1960 election if eisenhower never picks Nixon as v.p.

[johnpressman]

Ike hated Sen. Knowland, once referring to him as "how dumb can you get?".  Knowland was rumored to be Robert Taft's choice for VP if he won the nomination in 1952. 

If Nixon had not been Ike's VP, and remained in the Senate, he still would have been a formidable challenger for the GOP nomination in 1960.  His main competitor would still have been Gov. Rockefeller of New York.
Either would have lost to the JFK/LBJ ticket.  The Republican Party was in bad shape in 1960 and the electorate was looking for a change.

[johnpressman]

You must have not read much about Sen. Knowland.  He was having an affair with the wife of MI Sen. Blair Moody and Knowland's wife was having an affair with Blair! Blair Moody died of a heart attack in 1954 and  Knowland's wife insisted that they leave Washington or she would divorce Bill. I guess if she could no longer continue her affair, he couldn't continue his.

He would up committing suicide in 1974.

[johnpressman]

JFK didn't hate Lyndon Johnson. It was  Robert Kennedy who hated him. They say "politics make strange bedfellows", however, LBJ was the perfect VP choice for Kennedy.  Johnson was able to diminish the effect of the "Unpledged Electors" that were planning to throw the election into the House of Representatives by denying either major candidate a majority in the Electoral College.

With Johnson holding the South for the Democrats and bringing Texas, his home state into JFK's total, he virtually guaranteed a victory for the Dems in 1960.  No other VP candidate could do the same!