Robert Kennedy came extremely close to death while campaigning for President in 1968. As he celebrated his recent primary victory in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel, a young Palestinian nationalist named Sirhan Sirhan pulled a gun on him. Sirhan managed to get a few shots off, but fortunately Kennedy's bodyguard shielded him from the bullets and Sirhan was tackled to the ground. Some say that RFK's decision to enter the ballroom through the main hallway may have saved his life: had he taken a detour through a tight kitchen as his advisers suggested, it's possible that Kennedy would've been separated from his bodyguard in the narrow and crowded area - making him fatally vulnerable to Sirhan's bullets. What if RFK had taken the detour through the hotel kitchen and Sirhan had assassinated him on that fateful day?
 
He'd likely be known as some sort of progressive icon instead of a bitter crank once Humphrey won the nomination. His third party bid, interesting because it was the most recent 4 way race in American history, doomed the somewhat slim hope Humphrey could win by having Wallace poach off enough Nixon voters. His turn to conspiracy theories about his brother being killed and him not winning the presidency only buried his image further

There's a reason there hasn't been a Kennedy in office since Chappaquiddick.
 
I think that had RFK gotten assassinated in 1968, Ted Kennedy would've definitely gotten the VP spot with Humphrey. Without RFK running a third party, and Ted on the ticket, Humphrey definitely pulls off a win. Maybe we still get President O'Neill if he takes over Ted's seat after he becomes VP, just like he did after Chappaquiddick in OTL.
 
No president O’Niell would have huge repercussions for the 1980s, and could also change president Akews rise from VP
 
I think that had RFK gotten assassinated in 1968, Ted Kennedy would've definitely gotten the VP spot with Humphrey. Without RFK running a third party, and Ted on the ticket, Humphrey definitely pulls off a win. Maybe we still get President O'Neill if he takes over Ted's seat after he becomes VP, just like he did after Chappaquiddick in OTL.
I can't see Ted going anywhere if he has something like Chappaquiddick happening, which given his trajectory was increasingly likely. Geez, imagine if he was veep and the trials went on... that'd probably be more disgusting than the Vietnam hearings that acquitted Nixon.
 
He'd likely be known as some sort of progressive icon instead of a bitter crank once Humphrey won the nomination. His third party bid, interesting because it was the most recent 4 way race in American history, doomed the somewhat slim hope Humphrey could win by having Wallace poach off enough Nixon voters. His turn to conspiracy theories about his brother being killed and him not winning the presidency only buried his image further

There's a reason there hasn't been a Kennedy in office since Chappaquiddick.
RFK Jr. is even worse in the conspiracy department.
 
RFK Jr. is even worse in the conspiracy department.

But at the least he succeeded where his dad failed and was nominated on a major party ticket. Had only 50,000 votes been shifted in Pennsylvania and Missouri, Kennedy would've beaten Jeb Bush in 2004 and become President.
 
But at the least he succeeded where his dad failed and was nominated on a major party ticket. Had only 50,000 votes been shifted in Pennsylvania and Missouri, Kennedy would've beaten Jeb Bush in 2004 and become President.
I'm a dyed in the wool Democrat, and if I'd been old enough to vote then, I'd have gone for Jeb.

Besides, didn't RFK Jr's running mate, Donald Trump, get arrested back about five years ago over shenanigans at his "family foundation"?
 
Besides, didn't RFK Jr's running mate, Donald Trump, get arrested back about five years ago over shenanigans at his "family foundation"?

Actually he was Jeb's running mate and later VP for eight years, not Kennedy's. But understandably people do sometimes get confused since Trump and RFK Jr are both from New York and are into conspiracy theories. Trump himself ran for President as Jeb's successor in 2012, but he resoundingly lost in the middle of a poor economy.

OOC: Since RFK Jr and Trump are both from New York, they can't legally run on a ticket together.
 
I'm a dyed in the wool Democrat, and if I'd been old enough to vote then, I'd have gone for Jeb.

Besides, didn't RFK Jr's running mate, Donald Trump, get arrested back about five years ago over shenanigans at his "family foundation"?
He got tried for it, but it was more for suspicions of having mob ties and other things given his father and his own business. It really wrecked his legitimacy as a politician, which with the economy led to the big blowout. It was a part of that big 2012 sweep that also got former governor Clinton for his treatment of secretaries and his own foundation. Quite a few politicians were ruined back then thanks to witnesses and victims speaking up actually.
 
A president Humphrey means we probably get a Republican 80s, 1976 was a poison chalice for either party. Instead of it being John Connally's presidency that goes down in flames, we probably get a terrible term under Edmund Muskie. Heck, we would probably even see Jeb's dad run in 1980 and win, he swept the OTL primaries in 1984 after all. Though, that brings into question if we'd ever get a Jeb Bush presidency, as multiple sources cite his dad's failed '84 run as his inspiration to get the Presidency.
 
A president Humphrey means we probably get a Republican 80s,

I'm not so sure. Humphrey would probably have been a one term President; Rockefeller or Reagan would have stood a good chance of beating him in 1972 if Saigon fell early and inflation increased as it did under Nixon. No party has won sixteen years in the White House since WWII, and I doubt that Humphrey would've been able to replicate that feat. So with a Republican 1970s, you'd almost certainly see a Democratic 1980s under a President Hugh Carey or Scoop Jackson.
 
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