If JFK is not assassinated, will RFK and Ted Kennedy still run for president

It seems common that in all the Alternative Stories where JFK is not assassinated and is president from 1961 to 1969, one or both brothers run for president in the 1970s and 1980s. Would it be feasible without falling into ASB?
 
I see Robert going for it. He has the drive and ambition. Teddy never wanted the Presidency and his 1980 campaign proved it. If John lives, Teddy feels no pressure to even try.
 

RousseauX

Donor
It seems common that in all the Alternative Stories where JFK is not assassinated and is president from 1961 to 1969, one or both brothers run for president in the 1970s and 1980s. Would it be feasible without falling into ASB?
Depending on how successful his presidency is esp second term

if he gets into vietnam and has lbj level popularity then I doubt it too much baggage from attachment to a failed administration but if JFK was relatively successful then yeah they would be the (GWB/Jeb!) analogue.

Though if RFK assassination gets butterflied the dynamic between Ted and RFK is pretty interesting because Ted is pretty traditional new deal liberal and RFK something like the predecessor to the Third Way Democrats
 

youtube: Surrounded by Enemies: What if Kennedy Survived Dallas?

This video is saying that if the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination attempt had merely been a near miss, President Kennedy would have been beset by scandal later in his administration.

This ATL envisions a major magazine story in June ‘65 entitled “The Secret Life of the President.” Also envisions Congressional investigations and a White House aide destroying tape recordings.

And I do think a president is a lame duck the evening of the mid-terms of his or her second term, and maybe sooner.
 

thorr97

Banned
JFK would've had to do some exceptional work in '64 to make his first term worth a second one. There was a higher than average amount of "first term presidential bungling" he and Team JFK had to deal with. Vietnam would've been very difficult to handle properly. Having another country "go Communist" on a Democratic president's watch would be very bad at the polls. But getting the US involved in an endless guerilla war could also be used against him.

I don't see JFK supporting any sort of "Great Society" programs that come anywhere near the scale LBJ got away with. So Kennedy would't have all those spoils to buy votes with. Even if he did stay popular enough to get reelected in '64 and got out in '68 without blowing it in some way, I can't see the public much going for electing another Kennedy so soon. Too much "dynastic aristocracy" going on with that.

Also, the usual trend in America's national politics is to hand the Oval Office to the opposition after one side has had it for eight straight years. So any Democrat - let alone any Kennedy - would have that against him in '68 as well.
 
Kennedy would have won re-election in 1964 regardless (Goldwater). It'd have been closer than OTL though - and without the legislative ability or massive coat-tails of Johnson, Kennedy's Civil Rights Act will be weaker. I think he gets considered a disappointment, which hamstrings Bobby Kennedy.

Teddy never wanted the Presidency.
 
I doubt it. Bobby didn't have any political ambitions until after his brother was killed. If that doesn't happen, he may never run for any office. Teddy would stay in the Senate.
 
The key point becomes who this Bobby Kennedy is. Robert Kennedy was changed by 1963. He became deeper, more reflective, and more empathetic -- the aftermath of being broken and having to reforge himself into himself after so deep of a personal tragedy and loss. When you put yourself back together, you're an approximation of yourself but something different, and someone who has taken on a wider dimension. He will be different if his brother had not died. But to make matters more complicated, he is not going to stay static. He will be a different person in an alternate 1969 compared to who he was in 1963 just because people do grow older and develop. Who he would be is not a matter of "we can never know", but it is a matter where to develop that psychological profile would take too much out of me to process through my brain. If we had this discussion in 2010 I could probably do it, but I'm older too.
 
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