President John V. Tunney

As obituaries have pointed out, e.g., http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-john-tunney-snap-20180112-story.html he was actually a quite accomplished freshman senator, and his image as a "lightweight" or "playboy" was quite unfair. If he had defeated Hayakawa in 1976--and it was a fairly close race--might he not have gone on to be on the national Democratic ticket in some future year? (E.g., if he gets re-elected in 1982 and 1988, maybe Clinton taps him as his running mate in 1992...)

Perhaps a POD for his defeating Hayakawa in 1976 would be for him not to be weakened by Tom Hayden's primary challenge: https://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=292292
 
I do think it’s rather unfair that Tunney has been characterized as a lightweight, but he did have a rather... unhealthy obsession with JFK and his personal image, so I can see where it comes from.

The best chance he has into the White House is in ‘84 or ‘88, running on a platform of being a young, charming Senator who’s to the left of the Atari Democrats. You probably won’t get Gary Hart if Tunney has a go at it, and there’s a good chance that you can prevent an H.W. Presidency with Tunney.
 
Tunney is one of those people who, for want of a nail, would have become a big deal we could in no way see not being part of active history. For all intents and purposes to our historical discussions now, he does not even exist. But for a big of luck, he would be unmovable from history. I'll lazily quote myself.

I'm into footnote history. Those people and events that get one sentence in a history book, but could have been huge. Because everyone and everything we know could have been just one sentence in a history book in another universe. George Smathers got one sentence about wanting to be vice president in "1960: LBJ vs. JFK vs. Nixon", and George Smathers could have been Majority Leader, Vice President or even President for want of a nail. And he got one sentence.

So I would be interested to see what the group has to say. I do not have much to say myself. I've known of Tunney. I even used him as a briefly mentioned president myself, before. (Link). My most fleshed out idea would be have Ford win 1976, and Tunney win his own reelection. By 1980, the Watergate burn out era has been allow to meander into the next decade, squarely on the shoulders of the political House that bore it into being. And you can have a fresh field of Democrats make a go of it for 1980. And thus, we avoid the for-some-reason-inevitable-Ford-successor Jerry Brown trope that somehow became a consensus on the forum.
 
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