DBWI: Nixon broke his pledge on 11/7/1962

Today is the anniversary of former Vice President Richard Nixon uttered this iconic statement after his unsuccessful race for Governor of California:

"I leave you gentleman now and you will write it. You will interpret it. That's your right. But as I leave you I want you to know — just think how much you're going to be missing. You won't have Nixon to kick around any more, because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference and it will be one in which I have welcomed the opportunity to test wits with you."

Nixon kept his promise until he passed away in 1993.

Suppose Nixon broke that promise and re-entered politics. Could he have been elected President if he chose to run?
 

MrHola

Banned
He probably would not have run in 1964, he'd be trounced by LBJ - no Republican would stand a chance in '64. Maybe 1968?

OOC: Who won in 1968 if I may ask?
 
We might not have had another football league in the 1980s.

I mean, think about it, the NFL was the most successful sports league in the early 1980s, their product was on TV drawing millions; would anyone besides Nixon, being the football fan that he is, have chosen to organize an entire football league? It lasted for 4 years, too, showing he was pretty good at the executive position, and they got four new teams in the NFL out of it. It's hard to imagine anyone but Nixon having the guts to run an entire league like that against the NFL.

ObWI: What if they'd tried to sue the NFL over the antitrust thing instead? I've read some were in favor, but Nixon wasn't the suing type, I don't think; if he was, he'd have challenged JFK in '60.
 
Who won in '68?

I would guess Rockefeller with Reagan as his VP. Even though he was regarded as too liberal by many conservatives, after the trouncing Goldwater got they might have wanted a more balanced ticket. Reagan was a rising star at the time and was widely considered as a potential frontrunner but he didn't run.
 
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