WI: Nixon/Reagan 1968

[Accurateworldwar]

In the 1968 Republican primaries, California Governor Ronald Reagan was Nixon's main rival for the nomination, but was defeated. Nixon later chose Spiro Agnew as his running mate. What would have happened if Nixon decided to name Reagan as his running mate in 1968? How would Watergate play out, and how would Reagan handle it? Would he win in 1976?

 

[Nagisaki]

In the 1968 Republican primaries, California Governor Ronald Reagan was Nixon's main rival for the nomination, but was defeated. Nixon later chose Spiro Agnew as his running mate. What would have happened if Nixon decided to name Reagan as his running mate in 1968? How would Watergate play out, and how would Reagan handle it? Would he win in 1976?

Don't murder the butterfly effect.

 

[Accurateworldwar]

Don't murder the butterfly effect.

Good point?

Would Watergate happen with Nixon/Reagan, and how would a Nixon presidency with Ronald Reagan as VP play out?

 

[Jonathan]

Although not his home state in 1968, would Nixon risk having another Californian politician on his ticket.
Would Reagan be happy to play second fiddle when the Vice Presidency seemed to kill the career of their holder.

Being conservative rather than Agnew's centrist reputation, appealing to conservatives who were suspicious of moderate stances taken by Nixon. But also pushing away liberal republicans like Rockefeller.

 

[David T]

Nixon was still a resident of New York in 1968, so a Californian would not be out of the question for a running mate. But the Californian Nixon had in mind was Robert Finch (who in winning the Lieutenant Governorship in 1966 actually outpolled Reagan).

My impression--admittedly from post-1968 evidence--is that Nixon never really cared that much for Reagan. He said that "Reagan on a personal basis is terrible", and called him "strange" and not "pleasant to be around." (Yeah, I know--pot, kettle...)
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tapes-nixon-disliked-reagan/

Nor was his opinion of Reagan's intellect much higher:

President Nixon: What’s your evaluation or Reagan after meeting him several times now.
Kissinger: Well, I think he’s a—actually I think he’s a pretty decent guy.
President Nixon: Oh, decent, no question, but his brains?
Kissinger: Well, his brains, are negligible. I—
President Nixon: He’s really pretty shallow, Henry.


***
President Nixon: Back to Reagan though. It shows you how a man of limited mental capacity simply doesn’t know what the Christ is going on in the foreign area. He’s got to know that on defense—doesn’t he know these battles we fight and fight and fight? Goddamn it, Henry, we’ve been at—
Kissinger: And I told him—he said, “Why don’t you fire the bureaucracy?” I said, “Because there are only so many battles we can fight. We take on the bureaucracy now, they’re going to leak us to death. Name me one thing that we have done that the bureaucracy made us do.”
President Nixon: The bureaucracy has had nothing to do with anything.
Kissinger: No, no. They’ve made our lives harder. They’ve driven us crazy. But that doesn’t affect him.

https://web.archive.org/web/20140301192925/http://whitehousetapes.net/transcript/nixon/620-008

***
Incidentally, years later, after Reagan had become above criticism to most Republicans, Nixon was still not exactly a fan: "Later, Nixon said Reagan’s economic policies were unduly harsh and cautioned against giving him too much credit for winning the Cold War. 'Communism would have collapsed anyway,' he told Monica Crowley, a Nixon aide in his last years, according to her 1996 book, 'Nixon Off the Record.'"
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/tapes-nixon-disliked-reagan/

 

[Derek Pullem]

All of Nixon's comments are true but irrelevant. A home policy orientated, camera friendly VP would have worked wonders to divert attention from the war. Perhaps enough so that CRP decided it wasn't necessary to bug the Democrats (maybe they are too busy bugging Reagan )

 

[Anarch King of Dipsodes]

In the 1968 Republican primaries, California Governor Ronald Reagan was Nixon's main rival for the nomination, but was defeated. Nixon later chose Spiro Agnew as his running mate. What would have happened if Nixon decided to name Reagan as his running mate in 1968? How would Watergate play out, and how would Reagan handle it? Would he win in 1976?

Nixon would never choose Reagan, because both he and Reagan were from California. True, in 1968, Nixon was legally a resident of New York (where he had been practicing law), so there would be no difficulty about the California electoral vote. But Nixon had grown up in California, represented California in the US House and Senate, and run for governor of California. A ticket of two Californians would be highly unbalanced.

In any case, Nixon chose Agnew not only for geographical balance, but also ideological balance. Agnew was considered a moderate at the time; he had been elected governor in 1966 against a segregationist Democrat. His later career as Nixon's right-wing "attack dog" came as a surprise to many. Reagan, by contrast, was well-known as a fervent conservative, starting with his 1964 speech for Goldwater.