Nelson Rockefeller

He is the nominee in 1960, since Richard Nixon has suffered a mild heart attack. Who will his VP choice be? Could he have won? What does this do to the right wing of the party?
 

bguy

Donor
Well, if you remove Nixon from the ballot, Rockefeller doesn't necesserily become the GOP nominee. OTL, Eisenhower, who still commanded vast influence at the convention hall, preferred Robert B. Anderson as the nominee, privately encouraging him to run against Nixon in '56 and then for Nixon to choose him as VP in '60.

Wasn't Anderson a Democrat? (Though he probably would have been a good choice for Nixon's veep, since he likely would have delivered Texas and might have gotten Ike to be a little more enthusiastic about supporting Nixon.)

As for Rockefeller's veep, from a unify the party standpoint Goldwater seems the most logical choice, though it might be ASB to get him to accept. At a minimum Goldwater would probably require Rockefeller to agree not to push for Medicare and federal aid to education and to greatly scale back on civil rights legislation (probably just pushing for voting rights and school desegregation with no action on employment and housing discrimination.) I doubt Rocky would agree to those terms.

Everett Dirksen maybe as Veep? Conservative but pro-Civil Rights and from a key battleground state. I'm not sure Dirksen ever had any interest in the Vice Presidency, but maybe he could be talked into it to help prevent a disastrous party split.

Does Kennedy still go with Johnson for his veep if Rockefeller is the Republican candidate? Rocky won't have a chance in any Southern state of course, but I imagine fear of a Dixiecrat revolt would still force Kennedy to take LBJ.
 
Not Ev Dirksen but Hugh Scott, who is Catholic, WWC roots and can lock up PA's 32 EV, plus help in the Rust Belt.

Goldwater and Rocky is impossible for the same reason as the media's '68 GOP "dream ticket" of Rocky-Reagan: oil and water personally and ideologically.

JFK does not win without LBJ on the ticket, period. His selection had little to do with Dixiecrats, who didn't want LBJ pairing up with a Catholic Yankee who was by far his political junior and pro-civil rights.
 
RB:

What about Al Gore senior as JFK's running rate?
He's old enough to look experienced but not so damn crinkly as Johnson; he voted for civil rights back in '57 but they're not burning crosses on his lawn like Estes, and he sure as hell isn't a joke like Ralph Yarborough.
 

bguy

Donor
Not Ev Dirksen but Hugh Scott, who is Catholic, WWC roots and can lock up PA's 32 EV, plus help in the Rust Belt.

Scott is another East Coast liberal Republican. He doesn't provide the ideological or regional balance that Dirksen does. And if Rocky doesn't give the conservative wing of the GOP something he is very likely to provoke a nasty party split. (Especially if passions are running high after a contested nomination battle between Rocky and Goldwater.)

Plus Scott has only been in the Senate for a year by 1960, so he isn't exactly going to reassure people who are worried about Rockefeller's lack of experience. And given that the Catholic vote already leans heavily to the Democrats at this time, do you really think that having a Catholic veep candidate is going to help the GOP any when the Democrats are running a Catholic for president? Dirksen is of humble stock (the son of immigrant farmers), will also run strong in the Rust Belt, and locks down Illinois (27 EVs), and will also help with farmers and the right wing of the party without alienating moderates or black voters.


Goldwater and Rocky is impossible for the same reason as the media's '68 GOP "dream ticket" of Rocky-Reagan: oil and water personally and ideologically.

I agree it's a very unlikely pairing, I just said it was the most logical one from a party unity standpoint. Rocky needs to mollify the conservative wing of the party if he wants any chance of winning the election; which means either a conservative platform (which Rocky won't want) or a conservative Vice President. And it's not exactly unprecedented in American politics for a presidential ticket where the President and Vice President are at odds.

If Rocky picks Scott or some other liberal Republican it will kill all conservative support for the ticket. I don't see Goldwater making his "Grow up, conservatives" speech for such a ticket either. And while I can't imagine Goldwater ever running as a third party candidate, conservative Republicans will very likely stay home or support a fiscally conservative Dixiecrat candidate, if Rocky doesn't give them some skin in the game.

JFK does not win without LBJ on the ticket, period. His selection had little to do with Dixiecrats, who didn't want LBJ pairing up with a Catholic Yankee who was by far his political junior and pro-civil rights.

Afraid you lost me there. How exactly was LBJ essential to JFK's election if not by keeping the South (somewhat) onboard?
 
No, but it defuses the charge that the GOP are bigots.

I concede on Dirksen being a better choice, but IL still comes down to who cheats better: Daley or the downstaters.

The only comparatively recent example I can think of is McCain/Palin, but they at least shared a maverick persona and got along well personally. It would be like a Snowe/Bachmann ticket IMO- polar opposites.

Dixiecrats felt that it was beneath LBJ, as I mentioned earlier, to be subordinated to his political junior. Bob Kerr (who was drunk as usual) waved his pistol around and threatened to shoot the Johnsons and Bobby Baker when he found out at the dinner he was having with them.
 
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