WI: Could a Watergate Scandal happen under a Robert Kennedy Presidency?

[TheKennedyMachine.]

I've been throwing some darts at a board while writing a new Presidential TL, and it's got me thinking about something...

Is it possible, that.. some way and somehow, the very same Watergate Scandal that plauged Nixon's presidency happen to Bobby too if he was elected in '68? Or is Bobby just too good moraled to do it?

 

[Vidal]

The very same? Not really. But no president is immune from scandal. And Jeff Greenfield certainly though a Watergate analogy was appropriate...

 

[Don8]

Doubt it would have caused the damage of Watergate, but there’s a good chance there would have been sex scandals with RFK.

 

[Amadeus]

I've been throwing some darts at a board while writing a new Presidential TL, and it's got me thinking about something...

Is it possible, that.. some way and somehow, the very same Watergate Scandal that plauged Nixon's presidency happen to Bobby too if he was elected in '68? Or is Bobby just too good moraled to do it?

It's possible that a scandal could have occurred, but Watergate was specific to Nixon and the sycophants he kept around him. RFK wasn't paranoid like Nixon, it's highly doubtful that he would have created a team of plumbers to sabotage the GOP. Even LBJ, who was also paranoid, did not fall victim to such a scandal.

 

[TheKennedyMachine.]

Doubt it would have caused the damage of Watergate, but there’s a good chance there would have been sex scandals with RFK.

Huh? Dude, Bobby was a saint. He never cheated on his wife.

William Sullivan: “Although Hoover was desperately trying to catch Bobby Kennedy red-handed at anything, he never did. Kennedy was almost a Puritan. We used to watch him at parties, where he would order one glass of scotch and still be sipping from the same glass two hours later."

 

[darklordoftech]

It's possible that a scandal could have occurred, but Watergate was specific to Nixon and the sycophants he kept around him. RFK wasn't paranoid like Nixon, it's highly doubtful that he would have created a team of plumbers to sabotage the GOP. Even LBJ, who was also paranoid, did not fall victim to such a scandal.

Nixon and the people Nixon surrounded himself with believed that the Democratic Party was a communist organization that was colluding with Fidel Castro, North Vietnam, and the USSR. Neither Robert Kennedy nor any other Democrat believed anything like that about the GOP.

 

[NedStark]

Huh? Dude, Bobby was a saint. He never cheated on his wife.

William Sullivan: “Although Hoover was desperately trying to catch Bobby Kennedy red-handed at anything, he never did. Kennedy was almost a Puritan. We used to watch him at parties, where he would order one glass of scotch and still be sipping from the same glass two hours later."

The classic mistake of assuming that Robert was the same as John and Ted because he was also a Kennedy.

 

[marktaha]

Huh? Dude, Bobby was a saint. He never cheated on his wife.

William Sullivan: “Although Hoover was desperately trying to catch Bobby Kennedy red-handed at anything, he never did. Kennedy was almost a Puritan. We used to watch him at parties, where he would order one glass of scotch and still be sipping from the same glass two hours later."

Marilyn ? Jackie? I read she slept with all three brothers.

 

[TheKennedyMachine.]

Marilyn ? Jackie? I read she slept with all three brothers.

... Bruh.

 

[Amadeus]

Nixon and the people Nixon surrounded himself with believed that the Democratic Party was a communist organization that was colluding with Fidel Castro, North Vietnam, and the USSR. Neither Robert Kennedy nor any other Democrat believed anything like that about the GOP.

Yup. Watergate was so specific to Nixon, that it's unlikely that any other politician of that generation (except Spiro Agnew) would have been caught in a similar scandal where the POTUS is implicated in a felony.

 

[James Ricker]

Watergate Wars more about the 1968 election then the 1972 election
Nixon was worried about the Democrats finding evidence of his campaign having sabotaged the Vietnam peace talks and having funded the antiwar protesters at the 1968 DNC in Chicago.
A Kennedy DOJ probably would have found out about the Nixon campaign funding the protesters and there would be a serious scandal

 

[cjc]

I've been throwing some darts at a board while writing a new Presidential TL, and it's got me thinking about something...

Is it possible, that.. some way and somehow, the very same Watergate Scandal that plauged Nixon's presidency happen to Bobby too if he was elected in '68? Or is Bobby just too good moraled to do it?

Unfortunately no, I think Robert Kennedy definitely has a similar set of rose colored hindsight that his brother has but he definitely dosnt have the kind of pride and paranoia that Nixon did and without that then no way you get anything like watergate. Honestly a sex scandal like what happened to Clinton in the 90's is far more likely.

 

[Emperor Norton I]

Unfortunately no, I think Robert Kennedy definitely has a similar set of rose colored hindsight that his brother has but he definitely dosnt have the kind of pride and paranoia that Nixon did and without that then no way you get anything like watergate. Honestly a sex scandal like what happened to Clinton in the 90's is far more likely.

RFK was too devoutly Catholic to have affairs, despite the pop culture rumors. His libido went to his wife and having 11 children.

 

[Mikey]

Is there something specific about watergate you want to see repeated? Or just the broader 'big scandal'?

 

[Hcira1]

As a side note, didn't LBJ's DOJ spy on Goldwater's campaign or something like that?

RFK was too devoutly Catholic to have affairs, despite the pop culture rumors. His libido went to his wife and having 11 children.

Although I admittedly know next to nothing on the topic, after a quick google search, it seems the consensus is definitely that RFK cheated on his wife

 

[TheKennedyMachine.]

Although I admittedly know next to nothing on the topic, after a quick google search, it seems the consensus is definitely that RFK cheated on his wife

Then, those results you're seeing is mostly conspiracy theorist nonsense. The idea that Bobby cheated on his wife was spread by a right-wing zealot that ran a tabloid.

 

[Hcira1]

Then, those results you're seeing is mostly conspiracy theorist nonsense. The idea that Bobby cheated on his wife was spread by a right-wing zealot that ran a tabloid.

There seems to be multiple different sources claiming this. The idea that its all one big conspiracy seems like a rather strange claim to make...

 

[TheKennedyMachine.]

There seems to be multiple different sources claiming this. The idea that its all one big conspiracy seems like a rather strange claim to make...

Dude, I gurantee you RFK was not a cheater. If he was, we'd have stories breaking out from people similar to Mimi Alford and the like, but I can say with 100% certainty, that RFK was not a cheater like Jack.

 

[redjirachi]

Huh? Dude, Bobby was a saint. He never cheated on his wife.

William Sullivan: “Although Hoover was desperately trying to catch Bobby Kennedy red-handed at anything, he never did. Kennedy was almost a Puritan. We used to watch him at parties, where he would order one glass of scotch and still be sipping from the same glass two hours later."

Bobby Kennedy had a normal libido, but given the environment he grew up in him having one or two "side girls" wouldn't be surprising. There's been speculation that after Jack died Jackie and Bobby had a thing. Though given it's still speculation even now, I don't think we could use it as impetus for a Watergate/Monica Lewinsky thing

 

[TheKennedyMachine.]

There's been speculation that after Jack died Jackie and Bobby had a thing.

This absurd theory is in the book “Bobby and Jackie” which is worse than “Dark Side of Camelot” because the writer is a hack who has been universally condemned by Kennedy authorities like Doris Kearns Goodwin or Robert Dallek. Completely out of character for both of them.