WI: McGovern '68?

Bomster

Bomster

IOTL Allard Lowenstein, the leader of the "Dump Johnson" movement, spoke to several anti-war politicians in the fall of 1967 to convince one of them to run against President Johnson for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in 1968. One of them was Senator George McGovern, who was recommended by Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Although he would decline the offer, McGovern was apparently very interested in Lowenstein's proposal, even doing an evaluation of his constituents to see if a Presidential campaign would impede his Senate re-election campaign (he reported to Lowenstein that it wouldn't make his re-election impossible, only slightly more difficult). However in the end McGovern said no, and Eugene McCarthy would run as the first anti-war candidate. What if McGovern had accepted Lowenstein's offer? Could he have done better than McCarthy in the primaries? Could he have won the nomination, and if he did, could he defeat Nixon?

P.S. Robert Kennedy said that he wouldn't have entered the race if McGovern ran instead of McCarthy.
 

Amadeus

This could potentially have huge consequences for US history. If McGovern runs, then RFK more likely than not endorses him after New Hampshire and sits out the race. McGovern would lose the nomination to either Johnson or Humphrey, who then goes on to lose to Nixon. That said, RFK is most likely still alive in the 1970's if he doesn't run in 1968. (Sirhan Sirhan was only able to shoot Kennedy because he was separated from his bodyguard in the Ambassador kitchen). RFK would leading a much more effective Democratic opposition to Nixon and runs in 1972 only to lose albiet narrowly. He'd probably run again in 1976 and at long last become President. With a successful liberal Democrat in charge during this period, the Reagan Revolution certainly never happens and the whole trajectory of US political history is changed.
 
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