In the week leading up to the infamous 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Eugene McCarthy was staying with his family in St Paul, Minnesota. Following the assassination of Bobby Kennedy, they were being kept under the protection of the Secret Service, but, despite this, McCarthy was accepting visitors at the time. According to the memoir of Eugene's wife, Abigail, a prospective local visitor was checked by the Secret Service and caught with a revolver. Abigail also assumed that this person was drunk at the time. Now, besides being an effective security check, it might not necessarily be the case that this visitor intended to kill McCarthy, but let's assume that it was his intention, and he somehow got through.
First of all, this would be really bad for the protests and riots in Chicago. McCarthy was actively discouraging tens of thousands of young volunteers from coming to Chicago to demonstrate for his candidacy, for fear that they would be caught up in the battle between the police and New Left protesters. Instead, he was having local campaign branches dole out a lot of busywork during the convention. With their guy dead, there would be nothing stopping any of them with access to transportation from going to protest and/or riot. There would also be some question on who the McCarthy delegates would support. In this scenario, George McGovern would be the only anti-war candidate left, but in the week before the convention McCarthy was entertaining the possibility of dropping out and endorsing Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as a compromise candidate. If news of that gets out then Muskie might cobble together some sort of candidacy, but only if things are deadlocked on the first ballot and Ted Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson both decide to not make themselves available for a draft. Thoughts on this?
First of all, this would be really bad for the protests and riots in Chicago. McCarthy was actively discouraging tens of thousands of young volunteers from coming to Chicago to demonstrate for his candidacy, for fear that they would be caught up in the battle between the police and New Left protesters. Instead, he was having local campaign branches dole out a lot of busywork during the convention. With their guy dead, there would be nothing stopping any of them with access to transportation from going to protest and/or riot. There would also be some question on who the McCarthy delegates would support. In this scenario, George McGovern would be the only anti-war candidate left, but in the week before the convention McCarthy was entertaining the possibility of dropping out and endorsing Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as a compromise candidate. If news of that gets out then Muskie might cobble together some sort of candidacy, but only if things are deadlocked on the first ballot and Ted Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson both decide to not make themselves available for a draft. Thoughts on this?