We all know that Barry Goldwater defeated President Johnson in his 1964 re-election campaign, after Johnson's year in office collapsed around him. The Civil Rights Act failed making him appear weak to the liberals, yet at the same the effort to pass it opened the South up to Republican encroachment. Add to that the escalation of tensions in Vietnam and the poor VP choice in Robert Kennedy after their tough convention battle, and Johnson was swept in what would amount to one of the biggest landslides in US history.
However, now I want to ask: what if Goldwater lost? Maybe one of those things go Johnson's way, maybe all of them do. But what if Johnson manages to beat Goldwater in 1964.