AHC: President John Glenn

With no POD earlier than 1964 (allowing for him to win the senate race in that year if you want), have John Glenn become president. I imagine the best time is either 76 or 88 though maybe if you have Ford win in 76, 80 might be a good time too.


What would a Glenn presidency look like?
 
If you allow multiple PODs:
1. Glenn makes a stronger keynote address at the 1976 DNC so that Carter selects him to be VP.
2. Ford defeats Carter so that the events of the late 70's are pinned on the Republicans instead of the Democrats, thus preventing the Reagan Revolution
3. However, Glenn has a strong performance in the VP debate so that he is seen as a strong contender for 1980.
4. He eventually does win the Democratic nomination in 1980 and defeats whoever the Republicans nominate.

If you allow only one POD, I don't know. I also wouldn't know what his presidency would be like
 
If you allow multiple PODs:
1. Glenn makes a stronger keynote address at the 1976 DNC so that Carter selects him to be VP.
2. Ford defeats Carter so that the events of the late 70's are pinned on the Republicans instead of the Democrats, thus preventing the Reagan Revolution
3. However, Glenn has a strong performance in the VP debate so that he is seen as a strong contender for 1980.
4. He eventually does win the Democratic nomination in 1980 and defeats whoever the Republicans nominate.

If you allow only one POD, I don't know. I also wouldn't know what his presidency would be like
I was thinking this, or have Carter still win in 76 and lose in 1980 to Reagan and have the economy not recover in Reagan's first term. Of Course you'd also have to keep Hart from running in '84 and somehow weaken Mondale's candidacy in the primaries.
 
For want of an injury (and a rather random one at that), Glenn would have been able to run for senate in 1964. I argue he would have won. His actual political career was delayed and delayed again. A Senator Glenn in 1964 would have been in the primacy of American Liberalism. He was also a friend of the Kennedy family. He would have been in a position to run with Robert Kennedy in 1968, or Hubert Humphrey. And he would have been in a position to run for the candidacy in 1972 or 1976. Political life is a matter of the chance of history. It is the right time and the right man or woman in that time. There is an issue of the time having passing even for the right person, like a once ripe fruit spoiling. And that was the problem with John Glenn.
 
Re: Vietnam, I did just read his memoir.

Glenn identified in the 60s as a centrist, and he was shocked when his son came back from college in '66 with long hair and an anti-Vietnam attitude. Glenn's philosophy mirrored that of many at the time -- we shouldn't be in Vietnam if we aren't there to *win* it.

He would not have spoken out against the war, and he would have gotten booed in '68 as a Johnson-colluder. Democrats were looking for a liberal in '68, not a moderate. He might do better than McGovern in '72, though, particularly if Nixon falters early. Or he could be an American values candidate in '76 against Ford.
 
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