Give Peace A Chance: The Presidency of Eugene McCarthy

Love it, especially this alternate more noble war on drugs and the uniqueness of a campaign for the vice presidency, keep it up :biggrin:
Who's the new treasury secretary after Rocky?
 
Very interesting Nader, I've heard the name, didn't he try to run for President, twice?
That's right. Ralph Nader is a consumer protection activist who has been active since the 1960s, on various issues such as environmental causes, vehicle safety, whistleblower protection, trade balance, and other issues. He ran for President as either an Independent or Green in every presidential election from 1992 to 2008, but he's most famous for his 2000 campaign, where he was accused of throwing it to Dubya Bush over Al Gore.
 
Love it, especially this alternate more noble war on drugs and the uniqueness of a campaign for the vice presidency, keep it up :biggrin:
Who's the new treasury secretary after Rocky?
Claude R. Kirk Jr, the Secretary of Commerce, has been moved up to Secretary of the Treasury to replace Rockefeller. Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, who was sitting on the National Economic Council, has been moved to fill Kirk's Secretary of Commerce vacancy. Both are personal friends of Rhodes.
 
Claude R. Kirk Jr, the Secretary of Commerce, has been moved up to Secretary of the Treasury to replace Rockefeller. Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, who was sitting on the National Economic Council, has been moved to fill Kirk's Secretary of Commerce vacancy. Both are personal friends of Rhodes.
You always have the best picks for your cabinet. Wish I had the same talent for mine!
 
You always have the best picks for your cabinet. Wish I had the same talent for mine!
As shucks, you spoil me.
The best tip I can give for finding good cabinet members is identifying friends and associates of the alternate President. The best way to identify them is by reading the biography of the alternate President, if one is available.
 
Chapter Forty-Two - Tired of Toein' the Line
“Platforms are something you run from, not on.”

  • President Jim Rhodes, on the Campaign of 1980

As April of 1980 came around, the primaries went into full swing.

On the Republican side, President Jim Rhodes continued his unopposed stroll to the nomination. All throughout his term in office, Rhodes had been holding frequent rallies. Initially dismissed as a ‘victory lap,’ the ‘Rhodes Rally’ had become a staple of his administration, and had laid the groundwork for his 1980 campaign. Rhodes never addressed any of the Democratic nominees, practically ignoring the other party, just as he had done in 1976, and just as he had done in every Ohio campaign before that. Rhodes, as he was wont to do, continued to obfuscate and dance around specific policy questions with the notable exception of guaranteed employment. Raising the banner of his landmark re-election issue, Jobs for America, Rhodes promised a job for every American willing to work. Where Rhodes returned to opacity was what guaranteed employment would actually entail. Rhodes promised “work with integrity with a livable family wage” but refused to elaborate on whether Jobs for America would also dismantle the welfare state built since FDR, or if it would supplement it. Rhodes let people assume what they wanted to hear. As for Senator Paul Laxalt of Nevada, he continued his campaign for the Republican Vice Presidential nomination, in a challenge to incumbent Vice President Mills Godwin. Despite easily winning the New Hampshire Vice Presidential primary, Laxalt struggled to get delegate support in every other state. Laxalt did, however, have the full support of the majority of the Southern delegations, as well as minority support in the West and New England. Despite the fact that Rhodes had never actually voiced support for his Vice President, the natural assumption was that he would eventually back Godwin, or perhaps just ignore Laxalt, as he was ignoring the Democrats. Rhodes breezed through the early April primaries in Kansas, Wisconsin, and Louisiana (Laxalt gained the endorsement of the Louisiana delegates), while the weight was finally begin to shift in the Democratic primaries.


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Vice President Mills Godwin (centre) decided on a Rose Garden strategy to counter Senator Paul Laxalt's challenge.


Speaker of the House Mo Udall retained his frontrunner status, despite early challenges from former Peace Corps Director Sargent Shriver. Udall and Shriver had similar platforms, and were more defined by their associations than by policy differences. Udall called for reforming the Medicare and Medicaid Advancement Act (the MMAA, alternatively known as ‘McCarthyCare’) and expanding it into a single-payer healthcare system. Udall also proposed universal basic income as an alternative to Rhodes’ Jobs for America, and suggested that, as an immediate solution to the advent of stagflation, that the price freeze be extended, before increasing wages to accomodate for rising inflation, and restoring the budgets of social spending programs that had been slashed by Rhodes. Shriver largely agreed with all of the policy suggestions of Udall, but associated Udall with McCarthy’s extremely unpopular second term. Claiming that Udall was beholden to radicals of the New Left, Shriver proposed his own brand of Kennedy/Johnson/Humphrey-esque reconciliation Old Leftism, while also denouncing the Dixiecrat elements and candidates of the Old Left, such as George Wallace. However, both Udall and Shriver were surprisingly weak amongst union voters. Udall, while personally pro-union, had supported anti-union legislation due to its support among his Arizona constituents; something the union bosses had never really forgiven him for. Shriver, who then seemed like the natural alternative for the union bosses as the next best Democrat, had the same vulnerability that McCarthy had had in the Midwest in 1968, with pockets of blue collar workers and union members voting for Wallace, after being disenchanted with the War on Poverty and the race riots of the time. Shriver, who proudly proclaimed himself to be the architect of the War on Poverty, became associated by some voters with the bad year of 1968.

Running on his ‘Guaranteed Employment Democrat’ platform, Senator Lloyd Bentsen pulled ahead for the first time in the primaries, winning the state of Kansas, although Udall would win the Wisconsin primary on the same day. What came as a surprise was the results of the Louisiana primary, where former Governor of Georgia and Vice Presidential candidate Jimmy Carter defeated the expected winner, Senator for Alabama George Wallace. Wallace, who had easily won Louisiana in the general election in 1968 and 1972 in his third party campaigns and in the Democratic primary 1976, was running a lacklustre campaign in 1980. As he began to fall into the category of perennial candidate, Wallace had lost the segregationism and populist lustre that had defined him in his earlier years. Despite being on Henry Jackson’s landslide defeat ticket in 1976, Carter had escaped with his reputation largely intact, considering his selection on the ticket had been a compromise to the South, rather than any close association with Jackson himself. Carter ran as a moderate New South Democrat, but not strictly speaking a GE Democrat. Carter, channeling the growing prominence of Jim Wallis’ People’s Christian Coalition, campaigned on an optimistic, outsider campaign, with special emphasis put on his Baptist faith.


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Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas was most well known for running as a 'Guaranteed Employment Democrat' as an alternative to the other, typically pro-welfare and social security Democrats in the 1980 primaries.

Despite Carter and Bentsen temporarily pulling ahead after sitting at third and fourth place respectively in the polls, Udall made his own comeback by winning the Pennsylvania primary and the Michigan caucuses. Despite tepid union support, Udall held his position as the first choice of most Democrats in the Midwest and Northeast after the 1976 Jackson catastrophe.

Former Vice President John Connally, distantly trailing in the polls, failed to even win his home state of Texas, with Bentsen taking the state instead. Although Udall would win Washington D.C, Carter would sweep the May 6 primaries in Indiana, North Carolina, and Tennessee. As May went on, the Democratic primaries began to split in their winners.

Bentsen would win Nebraska, Shriver would make a comeback in Maryland, and Udall in Oregon and Nevada. While Arkansas would go to its Favourite Son, Dale Bumpers, Bentsen would continue to take the West with Idaho, and Carter took a win in the Midwest in Indiana.

As Rhodes concluded the Republicans as the unsurprising winner, the Democrats ended on June 3 1980. Although Bentsen would win Montana, Shriver South Dakota, and Favourite Son Robert Byrd West Virginia, the lion’s share would go to Udall, in the states of California, New Mexico, Ohio, New Jersey, and Rhode Island.

Unlike in 1976, the Democrats would be going to their convention with a clear winner.

There’d be nothing to stop Mo Udall.


“We are not in a state of ego.”

  • President Jim Rhodes, on winning the 1980 Republican primaries
 
Heard a line about Udall years ago, something about him being too funny to be president?
People Magazine said:
Three years ago, after “due deliberation and two stiff drinks,” he began writing a book of acquired wit and wisdom, Too Funny To Be President, in honor of an assessment of his career by political columnist James J. Kilpatrick.
He even used it as the title of his book :).

Does Mo know about the Parkinson’s ITTL? He was already feeling the effects in 1975 years before his diagnosis, a factor in him falling off his roof lol.
 
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Does Mo know about the Parkinson’s ITTL? He was already feeling the effects in 1975 years before his diagnosis, a factor in him falling off his roof lol.
Udall, like IOTL, as been diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1980. That being said, its effects on his health didn't have much effect on his political aspirations, both ITTL and IOTL. Udall considered running for President as late as 1984, and would have likely run in OTL '80 if not for Ted Kennedy.
 
Udall, like IOTL, as been diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1980. That being said, its effects on his health didn't have much effect on his political aspirations, both ITTL and IOTL. Udall considered running for President as late as 1984, and would have likely run in OTL '80 if not for Ted Kennedy.

Heck, he continued being a politician until 1991.
I could see Udall becoming President and installing some sort of universal healthcare in. He may leave in 1984, or tough it out until 1988 before retiring
 
Udall, like IOTL, as been diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1980. That being said, its effects on his health didn't have much effect on his political aspirations, both ITTL and IOTL. Udall considered running for President as late as 1984, and would have likely run in OTL '80 if not for Ted Kennedy.

It was 1979 for the diagnosis, but furthermore Mo Udall reluctantly understood Parkinson’s rules him out despite wanting to argue against it. Even by 1985 his motor control was getting bad, as the below article also mentions. Yes he certainly received a warm welcome in 1983 as he geared up, but he didn’t run in the end because of Parkinson’s.

That said 1980 is in the grey area where he’s mostly okay despite having lost a step vs ‘76 Mo, and also a point in time where he could tie his personal Parkinson’s to national health care and make a case on that. On the other hand like 1983 IOTL I think when Udall gears up 1979 ITTL he finds out there isn’t any appetite for dealing with Parkinson’s and just like 1975-76 OTL raises virtually no money. On the gripping hand Mo Udall is the absolute best so go Mo! :)

Triumph of the Good Guy by Maya MacPherson at the Post.
Udall revealed he had Parkinson's in 1980, hoping by 1983 that it would not be a detriment for a second run at the presidency in 1984. Staff members, his wife and close friends weighed the problem. They thought about handicaps. Someone brought up Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and someone else remarked, "Yeah, but they didn't have TV then." Ultimately, Udall says, "I could see myself at 400 small airports, wanting to discuss issues, and getting 'Congressman, tell us about this brain disease that you have.' I realized the election would be turned into a seminar on Parkinson's disease."
 
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It was 1979 for the diagnosis, but furthermore Mo Udall reluctantly understood Parkinson’s rules him out despite wanting to argue against it. Even by 1985 his motor control was getting bad, as the below article also mentions. Yes he certainly received a warm welcome in 1983 as he geared up, but he didn’t run in the end because of Parkinson’s.

That said 1980 is in the grey area where he’s mostly okay despite having lost a step vs ‘76 Mo, and also a point in time where he could tie his personal Parkinson’s to national health care and make a case on that. On the other hand like 1983 IOTL I think when Udall gears up 1979 ITTL he finds out there isn’t any appetite for dealing with Parkinson’s and just like 1975-76 OTL raises virtually no money. On the gripping hand Mo Udall is the absolute best so go Mo! :)

Triumph of the Good Guy by Maya MacPherson at the Post.

Then again, I think FDR having polio was an open secret and here, Udall would take the opportunity to show he could still be president. I am thinking that while he would be able to do well in 1980, he would likely not run for a second term unless he absolutely had to and thus would already begin looking for people to carry on his work for healthcare and so on.

Maybe Walter Mondale?
 
Chapter Forty-Three - The Woodchopper's Ball
"I don’t give a damn about the stock market. But I do care about jobs.”

  • Governor of Ohio and Rhodes protégé George Voinovich

For an election cycle that, at its start, seemed to be shaping up to be one of the closest in years, the Republican and Democratic Conventions of 1980 were the calmest they had been in years. With the fierce Ohio pride that the RNC had come to expect, Rhodes had insisted that the 1980 Republican Convention was held in Columbus, Ohio. Although the media made a minor scandal of it, Rhodes had spent enough in every state in the Union throughout his term that nobody really cared. Meanwhile, after holding their convention in Chicago for two elections in a row, the Democrats were holding their 1980 Convention for the second time in a row at Madison Square Garden, in New York City.

The Republican Convention was primarily orchestrated as a spectacle, followed by a re-coronation of Rhodes, with the platform taking a distant third. Celebrities like Bob Hope, and James Stewart were put front and centre along with formerly Democratic celebrities like Frank Sinatra and Charlton Heston. Even the political speeches leaned on the celebrity; former actors like Ronald Reagan and retired Senator George Murphy were given prominent time slots both to add to the starstuddedness of the event, as well as a way to appease conservatives who were still wary of Rhodes’ nebulous ideological leanings. Rhodes’ nominating speech was given by his former Lieutenant Governor, who had risen to the Ohio governorship after Rhodes became President, George Voinovich. As expected, Rhodes won unanimously on a roll call vote, while the Convention prepared for the platform and Vice Presidential nomination.


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Governor of Ohio George Voinovich (centre) was serving as Rhodes' Lieutenant Governor when Rhodes became President. He gave the nominating speech for Rhodes at the 1980 Republican National Convention, in Columbus, Ohio.

Besides a few key points, Rhodes left the vast majority of the policies to be worked out by the platform committee on their own, with oversight by Nixon on foreign policy issues. The only demands he had was a full endorsement of Jobs For America and guaranteed employment, and a retroactive endorsement of the use of state bonds, extended government loans, and subsidies to finance pork barrel projects and the energy sector. While the platform committee followed a standard moderate-conservative line on other economic issues, the real question was in the matter of social issues. Rhodes’ declaration of a War on Drugs was worked into the platform with significantly more of an emphasis on the ‘tough on crime’ aspect than the ‘regulating the pharmaceutical industry’ aspect, though both were mentioned. The Republican Party also remained divided on the topic of abortion; most of the party was content to not have a definitive stance, or to leave it to the states, while only a small minority of the furthest right, such as Senator Jesse Helms, supported a constitutional amendment banning it [1].


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Seen here with Ronald Reagan during the 1976 North Carolina primary, Senator Jesse Helms was the most consistent thorn in the side of the Rhodes Administration from the right, and pushed a socially conservative agenda when it wasn't in vogue with the party.


But, the real point of interest for the Republican Convention was the Vice Presidential selection. Going into the Convention, Paul Laxalt had fallen way short of being able to take the Vice Presidential nomination on his own, but had still managed to gain the endorsement of a little under a quarter of the delegates; no mean feat for an incumbent year. However, Laxalt had never intended to win outright, merely to cause enough of a ruckus to make Rhodes think that Godwin was more of a liability as Vice President than an asset.

And in that, he had succeeded.

Rhodes was quite possibly the most conflict-averse President in American history, and didn’t like the idea of aggravating the base by refusing Laxalt a mostly-symbolic position. Holding a meeting with his advisors, Voinovich, and some of his cabinet (namely Nixon, Dave Thomas, Claude Kirk Jr, and Alexander Haig), Rhodes discussed the possibility of ejecting Godwin for Laxalt on the ticket. Rhodes was still self-conscious of just how close the Republican Convention of 1976 had been, and despite his unanimous renomination, was still keen to appease the conservatives. Rhodes’ Chief of Staff, Tom Moyer, and his Senior Advisor, Earl Barnes, both preferred keeping Godwin on the ticket, citing policy differences and Rhodes position as the oldest President in American history. In the event of dying in office, Moyer and Barnes implied, it would be better to have Godwin in the Oval Office than Laxalt. However, the attending cabinet members and Voinovich thought it would be better to replace Godwin. Besides being unpopular with the base and not a prominent part of the Administration, Godwin was one of the older Vice Presidents in American history, at 66. By putting in Laxalt, eight years Godwin’s junior, it would give the Administration a face-lift going into a re-election campaign, while ejecting political dead weight at the same time.

Rhodes, highly confident in his own health, decided that he would switch to Laxalt. Meeting with Godwin, he explained the situation, asking him to voluntarily step down. Although ideally Rhodes would’ve liked Godwin to permanently retire from politics to give the impression that he wasn’t forced out of the Vice Presidency, he was willing to give Godwin a cabinet position in the event of re-election. Godwin, never close to the President or given much say in the Administration to begin with, conceded without a fuss. Before the Vice Presidential vote was to be held, Godwin gave an unscheduled speech, declaring his intention to retire from politics, declaring that the choice had been made by him and him alone without prompting by the President, but that both he and Rhodes both agreed that Paul Laxalt would make an excellent successor to the position.


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Senator Paul Laxalt shares a laugh at the 1980 Republican Convention with his best friend, Ronald Reagan, after Rhodes confirmed in a private meeting that he would be the next Vice Presidential nominee.

Having been given the okay, the majority of the delegates, who had stayed neutral or supported Godwin during the primary campaign, switched over to Laxalt. With a nominating speech by Reagan, a voice vote was held, with Laxalt quickly nominated without controversy. Although most doubted that Godwin had really voluntarily stepped down, it was clear that he was playing along, and since Laxalt was the more well-liked candidate to begin with, the switch went off without a hitch.

But, despite the switch, Rhodes had no more intention of giving Laxalt a prominent role in a second term than he had given Godwin in the first. Laxalt had publicly declared his support for Jobs For America, and that was good enough for him.

Leaving their first uncontested convention since 1960, with their first elected President since 1956, the Republican Party was confident of their chances, but not quite as much as Rhodes was confident of himself.


“Deficits are a yawner. We, as Republicans, have talked about deficits and balanced budgets since the days of Roosevelt, and the people simply haven’t listened, because they can’t relate to those huge numbers. What they can relate to is having a job.”

  • Excerpt from Senator Paul Laxalt’s endorsement speech of Jobs For America

[1] ITTL, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority was founded in 1973 in opposition to the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment and Roe v. Wade, rather than in 1979 as IOTL. TTL’s Moral Majority was discredited and quickly fizzled out. Without any organized umbrella group of the Christian Right, and with there having yet to be an overtly socially conservative Republican President, there is much less social conservative pressure on the GOP. Since, ITTL, neither party has yet to take a strong stance on abortion, it remains a non-partisan issue for the most part, with pro-life and pro-choice factions in both parties.
 
So, it looks like the rise of the so-called "moal majority" won't be rising, which is pretty good.

I do wonder if leaving it up to the states would be a good idea since it would cause ideological shifts on it, especially with the rising of special itnerest groups and think tanks.
 
Chapter Forty-Four - Love Will Tear Us Apart
“The media seems to think only abortion and gay marriage are religious issues. Poverty is a moral issue, it's a faith issue, it's a religious issue.”

  • Chairman of the People’s Christian Coalition Jim Wallis, to the 1980 Democratic platform committee

Along with the Republican convention, the Democratic convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City was surprisingly calm. The recent death of Bobby Kennedy and the memorial film in his honour soothed tensions to an extent, in spite of the extra pressure on Udall to pick a good running mate after the surprise nomination of Paul Laxalt to the Republican Vice Presidential slot, and the factionalism that had gripped the party since 1972.


1980 Democratic Primaries.png


Going in to the convention, Udall had won enough of the primaries to win outright in the nominating process. In 1976, Udall had been stopped by a coalition of moderate Democrats who felt he was too closely associated with the McCarthy Administration, which was just concluding a highly unpopular second term. But, in 1980, without a unifying figure like Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson, and after the moderate wing had been temporarily discredited in Jackson’s landslide defeat, Udall had been able to keep his frontrunner status going for the four years since his narrow loss in ‘76 to secure the nomination without much difficulty. The greatest challenge had been from Jackson’s former running mate, the former Governor of Georgia, Jimmy Carter. Besides continuing a moderate trend in policy, Carter ran as an outsider populist and evangelical, becoming the greatest beneficiary of growing evangelical sentiments in the South and amongst certain factions of the Democratic Party. However, Carter was unable to sweep the South due to the residual staying power of George Wallace, a smattering of favourite sons, and the Lloyd Bentsen candidacy. Bentsen had done best in the interior and the West in his campaign as a Guaranteed Employment Democrat, but was considered a one-trick pony by the electorate, and had little success elsewhere.

While Udall could carry the nomination with his own pool of delegates, the question did remain on the matter of who would withdraw and endorse him, with the hopes of joining Udall in the halls of power in the event of his election as President. Ultimately, there were only two takers: Sargent Shriver and Walter Fauntroy. Shriver had seemed poised to be Udall’s greatest challenger, but had quickly fallen behind, getting stuck as the second choice of liberal Democrats, a middle-tier choice for moderates, and near the bottom for conservatives. Shriver’s withdrawal and endorsement of Udall came at the chagrin of Henry Jackson and the Neoconservatives, who had supported Shriver during the primaries. Walter Fauntroy, for his part the favourite son for Washington D.C, and the chosen candidate of former President Eugene McCarthy, also withdrew as a show of solidarity. The odd man out in the Udall camp was Senator Dale Bumpers, the favourite son of Arkansas. Bumpers, a man who was about as liberal as a Senator could get in the South, had supported Udall in 1976 and McCarthy before him, but without the urgency of a contested convention, decided to abstain from the ballot instead, so as not to upset the people of Arkansas, who had voted for Carter in their state’s primary.

As expected, Udall won nomination on the first ballot, and began preparations for the platform and the vice presidential selection.


1980 Democratic Convention.png


Despite a minority opinion from Bentsen supporters, the platform committee overwhelmingly decided to continue to support the welfare state as it was, rather than stripping it and replacing it with guaranteed employment. As an alternative to Jobs For America, a guaranteed minimum income plan was put forward instead, to be tested in certain communities before being implemented nationwide. Besides that, a proposal to revamp McCarthyCare into a full, single-payer healthcare system was put in place, and continued support for unions and civil rights were emphasized. However, as the platform continued to be assembled, tensions began to run high. Having refused to attend the 1976 convention, the presence of Eugene McCarthy was especially notable. In the intervening years since leaving office, McCarthy had declared himself a Christian Socialist, and had made several efforts to form a further left wing third party than the Democrats. Having failed, McCarthy had taken up common cause with Jim Wallis’ People’s Christian Coalition, the descendant organization of the defunct Evangelicals for McCarthy, to bring about change from within the Democratic Party. Working with the PCC, McCarthy stumped at the convention for the guaranteed minimum income proposal, as well as proposals for greater workplace democracy by enshrining the right to a union in a constitutional amendment, bringing the ‘Worker-Priest’ movement to the United States, tying wages to the growth rate of production (which would put the minimum wage well above even the living wage), re-orientating American foreign policy so that humanitarian aid would be its primary concern, and a ‘Consistent Life Policy’ to severely limit abortions and ban the death penalty. The PCC’s proposals to the platform committee created strange bedfellows amongst the various camps; although he rejected the economic proposals, Jimmy Carter worked with McCarthy to advocate for the social and foreign policy positions of the PCC, and while Udall was willing to entertain some of the economic proposals, he sided with prominent feminists, such as Senator Bella Abzug, against the PCC went it came to the more conservative positions on social issues.


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Former President Eugene McCarthy at the 1980 Democratic Convention. By 1980, McCarthy was a staunch supporter of the People's Christian Coalition.

Ultimately, most of the PCC’s proposals were taken “under consideration” but not added to the platform. However, they did influence the foreign policy plank to put much greater emphasis on humanitarian aid, and moved the party to the right on abortion, from being vaguely pro-choice, to not taking a position and leaving it to the states.

At the same time the platform had been sorted out, Udall selected a running mate. Going into the convention, Udall’s shortlist was mostly made up of fellow liberals who would be complimentary in some way, with Sargent Shriver being at the top of the list as a show of unity with Kennedy and Johnson-type Democrats. In a close second was Dale Bumpers, who would be another olive branch to the South similar to Jimmy Carter. In a distant third was Reubin Askew, the favourite son of Florida, who would be geographically complimentary to Udall, but was far too fiscally conservative for his taste. A more unorthodox choice was the junior Senator for Colorado, Gary Hart, who had gained some notoriety as the only Democratic gain in the Senate in the disastrous 1974 midterm elections.

However, the return of McCarthy with the PCC’s proposals in hand dramatically changed Udall’s considerations for his Vice Presidential nominee. Although McCarthy was in far less of a position to do damage to the ticket than he had been in his role as President in 1976, he had still managed to absolutely doom the Jackson/Carter ticket in what was already an uphill battle with his intentionally leaked “private” endorsement of the People’s Party. Considering 1980 was looking to be another uphill battle, with Rhodes having already been climbing back to polling similar to his pre-Oil Crisis numbers even before the usual post-convention bump. Udall decided to instead base his selection on a dark horse who could be equally acceptable (or at least inoffensive) to progressives, moderates, and the Christian left.

Eventually, Udall stumbled across the ideal candidate: A Senator who had been firmly opposed to the Vietnam War but was otherwise a moderate on foreign policy; someone who leaned left on the economy without being too far to be unpalatable to the moderates, and who also leaned progressive on ‘classic’ social issues such as civil rights and the Equal Rights Amendment, but who was opposed to abortion.

As expected, no one opposed the Vice Presidential selection, and the Democrats went forward, if not in unity, than with a common purpose for the election.

Yes, Tom Eagleton would be the perfect running mate.


“As a general proposition, campaigns do not linger on the vice presidential nominee. When they have, it’s always meant very bad news for the ticket…”

  • Television journalist Jeff Greenfield on running mates
 
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