Would RONALD REAGAN Have Won in '72?

[liberalpragmatist]

If Hubert Humphrey had won the 1968 race, would Ronald Reagan probably have been the '72 nominee? My guess is he would have been, and with the conservative tide of the country - white-collar Dems fleeing to the Repubs and Southern Dixiecrats abandoning the party via George Wallace, my guess is Reagan would have been elected in '72 - maybe not a landslide, but a win nevertheless.

The irony here is, I think the country would be in a more liberal place today had Humphrey won in '68 and Reagan won in '72 and served, say, 8 years. The general impulse is to rotate party control after 8 or 12 year periods, so the Democrats would probably have governed through most of the 1980s - perhaps someone like Fmr. Sen. Lawton Chiles of Florida. Clinton may well still have emerged, perhaps in '96 or so, but of course, with a shift in the political terrain, who knows what figures might have emerged?

[RoeBear]

1. It is fun to play...

...what if.

Like what if Kennedy hadn't been assasinated.
Who would have run in 68?

[mark11727]

3. Bobby, again.

[WI_DEM]

4. My guess is Humphrey would still have been the nominee

Johnson still controlled the party machinery and between organized labor (which strongly supported HHH) and the Democratic machine HHH would have been nominated, imo. Remember this was before the party reforms which made it easier to challenge the party machinery.

[liberalpragmatist]

7. which Kennedy?

I think RFK would have won the nomination and the presidency if he hadn't been shot.

As for JFK? I think he would have escalated Vietnam in the short term, but nowhere near the level that Johnson did. JFK would have pulled out relatively early and before there was much public outcry and would probably have made a reproachment with Cuba.

In domestic policy, Kennedy would have gotten some key civil rights legislation through, but it probably would not have been as deep as Johnson was able to get. Johnson could rely on his old Senate connections and sympathy from the "Kennedy legacy."

My guess is that in '68, had JFK been wrapping up his second term, Johnson would've been the Dem nominee (despite his age) and Nelson Rockefeller would've been the Republican nominee. I think Rockefeller would have won and would have been the one to finally get the complete civil rights legislation through.

Meanwhile, the Southern Dixiecrats and conservative Republicans would have abandoned both parties and created a new Conservative Party, which would have quickly spelled doom for both rump major parties. I think the Democratic and Republican parties, now both rump liberal factions would, in the post-Rockefeller years, merged to form a new Progressive Party, perhaps with RFK at the helm.

But obviously there's no way of knowing, and everybody's opinion would be different.

[RoeBear]

9. Crazy talk!

Who in their right mind would think that a brother would follow a brother in succession to the presidency? The only crazier idea I've ever heard of would be a son following his father just 8 years after the father was President. :+

[WI_DEM]

2. depends

If Hubert had brought about an end or de-escalation in Vietnam, he may have been re-elected easily, like Nixon was.

[malatesta1137]

5. Would OJ have been convicted

if Markkk Furhamn had not been born?

[pretzel4gore]

8. but oj was innocent!

Even if any of you really care, consider that the oj simpson case was certainly a 'psyche ops' operation ran by the men who today have used democracy to de-democratize the world's biggest economic engine. Take a famous athlete, formerly a hero type who married a white woman, abused her etc then killed her. it was perfect! Use the injustice of oj getting away with murder to define the US politically, while a 'liberal' president is in the WH. The 'good guys' are forced to swallow a verdict which had become racial and nothing else (at least to white people)...i heard a freeper type once gloat that the simpson case took out a 'n, a n lover and a jew'...plus the mediawhores learned how to do it, to push something (justice for Ron and Nicole) while quietly helping the rightwing idea that 'im mad as hell and im not gonna take it...!! etc'
plus money, lotsa money! The oj simpson case is a disgrace. imagine, a black jury subject nonstop to entire media circus, overt police racism and feeling the national obsession- while a later white jury met in private, unbothered by media (and it found simpson guilty)....to go a lil further, if anyone remembers the john hinkley case, the government FORCED the jury to find hinkley not guilty due to insanity, which was silly ....the jury wanted to convict hinkley of attempted murder, but somehow the government ie geebush senior, got a verdict that outraged everybody against LIBERALISM! And the simpson case was also worked to get another verdict that, just 6 years later, would see a MORON elected chimp-in-charge! Most people can't see this, or ignore it, but in hell the red hot truth will be jammed up the old arse everyday forever....lol

[calico1]

6. Would Disco have been so

popular if Donna Summer and the BeeGees had not gone into the recording business? :silly:

[sonicx]

10. Would President Clinton or Gore have gotten a 90% approval rating...

if 9/11 happened on their watch?