WI: Goldwater Wins in '68

That article contains no polling - just speculation from Republican operatives about best-case scenarios.

Remember, too, that TIME under the Luces was a Republican mouthpiece.

True, but the fact that they were able to make the EV disturbingly close between JFK and Goldwater showed that JFK wasn't (at this point) destined to win re-election. Compare that to this TIME article right before the 1964 election (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,876299-1,00.html), which was also based on political speculation.

Do I think JFK would beat Goldwater if he had lived? Yes, and quite handily. But I think that would've become evident later during the 1964 campaign (as in June-July '64).
 
What about Rockefeller/Goldwater vs. JFK/LBJ? I'm thinking Rocky gets the nomination and picks Goldwater as VP in a show of party unity and to help him down south where Goldwater is more favorably polling. The resultant race would undoubtedly be close, like 2000 level close.

If I did this I might have Goldwater deliver a few Goldwaterisms in debates and on the trail to the chagrin and detriment of Rockefeller to enhance the suspense and establish what'll end up being a rocky relationship (no pun intended) if/when Rockefeller wins. Or I could have JFK win, idk. In any case I think that scenario would be believable and interesting to write/read.
 
Rocky/Goldwater is ASB (ditto for the MSM-wankers (in the RL sense) "dream ticket" of Rocky/Reagan in '68) because they're oil and water, don't like each other and are completely opposed ideologically. Would you put Olympia Snowe and Michelle Bachmann on the same ticket? I think not.

Any Republican winning in 1964 under OTL conditions with a POD in November 1963 is ASB, period.
 
Perhaps no more than 50 EV swing in the Rocky Mountains or West, but that's about it. The polls all showed JFK crushing any Republican opponent.

A year before the election. If things never changed in a year, there are several presidents who would have been reelected which we know not to have been.
 
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