So, what happens if JFK dies while serving as a senator, let's say during that long period of wicked medical trouble he had from his near-fatal back surgery during '55?
MA has a Republican governor at this time, so Bobby has a good chance to run for the Democratic nomination for the special election that has to be held in November, 1956 (which is probably a more realistic angle for him than having to seek appointment under a Dem governor). Even if he loses that primary, or the general election, the seat being Class 1 means it's up again in 1958.
Actually, the latter year does strike me as the best bet for him, as I think his still-formative political maturity, the lessons Kenny O'Donnell and Larry O'Brien will need to teach him, and the ambitions his father has for him, all those will need more than one cycle to succeed at winning back his late brother's seat. (I think this seat really does seem the best course of action for Bobby rather than trying for a House district, or him somehow deciding to give up on all that time he's spent in DC just to try for a political career change to Beacon Hill.)
But whither Bobby as the sixteenth Dem freshman senator elected in the anti-GOP landslide of 1958? Though, yes, he would be the youngest man elected in that particular year, however Frank Church was younger when he arrived in the senate in Jan, 1957. So he can't really claim to be the sole wunderkind of the party in that chamber.
I think he had a lot of potential, but I'm just not seeing the world beating qualities of US Senator Robert Kennedy sans Camelot.
He's not a combat vet or glamorous playboy, he doesn't have an inVogue wife, he's still developing his whole media persona [Addendum: Nor is he much of an intellectual Renaissance man, something which was pivotal to Jack's ability to build a political base outside Massachusetts]. But he is a workhorse, he's inherited a smart crew from his brother, and he has heaps of financial resources backing him up.
Down the line I think he has some chance to make it to the national ticket, but no way does he have the edge in presidential primary politics in OTL over all those other senators, an edge he had in even such a crazy longshot race as when he ran for the nomination in 1968 (after all, his only hope for the nom if he'd lived was for some kind of convention demonstration--I mean of the traditional kind--to emerge and whip up a frenzy of Camelot revanchism).
MA has a Republican governor at this time, so Bobby has a good chance to run for the Democratic nomination for the special election that has to be held in November, 1956 (which is probably a more realistic angle for him than having to seek appointment under a Dem governor). Even if he loses that primary, or the general election, the seat being Class 1 means it's up again in 1958.
Actually, the latter year does strike me as the best bet for him, as I think his still-formative political maturity, the lessons Kenny O'Donnell and Larry O'Brien will need to teach him, and the ambitions his father has for him, all those will need more than one cycle to succeed at winning back his late brother's seat. (I think this seat really does seem the best course of action for Bobby rather than trying for a House district, or him somehow deciding to give up on all that time he's spent in DC just to try for a political career change to Beacon Hill.)
But whither Bobby as the sixteenth Dem freshman senator elected in the anti-GOP landslide of 1958? Though, yes, he would be the youngest man elected in that particular year, however Frank Church was younger when he arrived in the senate in Jan, 1957. So he can't really claim to be the sole wunderkind of the party in that chamber.
I think he had a lot of potential, but I'm just not seeing the world beating qualities of US Senator Robert Kennedy sans Camelot.
He's not a combat vet or glamorous playboy, he doesn't have an inVogue wife, he's still developing his whole media persona [Addendum: Nor is he much of an intellectual Renaissance man, something which was pivotal to Jack's ability to build a political base outside Massachusetts]. But he is a workhorse, he's inherited a smart crew from his brother, and he has heaps of financial resources backing him up.
Down the line I think he has some chance to make it to the national ticket, but no way does he have the edge in presidential primary politics in OTL over all those other senators, an edge he had in even such a crazy longshot race as when he ran for the nomination in 1968 (after all, his only hope for the nom if he'd lived was for some kind of convention demonstration--I mean of the traditional kind--to emerge and whip up a frenzy of Camelot revanchism).
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