AHC: Nixon Instead Of Reagan

Hi all,
Your challenge, is to have Richard Nixon serve as president from January 20th 1981 to January 20th 1989, with a pod no earlier than JFK's election in 1960.
 
Hi all,
Your challenge, is to have Richard Nixon serve as president from January 20th 1981 to January 20th 1989, with a pod no earlier than JFK's election in 1960.

There was a TL on this a while back, by maverick (the thread was destroyed, so don't ask me for it).

JFK wins in 1964 with George Smathers as his running mate. He gets assassinated in 1966, but even with the sympathy factor Goldwater narrowly wins in 1968.
George Wallace wins in 1972, and again in 1976, but is impeached in 1978, and replaced with Gerald Ford. Ford decides not to run again, allowing Nixon to finally make his comeback in 1980.

(Yes, yes it was a dystopia.)
 
There was a TL on this a while back, by maverick (the thread was destroyed, so don't ask me for it).

JFK wins in 1964 with George Smathers as his running mate. He gets assassinated in 1966, but even with the sympathy factor Goldwater narrowly wins in 1968.
George Wallace wins in 1972, and again in 1976, but is impeached in 1978, and replaced with Gerald Ford. Ford decides not to run again, allowing Nixon to finally make his comeback in 1980.

(Yes, yes it was a dystopia.)
That's a shame the thread was destroyed-I'd have liked to have read that one! Wallis was a democrat though (or an indipenddent)-so how did Ford end up taking over after Wallis's impeachment?
Quite an ironic twist having Nixon taking over from Ford to.
Anyway-I welcome any alternative suggestions on how this could come about.
 
Simple. He's never nominated as VP, and stays on as Senator. He wins in 1980, after a long, distinguished career in the Senate, and is forced to liberalize his views as California moves to the left, tremendously.
 
Simple. He's never nominated as VP, and stays on as Senator. He wins in 1980, after a long, distinguished career in the Senate, and is forced to liberalize his views as California moves to the left, tremendously.

Nixon's views would mark him as barely more conservative than Lowell Weicker by 1980. Remember that '80s California was that of conservatives Pete Wilson and George Deukmiejan, plus the DLCer Dianne Feinstein as the leading Democrat.
 
Simple. He's never nominated as VP, and stays on as Senator. He wins in 1980, after a long, distinguished career in the Senate, and is forced to liberalize his views as California moves to the left, tremendously.

Nice idea, but that's to easy. I set the pod after JFK's election, so he must be Eisenhower's VP from 53 to 61 and JFK's aponent in the 60 election.
 
That's a shame the thread was destroyed-I'd have liked to have read that one! Wallis was a democrat though (or an indipenddent)-so how did Ford end up taking over after Wallis's impeachment?
Quite an ironic twist having Nixon taking over from Ford to.
Anyway-I welcome any alternative suggestions on how this could come about.

I think the scenario was one where Wallace's VP was also ousted for some reason, so the line of succession leads to Ford, who in this scenario is Speaker of the House.
 
Nixon's views would mark him as barely more conservative than Lowell Weicker by 1980. Remember that '80s California was that of conservatives Pete Wilson and George Deukmiejan, plus the DLCer Dianne Feinstein as the leading Democrat.

He'll clearly have to liberalize during the '60s and '70s. This is pre '80s, not the '80s itself. But yes, you're right about that. The '80s were darn conservative even in the most liberal states (Tsongas, D'Amato).

Okay, so he's the VP. JFK doesn't get assassinated, doesn't escalate Vietnam. LBJ succeeds him (he's only 60), and after greatly expanding JFK's programs, he cites health concerns and doesn't run in 1972. RFK succeeds him, and he rebuilds the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, in the 1974 CA gubernatorial election, Nixon once again mounts a surprising campaign, and catches everyone off guard beating Jerry Brown. After RFK leaves the Presidency in 1980, the American public has had enough with Democrats in office, and Richard Nixon beats Hugh Carey in a close, contentious race.
 
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