1968 Presidential Election

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After President Goldwater decided to retire, the AU was left to find a new nominee. With the country decisively against the Vietnam War by this point, party delegates united around antiwar Senator Mark Hatfield of the liberal wing, offering a strong rebuke to the conservatives accused of "splintering this party and the nation." Hatfield chose former President Henry Cabot Lodge as his running mate, a respected and experienced figure with moderate credentials. The DA had their first real primary and wound up backing Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the equally charismatic brother of a failed presidential candidate, who chose to run with Senator George McGovern to reinforce the ticket's progressive message. Lastly, in a result completely expected by everyone, Governor George Wallace was able to secure the WP nomination a second time and vowed that "victory will come this year." Hatfield is in many ways running to the opposite of Goldwater's ideas by standing against "his extreme measures on economics and acutely hawkish mindset" and trying to bring back the Bull-Moose voters that fled over the last eight years. Kennedy is in favor of ending the war and doing more for civil rights like Hatfield but argues that he would be "a clean break away from the last eight years of failed AU leadership." Wallace favors withdrawing from Vietnam should it not appear winnable in the near future and has taken a strong law-and-order position to "scrub out the hooligans and delinquents from our streets" and restore peace.

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RFK, though I'd be very happy with either. Sad that the Worker's Party is basically dying now though.

That's what happens when trolls nominate Wallace right after Kefauver. There's actually a small chance of a WP comeback that I've thought of, but we'll have to see if we ever get there.

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This appears a sad repudiation of the triumphant Goldwater years.

I figure that Goldwater will end up looking a lot like the right-wing LBJ when his legacy is sorted out: admiration by many conservatives for getting much of his domestic priorities through, but with Vietnam and other things as big asterisks.

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On that note, I wish the master thread would be active again.

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Kennedy has won, and we've had our highest turnout in a while here. 1972 should be coming soon. Expect more fun.