WIth a POD of January 1, 1971, have George Wallace become the Democratic nominee for POTUS.
I don't think so. After MD it was Michigan, but white, middle-class Oregon is not going to take to Wallace. Even a win in NM will not change much because he didn't compete in the industrial states such as Illinois and Ohio. Big Labor, which saved the Dems from a third-place finish in '68, would not allow that to happen. They saw the polls in '68 that showed anywhere from 1/3 to 43% of their members in various locals supporting Wallace before they went DefCon 1 to quell the fires. Worst comes to worst the bosses rig it again as they nearly did in California and the public will forgive them because it's Wallace.
Michigan did break his way IOTL, 51-39. If OH and IL do the same, then there would be the choice of suppressing democracy or self-nuking.
Also: Ted Kennedy said the only way he could possibly be a candidate is if Wallace was about to, for personal reasons he had to oppose everything Wallace stood for.
So, if Wallace performs well in the primaries after Maryland, would Ted Kennedy or someone else rally the anti-Wallace factions of the party?
So, if Wallace performs well in the primaries after Maryland, would Ted Kennedy or someone else rally the anti-Wallace factions of the party?
I'[m wondering if the prospect of a Wallace nomination might have been enough to push the party establishment and the McGovernites into cooperating with each other for the purpose of stopping Wallace. The Daleys and Meanys of the Party may have detested the anti-war wing, but a Wallace nomination would have been very destabilizing to some of the big city machines and labor. It's not all that ridiculous to see them coming together to stop Wallace by uniting behind a candidate in exchange for putting McGovern on the ticket as VP and putting a strong anti-war plank in the party platform.
Maybe a Muskie/McGovern ticket then.
Wallace is going to take WWC votes from Humphrey. Places like Norwalk or Terre Haute.
If Humphrey is nominated again then the New Left is still influential because they haven't been destroyed in electoral battle. The Democratic civil war might be a two-way one: New Left v. stillborn DLC rather than New Deal v. DLC as was the case from '73 to '85.
ASB, he was dying of cancer and knew it.If Humphrey is the nominee the primaries in 1976.