Kennedy vs. Goldwater - who would win, really?

I'd add Ralph Yarborough as well, though I believe he was up for re-election at the time.

Wildly popular, pro-civil rights, and something of a Prairie populist.

The reason I wouldn't personally go for Yarborough is that snubbing LBJ and chosing Yarborough may cause a riot in the Texas Democratic Party. Dumping LBJ would be bad enough, but chosing a Texas rival in his place may be a bit too much for some people. Yaroborough was never particularly popular with the party establishment in Texas to begin with.

Smathers I'd agree on, but I think Sanford just isn't high profile enough to make the grade.

I'd probably agree actually. I don't think he's a complete non-starter, (For one thing, there'd be no chance that he'd overshadow JFK) but I think he's probably unlikely.
 
The reason I wouldn't personally go for Yarborough is that snubbing LBJ and chosing Yarborough may cause a riot in the Texas Democratic Party. Dumping LBJ would be bad enough, but chosing a Texas rival in his place may be a bit too much for some people. Yaroborough was never particularly popular with the party establishment in Texas to begin with.

Johnson was from the Connally conservative wing right? The ones who ended up Republican in the '70s? Unless Johnson had "health" issues, and Yaroborough was seen as honouring Texas with another VP you're probably right.

Yaroborough was popular enough with the liberal establishment, it just so happened that they were constantly fighting with the conservative establishment. Actually Nixon figured in 1968 that the two wings had finally broken apart and that he could take Texas—instead '68 was the last time they worked together, and the Democrats of course held Texas for the second last time (Carter in '76).

If we can't have Yaroborough it almost has to be Smathers.
 
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