Introduction
1959
"God dammit will you listen to me for one damn minute?""Look Jim, I've already told ya, it'd be better for me to wait. You and I both know that the little shit is only gonna screw himself over and divide the damn party with his candidacy. It would be better for me to wait for a better opportunity because we both know he won't make it to West Virginia."
"Do you honestly believe that bull? Sure he's gonna have a hell of a rough time in West Virginia, but aren't you the slightest bit concerned that he might actually pull out there? Hell, what if Hubert snags it and the rest of it all."
"Hubert ain't gonna be able to do anything more than split his vote, and you and I both know that. Besides, if Hubert wins the nomination, who's to say we already don't have a say?"
"But that is the thing, what if he doesn't? And even then, would you even want to settle for second fiddle?"
"Hubert knows who helped when his ass was first elected."
"You're not listening to me Lyndon... you're digging yourself your own damn grave. You might've taken in Hubert, but what makes you think that jackass won't throw you out into the gutter along with all the other southerners. Are you willing to take that chance? Are you willing, to wait and bide your god damn time while that fucker Jack Kennedy consolidates and steals the nomination from you. Hell, are you willing to stand by and watch Dick Fucking Nixon win a god damn term while you stand by controlling the Senate? Are you sure you want that Lyndon, because the way you're going with this mess... you sure as hell are gonna get that result. Now I gotta go, but you better fucking take this shit to heart, because this is your god damn chance."
As James Rowe walked out of the office of the Senate Majority Leader, the man he left behind sat silent, fuming somewhat at the point he wasn't able to get across to the old Truman campaign strategist, but still silent nonetheless. At one end, he did want to wait until Kennedy eventually fucked himself over and steal it away from the Boston prick, but on the other end, what Rowe did say had lit a match in the back of his mind. Would Lyndon Baines Johnson settle for second fiddle if either Kennedy or Humphrey won out? Would he be thrown into the gutter by the Minnesotan he took under his wing? And above all, would he settle to let the biggest prick from California come out on top and secure what was rightfully his?
What would it all come to? He thought, as he stared out of the view he worked so hard to get, looking upon the city of Washington, gazing towards whatever future he might have.
Maybe Rowe did have a point, maybe he was full of shit... but then again, it wouldn't hurt to consider....
January 1960
"And as such, I shall be running for the Democratic Nomination to become President o-"
"Turn that shit off." A voice yelled out.
As the person closest to the radio turned off the broadcast, the man who made the order sank into his chair, his fists clench, and began (at least attempted) to think as the room around him erupted into chaos. Advisors and campaign workers began to scramble while a multitude of speech writers scurried off into a back room while strategists began to argue with one another. The man at the head of all still sat through it, but even for him, the whole announcement came as quite a shock.
No one expected such an early campaign announcement at that point, but then again, this was Lyndon Johnson they were going to face. The sneaky piece of Texan trash probably kept it under raps just to throw everyone off. Hell, the GOP was probably also caught off guard as well, so that least that was one factor that they probably had going in their favor, but still, that was just one thing.
Now, now they had to prepare to dig in and get dirty. Maybe if it was just Humphrey it would be fine, but with Johnson, that assumption could thrown out of the window. No, there was going to be nothing clean about it all, not until it was done and Johnson was defeated... no, put down like the rabid dog he was. This was not his time, this was his brother's moment... and Robert Kennedy would ensure that he would see it through to the very end, no matter who he had to destroy along the way.
Elsewhere, across the continent, a man in California would nearly be thinking the same exact thing.
