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..... Johnson wanted the Vice Presidency. It was his only real path to higher office. No convention would nominate a southern senator, no matter how influentional he was. Lyndon was even willing to blackmail Jack Kennedy to recieve the nomination. However, his advisors were concerned. As much as Johnson wanted to be President, a job like the Vice Presidency would do nothing but annoy him. Going from Senate Majority leader to Vice President would be like going from Emperor to pauper. Not worth the switch. Besides, even if Jack beat Nixon, he wasn't going to be given a shot at the nomination for President until 1968. And based on his family history, it was iffy if he'd even make it through that term. The alternative, was for Lyndon to run the Senate like a fiefdom. He could be a latter day Henry Clay, albeit for another house. After a long consideration. Johnson decided against seeking a Vice Presidential nomination......
Excerpt From: Lyndon Johnson Master of the Senate.

Kennedy Picks Symington
Today, as many here at the convention had expected. Democratic nominee John Kennedy chose former Secretary of the airforce Stuart Symington as his running mate. The choice was approved without much opposition. The pair will face Vice President Nixon in the fall....
From the New York Times

The election of 1960 was by any calculation one of the closest elections in American history. Kennedy and Symington came far closer to losing that race than any of us today can realize. Indeed, in many respects, the nomination of Stuart Symington had been a strategic error on Kennedy's part. While Symington himself was well respected, his nomination allowed for the Nixon campaign to attack the Kennedy ticket in a manner not unlike the Eisenhower campaign had attacked Stevenson. To make matters worse, Senate Majority Leader Johnson barely payed lip service to Kennedy. It is no wonder that Nixon won in Texas under those circumstances. Kennedy's victory was entirely dependent on Illinois. If Kennedy had lost that state as well, he never would have been President. At the time there was some indication that Nixon had indeed won in Illinois, and as such was the President elect. However, the recounts which followed the election weren't quite as clear. And as such, Illinois' votes remained in Kennedy's hands. And he emerged the victor with 274 electoral votes to his name.
"The Price of Power" by Seymour Hersh.
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