AHC: Defeat Johnson in 1964

POD can't be any sooner than January 1st, 1964 - President Kennedy is dead, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson has succeeded to the presidency and plans to run for a full term.

Screw him out of his landslide re-election in 1964.
 

DTanza

Banned
He agrees to a televised debate with Goldwater, gets drunk before going on, and swings his dick around in Goldwater's face on live television.
 
Can't really be done. Guy's too competent, in too good a political environment.

Even if he has a stroke and Wilsons out, at that point you're looking at Humphrey or Bobby as nominee if it happens before the convention.

And if it happens after the nomination has been bestowed, then Lady Bird and the senior WH Texan crew (Jenkins, Valenti, Busby, Reedy, Moyers) are one of the most likely inner circles in recent POTUS history* to quickly sign the gig over to the second guy**.


*Even without benefit of the 25th amendment, which doesn't come in until 1967.

**Those guys would walk through fire for LBJ, but they had principles; and I suspect Secretary of Ag Orville Freeman, the most politically astute member of the Cabinet, would, as soon as he heard, make it known to the senior advisors that he'd make sure his good friend HHH took them all into his post-election administration. Offer not necessarily open to JFK holdovers other than Richard Goodwin, I suspect.
 
It might be worth a poll to figure out AH.com's version of "irresistible force versus immovable object" -- with a POD of that same year, which is less likely: Goldwater defeating LBJ in '64, or Mondale defeating Reagan in '84?
 
It might be worth a poll to figure out AH.com's version of "irresistible force versus immovable object" -- with a POD of that same year, which is less likely: Goldwater defeating LBJ in '64, or Mondale defeating Reagan in '84?
Goldwater defeating LBJ in '64.
 
Yeah, Godlwater's less likely, but with a POD of jan. 1, you don't need him.

I think you *do* need Rocky, since Nixon doesn't look like he can win, but let's see.

POD #1, early January, Rocky's wife is killed in an auto accident; the governor is only slightly injured. Suddenly, he must care for the deceased's children. For the next few months, he shows himself a changed man, having realized the harm divorce can create, but some are at least willing to forgive him for it since, otheriwse, the children might be orphaned.

So, as people are discussing the indiscretion, hints are made about JFK by the right people, nd Jackie comes out defending Kennedy and saying that he was a "great man.' When asked if that means Rocky can be, too, she is forced to admit that he could be. (Or, if she doesn't in so many words, her body language shows it - I can't pick that stuff up well but It hink would be possible.)

So, now, we have some people, at least, willing to accept Rockefeller who weren't before, and it leads to his winning California and making a game of it with the right people. he promises to appoint Margaret Chase Smith ti the Supreme Court or to any Cabinet position (not the VP position because they're from the same region) in an effort to sway moer female voters his way.

I think we can get Rockefeller the nomination and have him not demolished at the polls at this point, though it's still more like, say, 1944 for the Democrats. Enough black voters will stay with the GOP it won't be a dealbreaker. Still, we need another POD, I think, to make Johnson actually *lose*.Unless youc an argue that butterflies cause LBJ to be with a woman a few weeks later, and her due date is just before the election,a nd she won't take hush money, as Turquoise Blue mentioned.
 
POD can't be any sooner than January 1st, 1964 - President Kennedy is dead, and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson has succeeded to the presidency and plans to run for a full term.

Screw him out of his landslide re-election in 1964.

Have him get into an intense scandal sometime in the beginning of 1964, have George Wallace capitalize on the scandals in the Democratic primaries. George Wallace defeats Johnson in the primaries 1964.

Wallace goes on to defeat Goldwater in the general elections, but it doesn't matter, because Johnson is already defeated.
 
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