Let's say Ike declines to run for the GOP nomination and Nixon remains the junior Senator from CA. Could he ever be elected POTUS if he carves out a niche in foreign policy?
If Knowland was VP, Kennedy would lose because he would get more backing from Eisenhower than Nixon ever did. Eisenhower had serious reservations about Nixon becoming president, and so only backed Nixon late in, which boosted Nixon up to be tied with JFK. ITTL Ike would back Knowland earlier, and Knowland would win (Ike was around 60-65% approval on election day).If Nixon becomes leader of the Republicans' conservatives, maybe he pulls a Goldwater and nabs the nomination in '64, since I'm going to assume Kennedy still wins against his probable opponent, Bill Knowland (or whoever else would be Eisenhower's VP).
Nixon wasn't a conservative, though. Although his anticommunist rhetoric was often mistaken by western Goldwaterites as anti government, Nixon was really more a moderate to even a liberal in policy as we saw with his presidency.Hrmm. Nixon always had his eye on the White House, not to mention the ruthless drive and ability to get there. If he stays in the Senate, he could come to eclipse Goldwater as the leader of the leader of the Republicans' conservative wing, embodying a more mainstream-acceptable form of conservatism as opposed to Goldwater's libertarianism (which many found noxious in the 60s due to its opposition to a good deal of Civil Rights legislation).
If Nixon becomes leader of the Republicans' conservatives, maybe he pulls a Goldwater and nabs the nomination in '64, since I'm going to assume Kennedy still wins against his probable opponent, Bill Knowland (or whoever else would be Eisenhower's VP).
Nixon was none of these things--he was an opportunist. If Nixon had thought being the bride of the ghost of Ernst Röhm would have advanced him, Nixon would have ordered the appropriate trousseau.Nixon wasn't a conservative, though. Although his anticommunist rhetoric was often mistaken by western Goldwaterites as anti government, Nixon was really more a moderate to even a liberal in policy as we saw with his presidency.