I suspect that denying Goldwater the nomination is easier than getting it for Rockerfella
What about Cabot Lodge?
I think that Lodge, Scranton, Romney, etc. were too liberal for the GOP in 1964. The most likely nominee if Goldwater can be stopped is Nixon. I know it has been argued that Nixon would not want the nomination, that he could see that LBJ was bound to win, but in an old soc.history.what-if post I argued that this was not necessarily the case (I relied heavily on *The Party That Lost Its Head,* written by George Gilder and Bruce Chapman when they were still liberal Republicans...)
***
Nixon's behavior in OTL 1964 does not seem to me to be that of a man who
was convinced that the GOP was sure to lose and would not take the
nomination under any circumstances.
Again to quote Gilder and Chapman (p. 154):
"Many critical observers pointed to evidence during 1963 and 1964 that the
official Nixon posture of aloofness and neutrality was being stretched to
the point of deception. Their evidence suggested that though Nixon might
realize that he could not court the party, that it must court him, he
nonetheless did actively seek to stimulate its ardor directly and
indirectly."
Gilder and Chapman note that Nixon made overtures to the Goldwaterites
before the California primary--which he, like most observers, thought
Rockefeller would win. ("Three days before the California primary, he
privately predicted a Rockefeller victory and told friends he was ready to
heed a call to service."--p. 137) He periodically denounced "stop-
Goldwater" efforts.
Then, after the California primary, with Goldwater the clear front-runner,
Nixon observed in a speech at Detroit that Goldwater was, after all, still
not nominated, and that new opposition could develop at any time. If a
deadlock did develop, and "if the party is unable to settle on another
man," he would willingly accept whatever role the party might ask him to
take. "And if the party should decide on me as its candidate, Mr. Johnson
would know he'd been in a fight." Two days later, at the governors'
conference at Cleveland,
"Nixon attacked Goldwater on the very issues for which--in a unity ploy--
he had defended him two days before in Detroit--the United Nations,
diplomatic relations with the USSR, social security, right-to-work
legislation, TVA. 'Looking to the future of the party,' he declared, 'it
would be a tragedy if Senator Goldwater's views, as previously stated,
were not challenged and repudiated.' (This was the man who shortly after
called Scranton a 'weak man'--because he changed his mind so often!)..."
(pp. 151-2) He then went on to meet with Michigan Governor George Romney,
and Romney claimed that Nixon urged him to run.
"Besides wriggling in and out of other people's ideologies, Nixon went
well beyond his pose of strict aloofness in Nebraska and Oregon by
communicating directly with his managers there. According to an Evans-
Novak account at the time, his neutrality posture also did not prevent him
from attending a strategy conclave of all his main supporters, presided
over by former Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton, on May 30 in New
York's Waldorf Towers. Anticipating a Rockefeller win in California's
primary, Nixon scheduled an eleven-state speaking tour to follow it. The
kickoff was to be a testimonial dinner on Long Island for Congressman
Steven B. Derounian and the guest list featured a half-dozen top
Republican leaders who had not committed themselves to either Goldwater or
Rockefeller. The facts do show that *at the very least* Nixon cooperated
with his supporters and arranged his plans so that he would be within
earshot if the call to duty came."
(My apologies for relying so much on Gilder and Chapman's book; it is both
biased and dated, but it's the only detailed book about 1964 I have with
me right now, and anyway, whatever one thinks of their interpretations,
the *facts* they set forth do indicate that Nixon was at least keeping his
options open in a way that suggests that he did not regard the nomination
as an empty prize.)
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/soc.history.what-if/Ghzn1YByCDA/ww4p3unAnz8J