Best Republican-moderate President in 60s.

In yours opinion,if big names like Nixon or Rockefeller were out of the game (for one reason or for another) what would have been the best moderate-center wing Republican President for 1960-64/1965-1969 mandates?
Scranton?
Cabot Lodge?
Others?
 
Scranton, probably. Maybe Hugh Scott, also of PA. Or Charles Mathias.
Or, don't laugh, Harold Stassen. A legitimately good governor, a strong supporter of civil rights, and a solid Eisenhower Republican.
 
Scranton, probably. Maybe Hugh Scott, also of PA. Or Charles Mathias.
Or, don't laugh, Harold Stassen. A legitimately good governor, a strong supporter of civil rights, and a solid Eisenhower Republican.

Poor, poor Harold Stassen is there even a TL where he becomes President?
 
Scranton would be good. Also, Kenneth Keating of New York (Senator from 1959 to 1965, dragged under by LBJ's landslide in '64).
 
You're talking about Nelson Rockefeller not being available, right?

Then in my opinion the best non-Right Republican is his brother, Winthrop Rockefeller, governor of Arkansas '66 to '70.

Okay, it'd take some major handwaving to get him elected senator or governor in that state in time to run for president in '64--but Orval Faubas was governor during that era, and I think it's entirely possible to get him to massively screw-up in appointing a US senator should either McClellan's or Fulbright's seat become vacant, allowing W to do a John Tower and become the first GOPer elected from his state to the US upper house.

Winthrop Rockefeller could be the Great Republican Moderate Who Opposes The White Backlash (almost) everyone on AH.com dreams of. He has the talent and the drive, and he won election in a Southern state as a pro-civil rights governor in OTL.
 
He won election partially because Justice Jim made George Wallace look like a NAACP member. That's an interesting campaign covered in Bill Clinton's My Life.
 
Henry Cabot Lodge seems like the best choice. He was already on a national ticket in 1960, so it's within the plane of reason. And he won three primaries in 1964 by write-in without leaving Vietnam.

Give him the win over JFK in 1952 and you might have a deal.

Alternately, you could use his son, George Lodge, who was defeated by Ted Kennedy in 1962. I'm not sure what could put him on a national stage as early as 1968, however, maybe he could have won Kennedy's seat in 1958 if, for some reason, JFK got into trouble.
 
JFK won 75% of the vote in 1958- that's quite impossible to reverse. Even if Hoover opened his file...

Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what that would take - but the easy answer of course is that there's some tragedy and JFK is killed. If it's during the campaign, there's probably a huge rush of sympathy voters, but maybe Kennedy is killed early in his term, and the winner of the special election in 1956 is unpopular and defeated by George Lodge, eventually leading to the latter's 1968 GOP nomination?

Too contorted?
 
Henry Cabot Lodge, one time US Senator an latter the GOP vice Presidential nominee and Ambassador to South Vietnam might have been a possible .canidate. Trouble with the moderates were they were too wishy washy
 
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