Challenge: Unitarian Universalist President

Re Rocky nomination: That means a VP Robert Kennedy. Who is most definitely not a Unitarian. And all you have to do for a Rocky nomination is have him win CA over Goldwater, where the margin is small enough to reverse in Rocky's favour.


"Schlesinger was an old friend of the family, and he'd served my brother pretty well, so when he wanted to talk to me at the convention, I made room in a busy schedule. I was working night and day with the clan, since we'd been talking since California about what our next move was going to be. I wanted to accept the nomination. I saw it as part of Jack's promises to keep. Ethel didn't like the idea. She didn't want the same thing to happen to me that had happened to him. But she was willing to smile for the cameras if that's what it took. Kennedy women. God bless them.

"So when I shut the door behind me, I signaled to Arthur to take a moment while I rested my eyes. I opened them again. He was staring politely at something a couple of inches to the side of my face.

"'So what is it?' I asked, maybe a little more roughly than I'd meant to.

Arthur cut through the small talk. "I've received word that the President is willing to offer you the number two spot on the ticket."

I nodded. Arthur seemed like an odd one for Lyndon to send over. It was obviously something else.

"'And?'

"'And I'm here to advise you not to take it.'" I kept my face impassive, trying not to show my surprise. He took my stunned silence as an invitation to continue. "'It's simple. He's probably going to win with you on the ticket. That puts you in a good position for...what? 1968? Do you want to be tied to this administration for that long, or would you rather wield some actual influence as a Senator or Governor? If he fails, you have a chance in 1964, and if he succeeds, you have a better chance in '68 with some legislative experience behind you.'"

The conversation turned to other, more trival matters, and he eventually took his leave. I sat in silence for a short while, then picked up the phone. The first call was to Ethel to let her know my decision. The second was to LBJ to tell him not to bother sending over his people to feel me out."

-Robert F. Kennedy, interview, 1976
 
Excellent. :cool: But you forgot the "Lyndon's not the type of guy I'd like to ride around the world with on a tandem bike" (that's perhaps the calmest statement Bobby ever made on that subject) and "I don't like the idea of taking a job which is based around the idea of waiting for someone to die." other than that, picture-perfect. :D

OOC: Another reason that Bobby wasn't as *candid* as usual during the OTL refusal meeting was because he saw that the taping system was activated and didn't want LBJ to play tape of a very decibel-intensive shouting match. When those shouting matches later did occur (most notably the famous "Newsweek meeting" of Jan. 1967), Bobby would wear demag devices.
 
Excellent. :cool: But you forgot the "Lyndon's not the type of guy I'd like to ride around the world with on a tandem bike" (that's perhaps the calmest statement Bobby ever made on that subject) and "I don't like the idea of taking a job which is based around the idea of waiting for someone to die." other than that, picture-perfect. :D

OOC: Another reason that Bobby wasn't as *candid* as usual during the OTL refusal meeting was because he saw that the taping system was activated and didn't want LBJ to play tape of a very decibel-intensive shouting match. In later, less polite meetings where Gordon Ramsay would look like a "girly-man", Bobby would wear demag devices.

Point taken, but I'm saving up my f-bombs for Cohn.
 
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