Bulletsfromthegrassyknoll
Banned
Here's the challenge, you have to elect JFK, LBJ, and RFK to the Presidency at least once, and they must all serve consecutively. Find a way to make this work.
Simple: have RFK win the nomination in 1968 and defeat Nixon in November.![]()
A minor nitpick is you have to change a lot of things in 68 for RFK to win.
He had little chance for nomination and LBJ would have slit his throat in November if he had.
A minor nitpick is you have to change a lot of things in 68 for RFK to win.
He had little chance for nomination and LBJ would have slit his throat in November if he had.
JFK doesn't get assassinated in 1963, wins re-election in 1964. Viet Nam goes better under Kennedy, economy is going steady, and a ticket of LBJ and RFK win the White House in 1968.
Johnson dies in office in 1971. Bobby Kennedy is now President.
Simple: have RFK win the nomination in 1968 and defeat Nixon in November.![]()
It could happen, I think. If JFK lives and has a very good presidency (ok, that could be hard) and the Democrats are in a Kennedy is a God mode, and thus elect RFK as their candidate for '68.Here's a crazy WI, RFK wins 1968 Primary but loses general to Nixon?
Welcome to AH.com tiggerfan. Being new, you may not be aware yet that RogueBeaver is our resident authority on all things Kennedy.
Fair enough. However, a few counter-points:
1) IIRC, LBJ didn't like Nixon much better than he liked RFK, and I think it was for the same reasons (both RFK and Nixon were very obvious opportunists, both very politically ruthless, which LBJ despised in an ironic sense). LBJ would have hated the 1968 election if Bobby had won the nomination. I think he'd stay very quiet during the election, with the slight possibility of not voting on Election Day.
2) LBJ wasn't too powerful this late in his presidency. He was quasi-primaried, for God's sake: Not too many Dems are going to take him too seriously. Not to say he wasn't behind a good number of "powers," though...
Here's a possible map, with Kennedy picking Carl Sanders as his running mate. Either he wins CA due to Hispanics and blacks in LA County outnumbering NoCa suburbanites (Nixon won the general 47-44, RFK the primary 46-42, so Pure Tossup), or loses CA but sweeps the Rust Belt excepting IN (where Nixon- unopposed in the primary- ran 500,000 ahead of the Democratic total) while eking out GA due to Sanders' popularity.
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(D) Kennedy/Sanders: 287 EV
(R) Nixon/Agnew: 206 EV
(AI): Wallace/Lemay: 45 EV
Fair enough. However, a few counter-points:
1) IIRC, LBJ didn't like Nixon much better than he liked RFK, and I think it was for the same reasons (both RFK and Nixon were very obvious opportunists, both very politically ruthless, which LBJ despised in an ironic sense). LBJ would have hated the 1968 election if Bobby had won the nomination. I think he'd stay very quiet during the election, with the slight possibility of not voting on Election Day.
2) LBJ wasn't too powerful this late in his presidency. He was quasi-primaried, for God's sake: Not too many Dems are going to take him too seriously. Not to say he wasn't behind a good number of "powers," though...
Actually Nixon and LBJ were close friends, even if they were political rivals.
As to RFK in 68. Yes LBJ had less influence in 68 than he had in 64. But in 1968 we're talking pre McGovern-Fraser. Many delegations were still machine controlled (esp in South) and LBJ held those in an iron grip.
They were enough to give HHH the nod. Remember that as long as RFK and McCarthy split anti admin vote, it's tough to beat Hubert.
But I don't want to derail the thread so...