What Should Nixon Have Done in Order to Win in 1960?

[Lincoln Republican]

I really believe having Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York as his Vice Presidential runningmate could have pushed Nixon over the top.

Rockefeller was not interested in the VP position, however.

[Lincoln Republican]

President Al Gore -

You may as well find the following forum discussion from 2006 interesting, regarding the 1960 Presidential election.

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=41204.0

[Lincoln Republican]

Theodore H. White believes had Nixon decided to go with the the more advanced civil rights plank instead of the more moderate plank on civil rights, could have won Nixon the election.

Rockefeller supported the more advanced civil rights plank.

So possibly, with the more advanced civil rights plank, and with Rockefeller as his running mate, Nixon could have won.

[Lincoln Republican]

I really believe having Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York as his Vice Presidential runningmate could have pushed Nixon over the top.

Rockefeller was not interested in the VP position, however.

Why not? I think being a VP gave you more influence than being NY governor, even back then. Also, do you have any other ideas about what Nixon should have done differently?

My view is that Rockefeller did not fully support the 1960 Republican platform, in particular their failure to adopt the advanced civil rights plank which he supported, as I have discussed in another post in this thread.

As well, Rockefeller is credited with saying that he was not made of standby equipment, meaning he had no interest in the Vice Presidency.

He did accept the Vice Presidency, of course, under Ford, however, this was near the end of his career.

[Lincoln Republican]

I think Nixon shouldn't have made his pledge to campaign in fifty states, since that led to him having to campaign in states he had no chance of winning or states that wouldn't matter.

Yes, you are absolutely correct. 

This is another very serious error in the 1960 Nixon campaign.

Because of this pledge, Nixon was campaigning in the latter stages of the campaign in such states as Alaska, already safe for him, while Kennedy was campaigning in places like New York and Pennsylvania.

In the final analysis, however, don't forget Kennedy got 303 EV to 219 for Nixon.  It would have been extremely difficult, if not impossible, for Nixon to have made up an additional 50 EV in order to win the election.

Rockefeller could have helped.
Advanced civil rights plank could have helped.
Not campaigning in all 50 states could have helped.

But 50 EV is a lot to make up. 

[Lincoln Republican]

I think Nixon shouldn't have made his pledge to campaign in fifty states, since that led to him having to campaign in states he had no chance of winning or states that wouldn't matter.

Welcome to the forum.

[Lincoln Republican]

Yes, but everything has to go just right in several states.

[Lincoln Republican]

Yes, but everything has to go just right in several states.

Do you think IL and TX were rigged for JFK?

It can never be proven conclusively that Illinois and Texas were rigged, however, there is plenty of evidence that with the Daley machine in Cook County and the Johnson influence in Texas, that this could have pushed Kennedy over the top in both states, through fraudulent means.

But like I say, this cannot be proven beyond doubt here in 2010.