The Watergate Burglars don't get caught.

There are two PODs. One the they run a vertical piece tape inside the frame of the door which invisible to the outside, instead of the horizontal piece of tape that the security guard saw, which prompted a call to the police. The second POD is the closest patrol officer gasses up earlier in the evening. OTL he told the dispatcher that he needed gas. There happened to be a squad of undercover narcotics agents in the neighborhood and they took the call. When the lookout saw the police, he just saw an ordinary looking car and a bunch of hippies getting out. He may have wondered what they were doing in a nice place like the Watergate. Then his heart warmed with the thought that they got a job cleaning up. With no burglary there is no cover up and no impeachment. Nixon finishes out his second term. He gets his health program passed with Democratic support. I say even Ted Kennedy decides not to make the perfect the enemy of the good. The plan faces fierce Republican opposition, with Ronald Reagan the most prominent critic. With the bad economy, 1974 is still a good Democratic year. It is not the OTL landslide. The two most famous Watergate babies: Gary Hart who OTL won with 57% of the vote and Christopher Dodd, who OTL won with 59% of the vote, still win. In 1976, Ronald Reagan easily wins the Republican nomination. He is the conservative hero, who OTL almost beat the incumbent president. Yes John Conally has president Nixon's support but he probably loyally supported the health plan and became suspect to most Republican primary voters. On the Democratic side, I am not sure. Without Watergate, Jimmy Carter does not have the same appeal. Maybe he does not beat Wallace in the Florida Primary.Wallace goes on to sweep the South and do well in Wisconsin, Maryland, Indiana, and Michigan. Scoop Jackson does better and wins Pennsylvania. Many Carter votes go to Udall. who actually wins primaries. Jerry Brown and Frank Church still get in late and win primaries. Quite possibly no one wins a majority of the delegates. If there is a brokered convention, Hubert Humphrey is in a good position. But does he know about his cancer in July? OTL he missed most of his fall reelection campaign due to cancer treatment. Maybe adrenaline keeps him going. He would then probably collapse in the days following the election. Does his running mate have the stature to have the electors vote for him. Or is there a movement to have them vote for Ted Kennedy. Oh I should have said I expect the Democrat to win. Reagan like John McCain is of the president's party in bad economic times. Democrats also use Reagan's unpopular views to paint him as an extremist.
 
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