DBWI: November 22, 1963

**rubs temples** This was a dark, bleak day in American history, one in which America lost two well-respected leaders - the President and the Vice President.

It started in Dallas, with Lee Harvey Oswald’s bullet striking down President Kennedy. This made Lyndon Johnson the President. For a few hours, anyway.

Oh, I remember the conspiracy theories abounding about how both men were taken down in one day and how it was a conspiracy to put McCormack in the White House. But no one can agree on who wanted to do it - was it the Russians? A bunch of billionaires? The military? No one can agree.

Gerald Blaine, that poor bastard who shot and killed LBJ said in his suicide note that it was an accident. He thought LBJ was breaking into the mansion. I, for one, believe him - he didn’t have any provable connections to much of anybody. But it ruined the man’s life, and he hanged himself in early 1964.

**sighs** What if it had gone down differently? What if even ONE of these men lived? I mean, would the world be, at least, like it was? God, I remember my grandpa telling me about the good old days. They sound just...unreal. Not like this hellscape.
**chugs brown liquid** I just wish I could have seen it. A world that didn’t go to hell in the 60s.
 
OOC: what happened in your world?

OOC: OTL, Gerald Blaine almost shot LBJ within 24 hours of JFK dying. On accident. He was Secret Service and investigating what he thought was a break-in at LBJ’s Home in DC. If he dies, John McCormack, a doddering old Republican, becomes President. And I wrote it from the point of view of a person living in the shithole to follow.
 

no one

Banned
OOC: OTL, Gerald Blaine almost shot LBJ within 24 hours of JFK dying. On accident. He was Secret Service and investigating what he thought was a break-in at LBJ’s Home in DC. If he dies, John McCormack, a doddering old Republican, becomes President. And I wrote it from the point of view of a person living in the shithole to follow.
I mean, what's the shithole?
 
OOC: OTL, Gerald Blaine almost shot LBJ within 24 hours of JFK dying. On accident. He was Secret Service and investigating what he thought was a break-in at LBJ’s Home in DC. If he dies, John McCormack, a doddering old Republican, becomes President. And I wrote it from the point of view of a person living in the shithole to follow.
Wasn't McCormack a Democrat?
 
One glaringly obvious question is who would be the likely VP?

Another is if McCormak has a cardiac from the stress & no VP selected who is next in line...
 

Anchises

Banned
Wasn't McCormack a Democrat?

His Wikipedia article doesn't seem so bad.

His actual political positions are somewhat similar to Kennedy's or LBJ's. A staunchly anti communist liberal. If I am wrong correct me.

Assuming that he wasn't a political crackpot I don't think his personal politics would have created a crapsack world.

One glaringly obvious question is who would be the likely VP?

Another is if McCormak has a cardiac from the stress & no VP selected who is next in line...

This might be an angle. People actually were on edge after the POTUS and the VP both died. When the Speaker died from cardiac arrest shortly before being sworn in as (acting?) President America experienced a grave political crisis.

Or he becomes President and is unable too push through Civil Rights legislations because he has neither the legitimacy nor the political skill of LBJ. He or his successor make some really bad calls in Vietnam and a war with China starts. That should be enough material for a fucked up TL imho.

Either way we would probably see a robust chain of Presidential succession after this.
 
OOC: Didn't McCormack let most of the Great Society legislation through? From this WashPo obituary, it sounds like he wasn't the strongest speaker ever, but he also governed with a national agenda, which makes it seem like he'd be alright as a place keeper until 1964.

Also, in this Cuban Missile Crises, the Second Holocaust essay, Robert Crowley writes that
John McCormack becomes President after all of EXCOM is wiped out. He succeeds at helping the nation heal, and is affectionately known as "Grandpa John" but it places a severe strain on his health and he doesn't run in 1964.
 
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Or he becomes President and is unable too push through Civil Rights legislations because he has neither the legitimacy nor the political skill of LBJ.
....

The election of 1964 should settle the legitimacy question. & if McCcormack is short on political skill he's not likely to win that election.
 
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