Challenge: Stevenson v. Nixon, 1960

With a POD of January 1, 1960, make Adlai Stevenson the Democratic nominee against Nixon. No candidates of either party can be killed, maimed or incapacitated in any way. Bonus if it's a LBJ-Stevenson battle, double bonus if LBJ is Stevenson's running mate.
 
With a POD of January 1, 1960, make Adlai Stevenson the Democratic nominee against Nixon. No candidates of either party can be killed, maimed or incapacitated in any way. Bonus if it's a LBJ-Stevenson battle, double bonus if LBJ is Stevenson's running mate.
You want said : "With a POD of January 1, 1960,make Adlai Stevenson the sure looser VS Richard Nixon in the 1960 Presidential election "?
 
I'm pretty sure that the Democrats only allowed one man to lose more than two consecutive presidential elections for the party in US history...
 
I know that Stevenson winning is ASB, but I'm more interested in the campaign dynamics, whether there'd be TV debates, etc. Nixon can be much more ideological, since this won't be a candidate of two centrists as IOTL.
 
Two centrists, RogueBeaver?

Only one candidate in 1960 gave the CIA a massive free ride, the largest tax cut in American history, the biggest arms expansion in time of peace and the largest expansion of our nuclear forces, not to mention causing near panic in Moscow and possibly a certain Cuban crisis with his calls for a massive increase in the already overwhelming US nuclear advantage over the USSR.

I suppose you could call Nixon a centrist but...:p
 
Adlai Stevenson decided to make one final run for the Presidency through the primaries, rather than waiting for a draft movement to win him the nomination at the convention. His major obstacle was the very man he had originally favored to be his running mate four years previously, Senator John F. Kennedy from Massachusetts. Both held similar views; however, Kennedy had a youthful and handsome appearance, something which Adlai could not attain. To counter this, he decided to remark that Kennedy, while an admirable statesman, was not yet suited to hold the executive office. While Kennedy would politely deny these claims, he was caught off guard when making a remark; "Stevenson is complaining about me not having enough experience to run this country, while he does. After being kicked away from the White House twice by the American people, I am not sure he does, or he would have sense enough not to run again."

LBJ had originally intended not to run in the primaries and get involved in the mudslinging that usually followed, but with the liberal vote being split by multiple candidates, he decided to make a few limited appearances; however, these were all in states he was sure he was going to win.

Despite his best effort, Adlai failed to win the New Hampshire Primary, losing forty four to fifty one. However, for Stevenson and his supporters, it was a victory; many had considered that Kennedy’s victory would be larger since New Hampshire was only a stone’s throw away from Massachusetts. Wisconsin would be taken by Hubert Humphrey with thirty nine percent of the vote; Stevenson managed to best Kennedy with thirty one percent to his twenty three. Needing a decisive victory, Adlai contacted Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and asked for his support in the upcoming Illinois primary. Until this point he was evenly divided between the two, one a native son and the other having the look of a winner; still, they both had exposed flaws that might make them lose, and Kennedy’s lack of support outside of Roman communities was deadly. After throwing his lot with Stevenson, many discounted the Illinois primary, which Stevenson won seventy two to twenty eight.

After Massachusetts was closer than expected, and Adlai carried Pennsylvania, Kennedy threw in the towel and jumped out of the race. Stevenson would face no opposition until the Nebraska and West Virginia primaries; the later he won, the former he lost to Lyndon Johnson by a narrow margin. In hopes of trying to get more support in the North, Johnson asks to debate Stevenson before the Maryland primary, which Stevenson accepts. The move backfires and Johnson subsequently loses Maryland to Stevenson, who goes on to sweep the remaining primaries. A Stop-Stevenson movement is made around Kennedy (withdrew but kept his delegates and controlled the New England delegations), Humphrey, and Symington, but none can agree on endorsing the other, resulting in the plan falling apart. Adlai therefore wins on the first ballot. In a surprise he chooses Lyndon Johnson as his Vice President who is overwhelmingly nominated over Kennedy, who tried again to get the second seat on the ballot.

And the rest we know is history. Due to many factors which included Nixon’s poor campaigning tactics, Republican over-confidence of victory until the final days before the election, strenuous campaigning by both Stevenson and Johnson; all of this finally allowed for Adlai Stevenson to receive the key from the American people to the White House. Third time’s a charm as they say; apparently it was Irish and not Scottish blood in his veins.
 
Ariosto wins the thread by brilliantly answering the OP, though I think Nixon would still prevail in the general. Stevenson is elitist and out of touch with WWC voters, which topples the industrial states into Nixon's column. Daley had absolute contempt for Stevenson's potential as a candidate, though he respected him as a person.
 
Two centrists, RogueBeaver?

Only one candidate in 1960 gave the CIA a massive free ride, the largest tax cut in American history, the biggest arms expansion in time of peace and the largest expansion of our nuclear forces, not to mention causing near panic in Moscow and possibly a certain Cuban crisis with his calls for a massive increase in the already overwhelming US nuclear advantage over the USSR.
Is for this that i love JFK :rolleyes:
And maybe (maybe) without that damned nut of Oswald,USA don't be fall in the quick sand of Vietnam...so nothing counterculture.."mad men style" forever...
Oh,i love JFK!!!
 
I get the same reaction when I enthusiastically pop the "RFK as uber-liberal" bubble. The Kennedys were more conservative than many would believe, but that's for another thread. All explained in the FAQ in my sig. ;)
 
A few things working against Nixon I can think of:

  • "Nixon will never get elected. The people don't like him"-Dwight Eisenhower. A lot of people thought this.
  • Suffered electorally before Ike started to support him in his bid for President, and if I recall, in the OTL it was Nixon who had to come from behind to catch up to Kennedy and not the vice versa.
  • Eight years of a Republican already.
A few things working against Adlai I can think of:

  • "Egg-head"; the GOP will, and had, painted him as an intellectual out of touch with average Americans
  • Had lost, rather handily, two previous elections.
  • Not charismatic. Compared to Nixon, IDK how that'd work, but I think even Nixon was more charismatic than Adlai.
And maybe (maybe) without that damned nut of Oswald,USA don't be fall in the quick sand of Vietnam...so nothing counterculture.."mad men style" forever...
Oh,i love JFK!!!
If I could chime in on the "JFK Lives!" counterculture, I think you'd still get the hippies and peace and love, though the ATL size is debatable, and I think it'd be more "bubbly" and less irate and militarized and radicalized as it would grow over the 60's. I mean, the greasers and beatniks and all that in the 1950's didn't require Korea to react against. Counterculture is always there in American society.
The youth could also follow JFK's whole civil service to the nation deal and funnel their energies into changing the system with the Peace corp and civil service.

I think it'd be a sort of unique evolution from there. People wear suites and fedoras (the latter with maybe an on and off popularity), but with sideburns, and the hippies are still there, though there's a lot of youth who work in the system to change it rather than rejecting the system and trying to change it from without. And you're less apt to get the "angry youth" backlash against the peace and love youth/followup to the militarized and radicalized angry counterculture youth, so no punk and all that.

If you'd like to discuss this further, I did establish a cultural discussion thread for my Camelot Revisited TL.

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=143570
 
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Nixon led JFK by 3-4 points until the debates, then a Kennedy lead opened that Nixon sometimes closed but rarely surpassed until late October. In late October Ike's doctors finally gave him the go-ahead and Ike blasted Kennedy on Nixon's behalf. IIRC Nixon also made a final push in the last week. Kennedy's momentum stalled and nearly blew the election, and like Ford in '76, given 3-4 more days Nixon would have won. The stupid thing was a "50-state strategy" instead of focusing on Illinois, New Jersey and the industrial states.

Nixon was not charismatic by any standard but he had more experience. Stevenson was a one-term governor of Illinois and hadn't held elected, or even appointed, office in over a decade. Nixon is also younger than Stevenson: Nixon is 47, Stevenson 60. That's what people forgot IOTL: JFK and Nixon were only four years apart in age, though you'd think that Nixon was 15 years older judging by his demeanor.
 
RogueBeaver

Not just the 50 state strategy. I truly believe one reason for Nixon's future absolute hatred of the Kennedy Clan was Kennedy's supreme mendaciousness at the 1st debate. "Missile Gap?". It was 14:1 in our favor at the time IIRC, but this was all Top Secret. Kennedy had been briefed, so he knew he was damn well lying when he made the charge at the debate. Nixon couldn't challenge Kennedy's lies without commiting treason! No way was the national media going to challenge their darling. Especially Ben Bradlee of the Washington Post, whose feelings for JFK could best be described as "unnatural".
 
Bradlee knew less than he thought he did. Otherwise he'd have known Jack Kennedy was sleeping with his, Bradlee's, sister-in-law. But the ROE was different then: the media were social friends of the Kennedys, even in off-hours. The trick was to genuinely befriend them by giving them some not-for-publication scoops, and what journalist wouldn't want to befriend the Kennedys? Bobby was better at this than Jack was, mainly because he couldn't fake his emotions. If the journalists started straying off the reservation, they'd be threatened with termination of the social connection as a first step. 99.9% of the time that was enough.
 
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