DBWI: McGovern nominated in 1972

[JVM]

A little-known fact is that President George Stanley McGovern (1977 - 1985) who died last year in 2012, was almost nominated for president in the bitter Democratic primaries forty years earlier. He pulled out at the convention and handed off his delegates, but his resurgent campaign four years later was a huge success, thanks in a large part to his strong debate performances.

How would he have performed against the formidable Nixon in 1972, and how would it have affected America today? How would McGovern's career have continued? etc.

[ooc: Intentionally vague so people can have a little more fun with it.]

 

[Plumber]

McGovern vs. Nixon? It would have been a landslide. I can't believe the Democratic Party passed that one up.

 

[TNF]

As Plumber said, it would have been a win for the Democrats, if you ask me. McGovern running against that crook...how could anyone vote Nixon against a man with such moral fiber as McGovern? I mean, plus, it'd be hard for Nixon to run against McGovern, a war hero, in the midst of his continuing Vietnam debacle. McGovern would know how to get things done.

I think we'd have just seen earlier improvements in American society, to be honest, had McGovern been elected in '72 instead of Ed Muskie going down in a nail-biter. The Mincome program would have went online in 1973 and we'd have Medicare-for-All a lot earlier, too. No idea how McGovern would handle Nixon and his crimes, though. Watergate might never get out, and Nixon of course would never have been impeached and removed from office. American politics might be less cynical.

 

[Emperor Julian]

He'd win reelection against that Reagan for sure. I can't see Reagan doing any better in this 1976 than he did in OTL 1976. That crazy right-winger is doomed to lose in a landslide in all timelines.

 

[Andrew T]

[OOC: I presume the POD is that Gary Hart doesn't manage the '72 McGovern campaign?]

 

[JVM]

[OOC: I presume the POD is that Gary Hart doesn't manage the '72 McGovern campaign?]

[I didn't come up with one explicitly, but I'd be fine to run with that.]

 

[Evil Opus]

McGovern wins, but in a tight race. Nixon only won in '72 because Ted Kennedy didn't run and the Democrats were forced to nominate Ed Muskie, who has to have been the dullest man ever to run for president. But would McGovern have been reelected in '76? That's an interesting question.