Reply #8: The big question is [View All]

does RFK have the support (or the charisma) to prevent the bloodbath of Chicago 1968?

He only wins if he can do that, and even then he has to neutralize Nixon's peace-with-honor horseshit.

And even then, how do the Repukes react in defeat? One of the reasons we remember Nixon so (ahem) vividly is, he was the architect of the "Southern Strategy," which we have seen come to fruition this year (that map of the slave states and territories in the 1850s, which is nearly identical to the 2004 red states). If Nixon's defeat results in the continued dominance of the Rockefeller wing, we get a 21st century dominated by urban business interests in both parties, and no more foreign adventurism. But if the Dixiecrats keep control, they keep propping up avuncular warmongers, and we still get Reagan and the Contras. (We might not get Islamofascism, however, depending what happened to Iran in the interim. Without the distraction of Vietnam, we might have been able to rein in the Shah's excesses.)