Challenge: elect one of the Kennedy women POTUS

POD 1940, elect one of the Kennedy women President. Jackie, Ethel, Joan, Vicki, Pat, Eunice, Kathleen only. Bonus if it's before 1988, Double Bonus if one is a Republican, and recognition as a Kexpert if a Republican Kennedy female faces Hillary Rodham for the Republican nomination.
 
What if I can get a female Kennedy to run against a female Nixon in a year ending in zero? They'd have to be a democrat though.
 
Let me type something up. I don't know about a Republican (or even a Republican Hillary Clinton) as that would require some MASSIVE changes to the timeline. I'll try my best.
 
Yes, I know Kathleen's easy to do because she's a politician IOTL: congresswoman from Maryland, governor of Maryland, Senator from Maryland, POTUS. But I'm hoping for more originality than that. ;)
 
Let me type something up. I don't know about a Republican (or even a Republican Hillary Clinton) as that would require some MASSIVE changes to the timeline. I'll try my best.

Actually, to get HRC to be Republican, it's not that hard. I know for fact that she supported Goldwater in '64; what I'm not certain about is whether she turned Democrat when she started dating Bill Clinton or before. So you just have her never meet WJC, and you have Goldwaterite Hillary.:D
 
I'll throw out a hint and say that Eunice might be a good bet. She's the smartest of the sisters (and in-laws apart from Jackie), gregarious, is involved with the poor and her 1952 work was second only to Bobby's. JPK Sr. said that "if that girl had been born with balls she'd have been a hell of a politician."
 
What if I can get a female Kennedy to run against a female Nixon in a year ending in zero? They'd have to be a democrat though.

Nixon's daughters were not interested in politics, just like their mother. Eunice was the only one of the sisters who was at all political. Jackie's intense dislike of "politics and politicians" is well-known.
 
To many, Lyndon Johnson was the presumptive nominee for the Democratic nomination for President; the only other candidate in the running was Alabama Governor George Wallace, and he was running only to make known his platform and issues. Therefore, the 1964 Democratic Party Convention was presumed to be a simple affair, a rubber stamp. Therefore, when Lyndon Johnson was approached by the Democratic National Committee about giving Jacqueline Kennedy a speaking slot before the delegates were to vote for him, he grew nervous; however, it was only for a moment. He gave them the go ahead and went ahead with his business.

After giving her speech at the Convention in Atlantic City, there were surprises to be had. Some saw that Jackie managed to tug at her heartstrings; others claim it was more in memory of her husband Jack. Whatever the reason, it was a surprise for Johnson, and for Jackie herself, when she was nominated as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States. Only after her own attempts failed to dissuade the delegates did she accept. Lyndon Johnson was (ironically) nominated by the delegates to once again stand as Vice President. It is no proper to make the comments he made that night public.

In regards to the campaign, there is not much to say. Goldwater got CRUSHED. And when I mean crushed, he lost every single state except Alabama and Mississippi, which were only carried because George Wallace removed her from the ballot (though that did not prevent her from receiving a large percentage of write-in votes). Despite many claiming that being the First Lady did not make her capable of being President of the United States, that did not prevent sixty eight percent of the voters from choosing her. However, Jackie’s administration did not prove to be as popular……..

Edit: This is not orginally my idea. Someone wrote a TL about this, but I only remember it vaguely. Basically Jackie gets nominated, but she decided in the middle of the race that she does not want the Presidency. Therefore Johnson still ends up running.
 
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Ariosto: I'd think ASB. She has no political experience and besides, is only 34, not old enough to be POTUS. ;) That scenario you outlined could easily happen with Bobby: why do you think Johnson rescheduled his speech until after the roll calls were over? Even in 1968, he moved the RFK tribute and Ted's speech to destroy a potential draft-Kennedy movement, which would have been backed by Hizzonor, unknown to LBJ. Bobby was not going to challenge Lyndon, but he certainly wouldn't decline a draft. I would do anything to see both their faces when that happens, or be a reporter shoving a mike in their face and ask "any comment Mr. Attorney General/Mr. President?" :D:D
 
Ariosto: I'd think ASB. She has no political experience and besides, is only 34, not old enough to be POTUS. ;) That scenario you outlined could easily happen with Bobby: why do you think Johnson rescheduled his speech until after the roll calls were over? Even in 1968, he moved the RFK tribute and Ted's speech to destroy a potential draft-Kennedy movement, which would have been backed by Hizzonor, unknown to LBJ. Bobby was not going to challenge Lyndon, but he certainly wouldn't decline a draft. I would do anything to see both their faces when that happens, or be a reporter shoving a mike in their face and ask "any comment Mr. Attorney General/Mr. President?" :D:D
Well yes, that would prove a problem now wouldn't it :D

And yes, I know Bobby had hopes that he would be nominated over Johnson, or at least be made his Vice President (the former I am not sure). And yes, it would be funny if something like that actually happened, especially when LBJ was supposed to be "drafted" by the convention unanimously.
 
Maybe I should write a TL based around that scenario one day. But back to the OP, anyone care to try electing Eunice POTUS?
 
Sorry to bump a somewhat dead thread, but I have something of an idea.

Sargent Shriver (as in Eunice's husband) was fairly politically active, but he never actually ran for office. Shriver was a Marylander, and it's not implausible that he could have run for office in that state. If he were to run for Governor in 1966, he would have entered a crowded field for the Democratic nomination, but his associations with the Kennedy family probably would have set him apart. (IOTL, the Democratic nomination was won by George Mahoney, a segregationist.) Since Maryland is such a heavily Democratic state, Shriver would have easily won the election over the GOP's nominee, a man by the name of Spiro Agnew. Then, we'd have to rely on butterflies resulting in his death somehow, leaving room for his widow to run for the office herself. Eunice was brilliant, of course, and she'd be insulated from political attack in Maryland. From there, she would be able to build up her own political experience in preparation for a run for the Presidency, perhaps in 1976 against whomever ended up on Nixon's ticket in a world without Agnew in 1968.
 
Shriver was LBJ's War on Poverty director, and was completely loyal to Lyndon. Remember, Bobby is the head of the family in 1966 and easily the most prominent Kennedy with veto power over most things like this. RFK and Sarge were never close, to say the least (sometimes Shriver would be mocked as the "house Communist"), and Bobby wasn't above letting it be known that Shriver "wasn't a real Kennedy". Were it not for unchangeable family dynamics, your scenario might work out, though I'm quite certain the US wasn't ready for a female President in '76.
 
wormyguy wins the thread, along with a maple syrup/Tim Hortons shipment as reward, if he posts an outline of his scenario. :cool:
 
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