AHC: Make Edmund Muskie President

Hello, I’m new here. But I wanted to post my first thing here. I don’t care how you do it but I want to see how Muskie could’ve become president.
 
Welcome! I'm pretty new here myself, so its nice to meet some other fresh blood.

Well, there are three main ways Muskie can become President, from most plausible to least plausible

1. Richard Nixon and CREEP (Committee for the RE-Election of the President) fumble the Canuck Letter, and a connection is made between the forged Canuck Letter and Roger Stone, and, by extension, Nixon. Muskie gets nominated, and beats Nixon, who has been smeared with an early Watergate-esque investigation.

2. Hubert Humphrey becomes President in 1968, and by extension Muskie becomes Vice President. Humphrey loses in 1972 to a moderate Republican (perhaps Nelson Rockefeller) due to a slouching economy, the continuation of the Vietnam War, and plain old party fatigue. Whoever wins in 1976 is doomed to lose in 1980, so if Muskie sits out the 1976 Democratic primaries, he could become the Democratic nominee and win in 1980.

3. The Cuban Missile Crisis goes hot, and results in the death of several dozen prominent politicians. As a result, the second tier of Republicans and Democrats (the likes of Muskie, Mo Udall, George Romney, Howard Anderson, and so on) run in the 1960s and '70s with less competition.
 
The easiest way is a HHH win, and then him resigning/dying in his second term with his cancer.

The other scenarios do work as well.
 
Regarding the fabricated "Canuck Letter", I read that it was actually written by Nixon staffer Ken Clawson, who admitted it to his girlfriend. This was addressed in the book All of the President's Men.
 
an early Watergate-esque investigation.

I actually kinda really like this idea. There's so many things that would be interesting narratively. Like:

-A parallel-drawing "smoking gun" investigation (sure, CREEP wrote it, but did the president know )
- A fun will-they-won't-they about criminal investigations (maybe the Watergate is botched like OTL, and since people are already keeping a tight latch on Nixon, it's blown wide open?)
- President Muskie cries during a Presidential Address! Revolutionizing presidential masculinity!
 
His getting it by Humphrey-Muskie winning in 1968 and Humphrey dying or resigning in office is IMO the most plausible. The 1972 scenario IMO is slightly less plausible--I think that even if Muskie gets the nomination, Nixon is likely to win, though not by the margin he got against McGovern in OTL. But here is a scenario I posted a few months ago for an earlier Muskie presidency:

POD: JFK is stopped on the first ballot at the Democratic national convention in 1960. Ultimately, Symington or LBJ or Stevenson is nominated--in any event, a Protestant. The nominee wants a Catholic running mate to offer some consolation to Catholics who angrily think (with some reason) that JFK lost the presidential nomination due to his religion. The surprise choice is Muskie. He has experience as both governor and senator; he has shown he can win in an historically Republican state; and while he is from a small state, his being Polish-American can help the Democrats in large states with a significant Polish-American vote, like Illinois and Michigan and Pennsylvania, etc.

The Democratic national ticket narrowly wins. Then, three years later in Dallas...
 
His getting it by Humphrey-Muskie winning in 1968 and Humphrey dying or resigning in office is IMO the most plausible.
But the thing that has to be considered is that its unlikely that Humphrey would win a second term unless he really did a good job of ending Vietnam and rallying the Democrats. Even though Nixon won re-election in a landslide, that was more because people didn't like George McGovern, and doesn't reflect Nixon's actual popularity. Likewise, I would think that a moderate to liberal Republican could have defeated Humphrey in 1972. Thus, it's unlikely that Vice President Muskie would ascend to the Presidency, but he could still run in 1976 or 1980.
 
"Then Muskie delivered a powerful punch to the President. The punch was so powerful it killed President Kennedy. A few hours later Muskie was sworn in as President."
 
Butterfly effect. Why does Dallas still happen ITTL? Apparently on the same date even?

Well, trying to unify the Texas Democrats would be a concern for JFK whether or not LBJ was vice-president, and that might entail his going to Texas. But I agree that very day is unlikely, The general point, though, is that someone or other could have killed JFK, or he could have died in an accident, etc., making Muskie president much earlier than in other scenarios.
 
Or how about this? In 1968, Wallace wins more Electoral College votes and Nixon loses more EC votes. The House is deadlocked on voting for President, and the Senate narrowly votes to elect Muskie Vice President. Muskie is sworn in on January 20 and becomes Acting President.
 
After the hit comedy-drama 'Portland Vice' takes off on CBS following the rural purge, people cannot get enough Maine-ia and Muskie rides it 420 electoral votes in '68.
 
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