Could Johnson have won in '68?

I have always wondered if the dems had a chance in that election. Could he have won, had he ran?

Or did he realize what a mess he helped cause in Vietnam and just decide he didn't want to deal with it?

Given another week, the way the campaign was going, Hubert could have won. He got a late start convincing Johnson to do the bombing halt, and lots of money problems for campaign ads. He also faced very vocal antiwar hecklers at every stop, because he was the Vice-President.

Nixon's plan was to run a flat campaign start to finish without a peak, and utilize the Southern strategy. So he started in front and did a steady slide until the election. It almost backfired.

which, of course, was to escalate. But that would have been difficult to run again. Yes, I think that Bobby would have won.

if he even made it as far as winning the nomination. For a really great man that did so much for the country through Medicare and Civil Rights legislation, he was not going to win because of the war.

is correct.

Johnson couldn't have won in '68. LBJ was the consummate politician of his time. He saw the writing on the wall. If he thought he had ANY chance to win, he would've run. The real question is could Humphrey have won if he'd been given the right support.

Where protesters were beaten in the streets and the party powers selected Humpty Dumpty as the nominee.
And the whole world was watching.

but it probably would have gone to the house to select the president and they would have selected LBJ becuz the house was democratic. Johnson would have probably carried Kentucky and Tennessee two of the better HHH states in the south. Also, Missouri probably would have gone his way especially since HHH lost it by only a few thousand votes. I think Johnson would might have also carried New Jersey which HHH also narrowly lost. An incumbent president has power to shape events and had LBJ run I think he would have used those powers to the hilt. The real reason LBJ didn't run in '68 (and it was a very tough decision for him up to the end) was not so much the war--but his health. He knew he was slowing down.

He also would have received the Democratic nomination. He had most of the delegates already corralled. Remember in '68 there were few primaries and most delegates were selected at state conventions which the party regulars controlled. He also had George Meany and the AFL-CIO solidly behind him which also had control of many delegates in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and New Jersey. Furthermore the South was solid behind the president, obviously not becuz of his civil rights policies but on the war. John Connally ran his southern operation. With a solid south, Labor, and the party regulars behind him--Johnson would have had no problem receiving the nomination.

He was almost as hated as Nixxon by young men of Draft age. Then there's the fact that his heart was not in the race--and that's pretty extreme when you consider what a political animal he was.

Another term would have been Viagra and cocaine rolled into one for Johnson, but he knew it wasn't going to happen. Must've been hell for the old boy; he didn't live five more years.

Good riddance.

:freak:
dbt