McGovern's Dream Scenario for the 1972 campaign.

Okay, the title is an allusion to a much older article concerning the second world war.

With that in mind, I'm wondering how well Sen. George McGovern can do given the following circumstances.

He realizes Kennedy will not run with him before the convention, and walks into the convention with the Shriver pick. There is no Eagleton affair, and McGovern gets to make his speech in prime time.

Agnew is exposed for tax-evasion/bribery in the middle of the campaign, not sure how this would happen, but suppose it was exposed somehow a year earlier than IOTL.


Basically, what happens if the Eagleton shoe is on the other foot.

Note, I am not expecting a McGovern win here. I'm just wondering what happens I'd expect him to do better, but there's a long line between "better" and "President George McGovern"
 
Nixon can dump Agnew, and replace him with either Rocky, Reagan or George Bush Sr. He will win no less than 400 ECV in any case. Somewhat like "WI Jenkins was exposed" in 1964- no real effect.
 
Funny, this is probably the best situation I can find for McGovern. And he's still absolutely in trouble. Who knew Nixon was so unassailable.
 
I think, given those circumstances, McGovern has a decent chance. Bear in mind that the Nixon campaign would be too busy trying to distance itself from the Agnew fiasco to smear McGovern, and McGovern would retain his image as a 'different kind of politician' without the Eagleton mess.
 
The VP and President don't have to interact, especially Nixon, who like Thatcher, convened small groups of Cabinet members, so Agnew almost never saw Nixon except NSC meetings. Nixon didn't give a rat's behind about Agnew. Messrs. Rove and Segretti will still be working on "dirty tricks." Anyways, McGovern is the Goldwater of the left, an extreme leftist (overaged hippie IMHO) who accepted the endorsement of Abbie Hoffman. No chance in hell it's even close.
 
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