McGovern 72 best case scenario

The first POD comes on the morning of May 15, 1972. Arthur Bremer is arrested for shoplifting and can't shot Wallace. Wallace accepts the nomination of the American Independent Party. The second POD comes on September 27, 1972, when Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward writes a front page story on an investigation by the FBI and the Maryland US Attorney into tax evasion and bribery on the part of Vice President Spiro Agnew On September 28, 1972. President Richard Nixon fires the Maryland US Attorney. He sets off a storm of criticism. His poll numbers drop, On election day the popular vote is Nixon 47% George McGovern 42% and Wallace 10 5. Nixon wins a wide margin in the Electoral College: Wallace 16 Mississippi and Alabama, McGovern 52 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, District of Columbia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota and Oregon, Nixon 470 everywhere else.
In November 1972, the House Judiciary Committee begins investigating Nixon' s firing of the US Attorney. They uncover evidence of Agnew's crimes. On January 11, an article of impeachment against Agnew is passed. With public opinion turning against Agnew, The Justice Department indicts Agnew on January 12, 1972. Agnew begins plea bargaining offering his resignation in exchange for no prison time. The Department of Justice only offers a reduced prison time. On Inauguration Day, Agnew does not attend the ceremony. He is sworn in privately, signs a letter of resignation than leaves to start his two year prison term.
 
I forgot about Eagelton. Pierre Salinger was pushing Sargent Shriver, who McGovern was interested in but during the time of the Democratic convention, he had gone on a business trip to Moscow. He could not get back in time to make an acceptance speech. So he was out. ITTL Salinger convinces Shriver not to go to Moscow but to come to the convention instead. McGovern picks him, It is McGovern Shriver from the beginning.
 
I think that George Wallace had made a firm decision not to go the third party route in 1972. This may have had something to do with the dropping of the tax case against his brother Gerald...
 
I think that George Wallace had made a firm decision not to go the third party route in 1972. This may have had something to do with the dropping of the tax case against his brother Gerald...

Interesting, I had always assumed that had he not been shot, Wallace would have run as the AIP candidate in 1972. He may have been intimidated by Nixon.
 
Top