George McGovern vs Barry Goldwater

We can have some fun with this scenerio, imagine in the late 60s or early 70s George McGovern and Barry Goldwater go head-to-head for the WhiteHouse.

This would be an interesting scenerio in OTL both men were outside the political mainstream and both got absoulutly smashed by their opponants.
 
We can have some fun with this scenerio, imagine in the late 60s or early 70s George McGovern and Barry Goldwater go head-to-head for the WhiteHouse.

This would be an interesting scenerio in OTL both men were outside the political mainstream and both got absoulutly smashed by their opponants.

Depends when, but the years when that could work would mean probably Goldwater.
 
It would have to be in '72. I suspect that whichever party is the incumbent loses. If both are nominated that means the nation is breaking apart most likely.
 
Well, let's assume the following:
-Rocky gets the GOP nomination in 1964 and loses to LBJ
-Nixon gets the GOP nod as IRL in 1968; HHH gets the Dem nomination and Bad Stuff happens in '68 as IRL (to facilitate the post-68 reforms that allowed McGovern to win). Nixon wins.
-Nixon has a non-fatal heart attack that rules out a second term (assume that a leak occurs to flush it out in public) while Agnew gets bogged down in scandals as 1971 goes on (the bribery stuff breaks early).

At this point, I think a McGovern nomination is still plausible for '72 while Goldwater could nudge in for the GOP nomination. And Goldwater would probably win that one because of the tinkering Nixon had already done with the economy.
 
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