Out of the Blue: A President Reagan in '68 TL

[pragmatic liberal]

Good start. Only thing is I can't imagine Reagan -- or any Republican in '68 -- would have picked Jacob Javits as his running mate. Javits was just about the most liberal Republican in the Senate, and was far more liberal than even many liberal Democrats.

If Reagan were tasked with picking a moderate or a liberal Republican, I'd think that any of the following would have been more realistic:

Gov. John Volpe of Massachusetts
(Fmr.) Gov. Bill Scranton of Pennsylvania
Sen. Howard Baker of Tennessee

All's said and done, I wonder whether Reagan would have been able to win in '68 -- it was a transition time, but I'm not sure the country was ready for an anti-government "Reagan" revolution, especially considering Goldwater had been rejected in a 2-1 landslide just four years earlier.

[pragmatic liberal]

Hey Historico. GREAT timeline so far - many alternate histories simply lack plausibility, something I can't say about yours. It's very believable and realistic.

I only have a couple points: you have Rockefeller dying and the Chappaquiddick incident remaining as normal, though I wonder if both events would not have been "butterflied" out.

For example, Rockefeller died due to a heart attack while having sex with his mistress - post-autopsy, it was believed he would have survived had he simply gotten to a hospital soon. Had he had a different schedule due to being Secretary of State, maybe he would still have had a heart attack due to an existing condition, but maybe it would have been during, say, the day, and he might have been found and saved.

Not a major point, however, and I understand it's easier sometimes to assume some things would have stayed the same.

[pragmatic liberal]

So do Howard Baker and Nancy Landon Kassebaum get married like in real life?

(Wouldn't that be something - if the President and Vice President got hitched?)