The election of 1976 without a Watergate incident...

Who are you voting for in the 1976?


  • Total voters
    60
  • Poll closed .

HKS88345

Banned
Assume that Watergate never happened, and Richard Nixon makes it to November 1976 without any Watergate scandal. For whom are you going to cast your vote? Explain your answer in replies. Disclosure: your vote will be made public. Polls close in 30 days. You cannot change your answer after you vote, so consider it carefully before you vote.
 
Carter might not have even won the Democratic nomination w/o Watergate. The whole reason he was popular was because Americans wanted an outsider after the scandal
 

Driftless

Donor
With no Watergate, Nixon's diplomatic breakthrough's with China and the Soviets; Ford is riding the front edge of the wave. It probably comes down to the state of the economy. The Oil Crisis of 1973 might well be the campaign killer for Ford. Carter, with a narrow victory

*edit* I'll double-down on Carter over Ford. With Watergate, Ford's first days as President were his finest hours. He projected as a man of integrity, to a country desperately in need of that quality. By comparisson to Nixon, Agnew, Haldeman, Liddy, Erlichman, etal; Ford came across as the Eagle Scout he had been in his youth. Even with the big personal hit he took with Nixon's Pardon, Ford still had a ton of political and personal good will going into the election.

No Watergate, Ford still assumes the Veep role because of Agnew's shenanigans and by association, maybe a little more tarnish than we laid on him historically. Agnew's crimes were more within the realm of our expectations of political hacks, so the need for a transcendant hero is lessened. In that view, Ford would have been viewed more as a gray Republican apparatchik - a decent man, but nothing to get excited about.

The Oil Crisis and the extended Recession would have been a millstone around any Republican nominee's neck. Bill Clinton used James Carville's "It's the Economy stupid" concept to great effect in 1992. The same theory could have applied 16 years earlier.
 
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Without Watergate, I honestly don't see Carter even getting the nomination in the first place. His whole appeal was that he was an outsider, at a time when Americans' confidence in "the establishment" was shaken. But if he did, I'd still have to go with Ford. Jimmy Carter, as much as I love him, didn't exactly give off an air of excitement and I don't see any area where he really tops Ford.
 
Carter might not have even won the Democratic nomination w/o Watergate. The whole reason he was popular was because Americans wanted an outsider after the scandal
Agreed. Ford as well didn't want to be POTUS, he only ran after being put into the office and wanting to provide stability (he was unsure about running OTL).
 

CaliGuy

Banned
Assume that Watergate never happened, and Richard Nixon makes it to November 1976 without any Watergate scandal. For whom are you going to cast your vote? Explain your answer in replies. Disclosure: your vote will be made public. Polls close in 30 days. You cannot change your answer after you vote, so consider it carefully before you vote.
I'd vote for Ford; after all, I'd certainly like to see the Reagan and Gingrich Revolutions butterflied away. :)
 
I know Carter wouldn't be the nominee without Watergate and Ford supposedly didn't have any Presidential Ambitions until he became President. So my guess is Mo Udall, Frank Church, or Birch Bayh would be the Democratic nominee in TTL and either Reagan or Rockefeller (whichever Nixon can stomach more) would be the Republican nominee TTL. The General would be an honest to god toss up though.
 
I know I'm digging up a thread that's almost a month old, but I seriously question the wisdom behind assuming Carter couldn't still be the nominee in '76 without Watergate. I can't see that there would be any front runners, and Carter knew how to take advantage of the primary system in a way few other contenders did at the time. With the economy in a stifle, I also think he could easily win the general. Is it really that unreasonable to believe he still could have become the nominee without Watergate? Couldn't his outsider appeal still be of some use if, say, the public is still frustrated with the GOP/Dem establishment over other issues?
 
I know I'm digging up a thread that's almost a month old, but I seriously question the wisdom behind assuming Carter couldn't still be the nominee in '76 without Watergate. I can't see that there would be any front runners, and Carter knew how to take advantage of the primary system in a way few other contenders did at the time. With the economy in a stifle, I also think he could easily win the general. Is it really that unreasonable to believe he still could have become the nominee without Watergate? Couldn't his outsider appeal still be of some use if, say, the public is still frustrated with the GOP/Dem establishment over other issues?

His problem is that he was otherwise rather conservative for the Democratic Party of the time. In lieu of "I will not lie to you", he might suffer interrogation on actual issues.
 

Zharques

Donor
I really do not believe Ford or Carter would have been the nominees.

Agnew would still have had to resign, putting Ford, a popular moderate in the vein of Nixon, one step from the presidency still. If Watergate is butterflied, there is no reason for the Republican party to have to appeal for a change in their beliefs (in the form of Reagan). Ford will just be seen as New Nixon, the Nixon who won 1972 with 520 EV's.
 
Ford was only selected as VP because, in a post-Watergate world, Nixon didn't have the political capital to pick anyone else. Even if Ford is selected, he probably wouldn't run - he had no desire to be elected President until after he assumed the office.

Carter mainly got the nomination because he was seen as an outsider after a scandal had rocked the establishment.

Without Watergate, I can't see either man being on the ballot.
 
In a no Watergate world perhaps Nixon puts John Connally in the veep spot. Now the republican establishment might balk at him if he tries for the nomination in '76. However, with Nixon behind him, he might do well enough in the primaries to actually get the nomination.

As for the dems, Carter may still get the nomination, but he also might not.
 
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