WI: LBJ Remains in the Senate

This is a topic I've tried to get at before through other discussions on LBJ not being the Vice Presidential nominee in 1960. Those threads never went to this area and I remain interested in it, so I'm making a topic specifically dedicated to it now. I do know factors such as Johnson beginning to lose his grip on power as Majority Leader, which will certainly come into play in this discussion, but there is still ground to cover besides that.

What if Lyndon Johnson had remained in the senate and was not on the ticket in 1960?
 
We've been over this before and the consensus was that Johnson swung it in the south. So this becomes a Kennedy loses scenario.

Can Kennedy easily win without Texas?

If he loses Texas alone, yes, he still wins, but Johnson is also reckoned to have made the difference in other southern states.
 
037771 covers this in his TL very well. LBJ's power had already begun fading when Class of '58 liberals flooded the Democratic caucus, it continues draining away under Nixon.
 
We've been over this before and the consensus was that Johnson swung it in the south. So this becomes a Kennedy loses scenario.

And if the historical sources are correct, this very prospect was used to scare the bejesus out of Johnson, i.e. he was afraid of rejecting Kennedy's offer in the first place lest he then be accused of having thrown the election to Nixon.

However, I think Majority Leader Johnson gets a renewed shot of relevance under a Nixon White House; but the real problem there is he's no longer in a good position to fight to seek the presidency in the shortterm (if at all), and that lost opportunity might be too much for him to handle.
 
I don't see him getting the presidency at all. The health/age issue would prevent it, plus the Dems might still be averse to a Southern nominee- even a Texan. Caro mentions how LBJ tried to rebrand as a Westerner in '60.
 
I don't see him getting the presidency at all. The health/age issue would prevent it, plus the Dems might still be averse to a Southern nominee- even a Texan. Caro mentions how LBJ tried to rebrand as a Westerner in '60.

Texas is more Western than Southern, to be fair. If you were forced to be totally accurate, though, Texas is neither Western or Southern, and is uniquely just Texas. All that matters in politics is what the voters believe it is.

Agreed on LBJ's age in 1968 being too old to run. Whether 1964 would be a possibility, I'm not so sure, and I think that election would be totally dependent on Nixon's chances of losing in the scenario where Nixon wins 1960. He would be the incumbent but he would also be 3 terms of the Republican party in power, so there might be some chance of dislodging him.

On the subject, I think Johnson would live longer if he were never to have been president. The stresses of the entire world of blame being on him are undoubtedly a factor that harmed his health, and he fell into bad habits (drinking, smoking) immediately after he left office because of the stress and hardship he had gone through with the Vietnam situation. Add to that the normal quickened aging process and pressure on health that comes with being president.
 

Robert

Banned
Nixon wins.

Castro overthrown. No Cuban Missile Crisis.

Henry Cabot Lodge II becomes president when Nixon is assassinated in Dallas. Senator Kennedy happens to be in the city that day.

Lodge elected to full term in 1964 with Nelson Rockefeller as Vice President. Reagan gives pro-conservative speech for President Lodge. Lodge-Rockefeller defeats Johnson-Humphrey

Tensions between U.S. and Soviet Union as Oswald is an ex-defector. Investigation of those responsible in State Department for allowing Oswald back in the U.S.. Harder edge U.S. foreign policy.

Gulf of Tonkin incident results in invasion of North Vietnam. Soviet Union and China do not intervene. War ends in 1966 with Vietnam unified.

President Lodge assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles in 1968. Rockefeller becomes President and receives nomination. Gov. Ronald Reagan chosen as Vice President. Rockefeller-Reagan defeats Humphrey-McCarthy.
 
Keeping the focus on LBJ himself I don't know how much longer he stays as leader or even in the Senate period. Caucus growing more liberal, Democratic COG moving North and leftward generally, etc. Plus all the pressures that come with dealing an earlier President Nixon, particularly on CR. LBJ retiring as leader in '64 and from the Senate in '66 don't seem implausible to me.
 
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