Best McGovern outcome 1972

Assume he picks a good VP candidated first time

The role of Nixon in undermining peace efforts in 1968 and Agnew's criminality comes out

He manages to use his hero status to say this is the wrong war (about Vietnam)

Could 1972 have looked competitive?
 
Assume he picks a good VP candidated first time

The role of Nixon in undermining peace efforts in 1968 and Agnew's criminality comes out

He manages to use his hero status to say this is the wrong war (about Vietnam)

Could 1972 have looked competitive?

Yes, this amount of handwavium would definitely set the stage for a competitive '72 presidential election.
 
genusmap.php


President Richard Nixon of New York and Vice President Spiro Agnew of Maryland (Republican Party): 53.5% (345)
Senator George McGovern of South Dakota and Leonard Woodcock of Michigan (Democratic Party): 46.5% (193)

That's the best I can see McGovern doing. In this scenario, he heals his rift with labor by picking UAW president Leonard Woodcock as his running mate (something he seriously thought about) and runs on the economy, mostly. He doesn't do well enough to defeat Nixon, but he does well enough to prevent some of the Democratic hemorrhaging in Congress and creates a bridge between the labor movement and the New Politics by taking an aggressive, social democratic stand on the economy combined with his own antiwar politics.
 

Robert

Banned
Nixon never undermined the Peace efforts. That notion comes from some left wing talking points that show up on the web from time to time. Want to know how off base they are? They mention that Nixon undercut the Paris Peace talks in 1968. The Paris Peace talks didn't take place until Nixon was already President.

McGovern was an out of touch rabble rouser who seemed plausible to the left because his minions weren't tearing apart the convention like they did in 1968.

Maybe if he picked a grown up as VP he might have gotten another state, but that's it.
 
McGovern could have done better if someone discovered that the Watergate burglaries were connected to Nixon when the election was going on.
 
I think TNF described McGovern's best case scenario. tThe Agnew bribery and tax evasion becoming public after the ballots are printed would hurt Nixon. wWhat kind of damaging Watergate Info could come out in Fall 1972.
 
I should share a TL from DW that had McGovern winning. nNixon has to resign in 1971. hHe is charged with bribery with bribery after it is revealed that he traded the Teamsters endorsement for the Hoffa pardon. pPresident Agnew's bribery and tax evasion becomes public in October 1972.
 
I think if Agnew resigns in Fall 1972, Nixon names John Connally as his replacement. If the ballots are already printed, this confuses many voters, Most Republican electors would vote for John Connally. As I pointed out in my President Conally TL, his bribery allegations would force him from office, after he took over from Nixon.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=268640
OTL he was indicted the day Nixon resigned.

1969 - 1974 Richard Nixon
1974 John Conally
1974 - 1977 Nelson Rockefeller
1977 - Same as OTL
 

d32123

Banned
Maybe have Wallace not get shot, run a third party ticket, and take a significant amount of the Southern vote away from Nixon? It'd make the gap between McGovern and Nixon a bit smaller.
 
McGovern's become one of my favorite politicians over the last year or so (Just look at my most recent thread!) despite me originally overlooking him during my entrance into politics. The truth is he was a fine candidate who got caught up in a perfect storm - running in the wrong election against the wrong men, giving his speech at the wrong time, picking the wrong running mate and the wrong talking points. He probably could have done better in any other election he could've ran in (sans 1984.)

McGovern could definitely have done better in 1972 and the idea he's un-electable seems to me, much of a myth based on his loss, but it's been said he could've won ten or so states if not for the Eagleton issues. That said, I'm not going to 'wank' about the guy - it's all but impossible for him to defeat Nixon unless you just completely shift the perfect storm away - or, if I recall, if Ted Kennedy became his running mate. I swear I read once McGovenr-Kennedy trounced Nixon-Agnew in polling.

But in my opinion, the least of George McGovern's problems on the campaign trail was George McGovern.
 
Maybe have Wallace not get shot, run a third party ticket, and take a significant amount of the Southern vote away from Nixon? It'd make the gap between McGovern and Nixon a bit smaller.

You are right, if Wallace avoids getting shot (My favorite POD is Bremer is arrested for shoplifting.There is also he takes a shot Nixon in Ottawa. He misses but gets arrested.) Wallace runs in the fall. I think he subtracts I would guess seven or eight percentage points from Nixon. I assume he like Perot would lose votes in the second try. The Southern Strategy was very successful. I do think he wins Alabama and Mississippi. Of course, if we weaken Nixon with scandal, then Wallace attracts more protest votes.
 
Just to add something to my previous post - Nixon is not invincible in 1972. It's just that no matter how you slice it, McGovern won't be the candidate to beat him. You need Humphrey or Wallace as the Democratic nominee to topple Nixon.
 
Just to add something to my previous post - Nixon is not invincible in 1972. It's just that no matter how you slice it, McGovern won't be the candidate to beat him. You need Humphrey or Wallace as the Democratic nominee to topple Nixon.

I think that, too.

However, with the scenario the OP sets up, let's say he does as well as Ford did IOTL '76. Now, McGovern was at 37% to Nixon's 53% before the conventions, Ford was at 36% to Carter's 53%. Something funny happens...

273 George McGovern / Walter Cronkite (Democratic) 49.02%
265 Richard Nixon / Spiro Agnew (Republican) 49.08%

1972McGovernDoesAsWellAsFord.png

1972McGovernDoesAsWellAsFord.png
 
I believe that McGoverns top three choices for his running-mate were:
  1. Senator Ted Kennedy, Massachusetts
  2. Senator Abraham Ribicoff, Connecticut
  3. Governor Reubin Askew, Florida
All three were offered the job and all three turned it down before he went with Tom Eagleton.

Askew to me looks the best bet of the three candidates, six years younger than McGovern he was only 44 years old.
 
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