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Camelot's End by Jon Ward
A great book everyone should read if you’re interested in the second most successful primary run against an incumbent president in the modern era. It’s also a solid short biography of both Carter and Kennedy with some interesting lesser known details.
So let’s say Kennedy does address it in 1979 and just like OTL when post dealing with it (badly, probably lying still: sure Mo or Bayh are better choices for the left in many ways but they face their OTL circumstances ITTL) that settles the issue enough to move forward, but since its months earlier than OTL that leaves Kennedy in a better situation. Someone is in charge. Full reboot. Said new campaign manager sends staff to New Hampshire and other states past Iowa, husbands money, does better… and still loses Iowa because of a massive turnout surge they didn’t see coming (marginally less so than OTL). But losing is what you need to get god awful Kennedy late ‘79/early ‘80 in a better headspace as per OTL anyway: crushed in Iowa is not so bad if you didn’t spend 20 million dollars (19.8 technically, out of 20m raised, plus way less family money than RFK) and then narrowly win Maine and NH and on to beat Carter.
(The easy version would be the Shah is denied by Carter and no hostage situation, if you want a simple POD leading to Kennedy beating Carter on the leadership issue EMK planned his campaign on.)
Anyway Kennedy is victorious against Carter. He then moves on to the Reagan battle where he is absolutely the underdog. However even in losing there are possibilities for the future
, and hey maybe there’s enough butterflies for Kennedy to win…
Camelot's End by Jon Ward
A great book everyone should read if you’re interested in the second most successful primary run against an incumbent president in the modern era. It’s also a solid short biography of both Carter and Kennedy with some interesting lesser known details.
“Kennedy, known for the best staff in the Senate, had not created—or seen to Smith’s creating—a campaign operation worthy of a president,” Adam Clymer wrote.”
“It was never quite clear who was really in charge of the campaign,” Jim Flug, another Kennedy aide, said afterward.
Smith didn’t want to spend a lot of money on polling or on creating TV ads, and didn’t understand modern media. The first round of ads created for Teddy were “probably the worst television ever produced for a presidential candidate in American history,” consultant Joe Napolitan told Hersh.”
There was dissatisfaction with Kennedy’s refusal to tackle the issue of Chappaquiddick head-on in a major speech, despite advice in the fall of 1979 from New York political consultant David Garth to do so. Paul Kirk, too, wanted Kennedy to address it.”
“Even so, Carter’s pollster Pat Caddell walked into the Oval Office in December [1979] with some sobering polling results. He had done a ninety-minute focus group with Iowa voters that showed Carter ahead three-to-one over Kennedy at the beginning of the session. But after asking the voters to imagine Kennedy as president, the group shifted to favoring Teddy. “You won’t believe this,” Caddell said.”
So let’s say Kennedy does address it in 1979 and just like OTL when post dealing with it (badly, probably lying still: sure Mo or Bayh are better choices for the left in many ways but they face their OTL circumstances ITTL) that settles the issue enough to move forward, but since its months earlier than OTL that leaves Kennedy in a better situation. Someone is in charge. Full reboot. Said new campaign manager sends staff to New Hampshire and other states past Iowa, husbands money, does better… and still loses Iowa because of a massive turnout surge they didn’t see coming (marginally less so than OTL). But losing is what you need to get god awful Kennedy late ‘79/early ‘80 in a better headspace as per OTL anyway: crushed in Iowa is not so bad if you didn’t spend 20 million dollars (19.8 technically, out of 20m raised, plus way less family money than RFK) and then narrowly win Maine and NH and on to beat Carter.
(The easy version would be the Shah is denied by Carter and no hostage situation, if you want a simple POD leading to Kennedy beating Carter on the leadership issue EMK planned his campaign on.)
Anyway Kennedy is victorious against Carter. He then moves on to the Reagan battle where he is absolutely the underdog. However even in losing there are possibilities for the future