DBWI: Plausibility Check: Ted Kennedy doesn't run for the Presidency

Freizeit

Banned
I was thinking about writing a timeline where space travel didn't become widespread, and I think the best way to do this is to prevent Ted Kennedy from becoming President in 1972. However, I want him to survive so I'm not going to have him die in the 1964 plane crash. Instead, I'm thinking of ruining his reputation. I'd like AH.com's opinion of whether my proposal is plausible:

Sometime in 1969 Ted Kennedy attends a party. He has a few drinks and ends up driving both himself and an female aid. He could be having an affair with her, I haven't decided yet. On his way to the aid's hotel room he crosses a bridge, and, being drunk, swerves and drives off. The car ends up upside down, and although Ted is able to escape the aid is trapped and dies.

Ted then leaves the scene but doesn't inform the authorities. In the morning the sunken car is discovered by someone, who phones the police, and Kennedy is arrested. However, the court rules that there is not enough evidence to sentence him and Ted is let off. Once the press find out his reputation is ruined and he doesn't become President in 1972 or 76.

Thoughts?
 

Germaniac

Donor
Maybe you can find a way to make Ted into an alcoholic. Some massive stress could do that. Maybe you can kill off Pres. Joe JR, I remember reading that during operation Aphrodite, the mission he won the Navy Cross for, that he almost went down with the plane( an not saving the life of co-pilot Wilford Willy). Have him die, then maybe have his brother John, the writer, die of an overdose (He admitted to using several drugs to help him with his severe back problems) President Robert Kennedy, while fairly popular, had a large number of people who genuinely hated him. Maybe he could be assassinated before or during his presidency in 68.

Those types of things really change a person.
 

Freizeit

Banned
Maybe you can find a way to make Ted into an alcoholic. Some massive stress could do that. Maybe you can kill off Pres. Joe JR, I remember reading that during operation Aphrodite, the mission he won the Navy Cross for, that he almost went down with the plane( an not saving the life of co-pilot Wilford Willy). Have him die, then maybe have his brother John, the writer, die of an overdose (He admitted to using several drugs to help him with his severe back problems) President Robert Kennedy, while fairly popular, had a large number of people who genuinely hated him. Maybe he could be assassinated before or during his presidency in 68.

Those types of things really change a person.

I thought about that but I don't really know much about pre-Space Age history.
 
Guys you are way over thinking this if you want to kill space travel Kill project Orion. Before Orion got off the ground people used chemical rockets to get up into space, it cost a lot of money and got us a lot less bang for our buck.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propulsion)

Well, that would kill U.S. space travel, but the Russians and Chinese would still have their programs.

Although, I don't know how having the stuff that happened to Gary Hart happen to Kennedy a decade earlier would change that either.
 

Freizeit

Banned
Well, that would kill U.S. space travel, but the Russians and Chinese would still have their programs.

Although, I don't know how having the stuff that happened to Gary Hart happen to Kennedy a decade earlier would change that either.

OK, I admit I didn't think that part through, but if there's no US program it could cause the Russians to relax and the Space Race just fizzles out.
 
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