WI Joe Kennedy Jr. survives WWII

He was the one who was supposed to enter politics and win the White House for the Kennedy family, not Jack. Basically a rerun of JFK's OTL career: House, Senate, White House. He's somewhat more conservative than JFK and RFK, and was just as anti-Semitic as his father, in addition to being as compulsive a womanizer as his brother Jack. (When on overseas duty he had an affair with a married woman) Before the question is asked: RFK, not JFK, will be the "XO" as per OTL.
 
He was the one who was supposed to enter politics and win the White House for the Kennedy family, not Jack. Basically a rerun of JFK's OTL career: House, Senate, White House. He's somewhat more conservative than JFK and RFK, and was just as anti-Semitic as his father, in addition to being as compulsive a womanizer as his brother Jack. (When on overseas duty he had an affair with a married woman) Before the question is asked: RFK, not JFK, will be the "XO" as per OTL.

So what do Jack and Teddy do, since they're basically out of the political running?
 
They can go into "civilian" careers. Jack was supposed to return to Harvard Law after the war if Joe lived, and Ted being "Fast Eddie" (read: parody of frat boy) at Charlottesville will probably occur as per OTL. Maybe RFK does better as an undergrad (not so much ability as willfully not putting in the effort IOTL) and goes to HLS instead of Charlottesville. It is worth noting that Robert was the only brother who never, and I do mean never, seriously contemplated a "civilian" career for his entire adult life.
 

Xen

Banned
They can go into "civilian" careers. Jack was supposed to return to Harvard Law after the war if Joe lived, and Ted being "Fast Eddie" (read: parody of frat boy) at Charlottesville will probably occur as per OTL. Maybe RFK does better as an undergrad (not so much ability as willfully not putting in the effort IOTL) and goes to HLS instead of Charlottesville. It is worth noting that Robert was the only brother who never, and I do mean never, seriously contemplated a "civilian" career for his entire adult life.

Didn't Jack want to be a journalist? With his connections he can have just about any job in the world.

Anyways Ted can still get involved in politics, once Joe is (and if he is) elected President of the United States someone will have to take his seat in the Senate.

Edit: Also RB, since you are the Kennedy expert, I have always imagined a surviving Joe Kennedy as being somewhat of a Scoop Jackson, do you believe that to be an accurate assessment or am I way off base?
 
Joe would have been Prez, undoubtedly.

Continuing the "law/politics" theme, I could see RFK becoming AG like in the OTL. An interesting, not often considered position for him would be the Supreme Court-Justice Robert Francis Kennedy. I bet that would make Joe Sr. pleased.

JFK probably would have gone on to be in the newspaper business-Not as a journalist though, probably an editor or publisher. Or he could have just written books for the rest of his life.

And Teddy probably still would have been a Senator, thus having a Kennedy in all 3 branches of government.
 
Xen: As I said, much more economically conservative than a New Dealer, more along OTL JFK lines, which is equal to or even slightly right of Rockefeller.

W49: Ted is the best legislator of the 3 without a doubt. Other side of the coin is that Bobby is infinitely more ambitious (whenever Ted was asked to beef up a policy speech, he said "I'm not Bobby" IOTL), better suited to the Executive Branch and ideologically much more electable. That is where the "ruthless" thing comes in: like his fellow Dynasticrat Hillary, that sort of burning ambition and "my way or the highway" mentality scares the Democratic establishment to no end. SCOTUS I've heard before, and that would be interesting. He'd be a swing voting Justice Kennedy: socioculturally conservative on everything outside civil rights, an economic moderate, and pro-civil rights (1960s definition of civil rights).
 
Xen: As I said, much more economically conservative than a New Dealer, more along OTL JFK lines, which is equal to or even slightly right of Rockefeller.

W49: Ted is the best legislator of the 3 without a doubt. Other side of the coin is that Bobby is infinitely more ambitious (whenever Ted was asked to beef up a policy speech, he said "I'm not Bobby" IOTL), better suited to the Executive Branch and ideologically much more electable. That is where the "ruthless" thing comes in: like his fellow Dynasticrat Hillary, that sort of burning ambition and "my way or the highway" mentality scares the Democratic establishment to no end. SCOTUS I've heard before, and that would be interesting. He'd be a swing voting Justice Kennedy: socioculturally conservative on everything outside civil rights, an economic moderate, and pro-civil rights (1960s definition of civil rights).

Quite literally! :cool:
 
He means that you were referencing Justice Kennedy in OTL. In ATL Robert Kennedy litterally would be a swing voting Justice Kennedy.

Also, I agree with your assesment of Joe Jr. Though it's debatable that JFK was more conservative than FDR. He was more of a pure Keynesian IE the tax cuts.
 
Keynes is an all-purpose economist. You can get quotes supporting Thatcherism and quotes supporting New Dealish economics, so that really doesn't mean much.
 
Joe fails to become President, and one of Sr's political schemes dies another death.

Seriously guys, it isn't historically predetermined that a Kennedy will be President.
 
Janprimus: That's the whole thing. JFK freely admitted that he would not have entered politics were it not for his father's "draft". Who told JFK that it would be a very good idea to have Bobby in the cabinet? Joe Sr. Who told both brothers that Ted had to get something (aka the Senate seat) because they both had their jobs? Joe Sr. Lest I make it sound like Joe was a puppeteer, that was certainly not the case. He did not get one phone call throughout the entire JFK presidency asking for advice or even get a single invitation to the White House other than general family events. Also, keep in mind after Joe's 1961 stroke RFK was paterfamilias de facto: Jack didn't want those responsibilites, and Bobby acquitted the role very well. After 1963 it became de jure. Why? Then we get into family dynamics, which are fascinating but not for everyone. ;)
 
I happen to know that my fellow Kexpert Mav is redoing Kings of Camelot sometime in the near future, so all will be clarified then. There are no biographies of Joe Jr. per se, so you have to glean all the info from biographies of other family members.

*Among other things, Rose's memoirs are sanitized on this (among others) issue given her encouragement of sibling rivalry IOTL. Or as Jack put it: "I know Joe's their favourite."
 
I happen to know that my fellow Kexpert Mav is redoing Kings of Camelot sometime in the near future, so all will be clarified then. There are no biographies of Joe Jr. per se, so you have to glean all the info from biographies of other family members.

*Among other things, Rose's memoirs are sanitized on this (among others) issue given her encouragement of sibling rivalry IOTL. Or as Jack put it: "I know Joe's their favourite."

Ive actually had a renewed interest in doing my own Joe Jr. Survives TL, and I plan on picking up the only Biography of Joe that I know of. It's an out of print books, so that's why none of us have probably ever heard of if it. It's titled The Lost Prince: Young Joe, the Lost Kennedy written by Hank Searls and it was originally published in '69. So Ill read through it, and see if I can use that as my main reference source at what type of man Joe was.

But most likely since Im taking 12 hours this summer, and starting my LSAT Prep class, Im going to be hella busy so I won't be able to post it on the fly like I did with OTB a year ago. So I think Ill take the RB strategy of spending a month or two writing most of it and then find a good day to post it in quick succession during the following weeks.
 
Actually, none of TID, or any of my TLs, is pre-written except the TID prologue. It is all written on the fly- takes me all of 4 hours to write a 2000-word installment.
 
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