Nixon's Heir

Kicking around an idea for a timeline...looking for a bit of input.

Richard Nixon is leading in the 1968 Republican primaries, but his wife Pat suffers a major stroke and he decides to withdraw from the race only a few weeks before the Convention.

Who does he endorse, Romney, Rockefeller, Reagan? Or does one of his own allies pull a '68 McGovern and start accumulating his delegates as a latecomer?
 
No way he supports Rockefeller or Reagan. Romney is discredited (brainwashed).

When does he pull out? If he has enough clout, he'll anoint his successor. Too early, it's up in the air.

Maybe he supports Robert Finch.
 
No way he supports Rockefeller or Reagan. Romney is discredited (brainwashed).

When does he pull out? If he has enough clout, he'll anoint his successor. Too early, it's up in the air.

Maybe he supports Robert Finch.

Yes, I'm leaning towards Nixon, with his control freak tendencies, trying to "anoint a successor" but not sure who that would be. Finch, obviously, he was very close to, and trusted, but if he was ultimately a poor fit for a VP slot because he was too politically obscure/inexperienced, I don't think he'll work at the top of the ticket.
 
If he had pulled out in '72, he wanted John Connally to run for the Republican nomination, but in '68, Connally was a reluctant Humphrey supporter and an LBJ man, so that's no dice. Still, maybe Connally could be an indication of what kind of guy Nixon would think suitable as his heir.
 
Yes, I'm leaning towards Nixon, with his control freak tendencies, trying to "anoint a successor" but not sure who that would be. Finch, obviously, he was very close to, and trusted, but if he was ultimately a poor fit for a VP slot because he was too politically obscure/inexperienced, I don't think he'll work at the top of the ticket.
As long as it isn't Agnew. Dear God.
 
I suggest OH governor James Rhodes: partway through a second term in that office; chief executive of a state the GOP had to have to win the White House; generally middle of the road in policy. The GOP could have done a lot worse.

Sidebar: Agnew was a bone thrown to the more conservative wing of the party. I remember him as both Baltimore County executive and governor of MD (I grew up in suburban Baltimore and was a teenager there in the mid-1960s), and I'd say he reached his peak of competence as county executive. He got into the governor's mansion only because the Dems were split badly in 1966 between the regular organization (candidate: Hyman Pressman) and the old guard crypto-segregationists (candidate: long-time party hack George Mahoney).
 
More than that, Agnew was mostly a nobody.
There were stories, quite possibly apocryphal, circulating at about that time, that among poll responders, Nixon did best when a potential running mate was not named. Therefore, Agnew, as close as possible to being nobody, was chosen.

I doubt that. The second choice after Agnew was John Volpe, who was not a nobody.
 
Kicking around an idea for a timeline...looking for a bit of input.

Richard Nixon is leading in the 1968 Republican primaries, but his wife Pat suffers a major stroke and he decides to withdraw from the race only a few weeks before the Convention.

Who does he endorse, Romney, Rockefeller, Reagan? Or does one of his own allies pull a '68 McGovern and start accumulating his delegates as a latecomer?

We answer this question HERE
 
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