholics in the form of the bicostal ticket of Brown-Muskie)
 
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