WI: Pat Brown for Vice President, 1964

Pat Brown had presidential ambitions, and certainly vice presidential ambitions by 1964. He suspected Johnson may have chose him as his running mate. When Johnson called leading up to the convention, Brown suspected it was going to be a formal request for Brown to be his running mate. It turned out that Johnson wanted Brown to introduce him to the convention, and the vice presidential candidate was not also going to introduce the president, so Brown quickly realized he was not going to be running with Johnson.

What if Johnson had asked Brown to be his running mate in 1964?
 
Some clear issues would be that Brown would not be governor after 1964. Lt Governor Glenn Anderson would assume that role. He is that obscure historical man who cannot really be Googled; I've tried. If Anderson doesn't have ambitions or even if he does, Jesse Unruh would probably try to run for the nomination in 1966. That in turn effects Ronald Reagan winning 1966. If he loses, there's huge knock-on effects for the future of the Republican party and Conservatives in America.

You would also continue to have Humphrey in the Senate. Without being burdened by Johnson's spite, he could speak out against escalation of the Vietnam war. Brown might also be a let down for Liberals; despite Brown also being the same sort of Liberal, Humphrey was a well known Liberal. I don't know how Brown would handle being boxed in by Johnson like Humphrey was.

You would also have Brown with a clear shot at 1968 or 1972.
 
I don't think LBJ ever seriously considered Brown. He simply leaked word of a number of Catholics--Eugene McCarthy, Brown, Mayor Wagner of New York, Senator Thomas Dodd of Connecticut--supposedly being considered as "Catholic alternatives" to RFK, whom he definitely did not want on the ticket. Of all these men, I think only McCarthy had a halfway serious chance.

Brown had no national security or foreign policy experience, was practically unknown outside of California, and was not terribly popular there--his victory in 1962 had been more due to Nixon's weaknesses (and the boost the Cuban Missile Crisis gave to Democrats) than to his own strength. http://www.field.com/fieldpoll/governors.html
 
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