1972 election WITH hindsight

[Joe Republic]

The tickets were exactly the same, i.e. Nixon-Agnew (R) and McGovern-Shriver (D), but in this case the entire electorate somehow knew what would happen throughout the next four years if Nixon were re-elected.  But as in real life today, they didn't know what would happen if McGovern were elected instead.

Would the American people have stuck with it and re-elected two men who were both destined to resign in disgrace and send the nation into political turmoil, or take a chance on a pair of inexperienced liberal peaceniks instead?

Maps?

[adam]

McGovern was not going to win, he wasn't meant to...he was meant as a sacrificial lamb. Even in hidsight people would take Nixon over the radical.

[Dr. Cynic]

McGovern, by today's standards would not be all that radical, so with hindsight, I'd vote for him... I'd be bitter over the failure of California to vote for Humphrey in the primary (My state, in which he's always been popular, voted for him). I would've voted for George, complete in the knowledge he would not win.

[DownWithTheLeft]

McGovern does better but not good

[Mike in Maryland]

What's with the special McGovern strength in Delaware?  Illinois, too; it was less Democratic than then it is now, and state Dems were then largely under the guidance of Mayor Daley (the first), whose slate was beaten by McGovernite insurgents.  As a result, Daley scarcely lifted a finger for McGovern in the general (except maybe the middle one.)

I would give McGovern his home state of South Dakota, and think he might have had a shot in California.

[© tweed]

Assuming people knew watergate was going to happen, which is the situation I think this poll question poses, McGovern clearly would win, perhaps all 50 states.

[Lincoln Republican]

This scenario has the electorate knowing what would happen if Nixon and Agnew were reelected, but not knowing what would happen if McGovern and Shriver were elected.

If the electorate knew that Agnew would be forced to resign in disgrace after details of his accepting bribes, as Governor of Maryland, became public, and that the President himself, Richard Nixon, would be forced to resign, or face inevitable impeachment, for subverting the constitution and violating his oath of office, and bringing the nation to a constitutional crisis, with cover ups, bribery, extortion, intimidation, threats, and having such slimy characters as Mitchell, Haldeman, and Erlichman, among others, high up in positions of power and influence in the administration,  I hardly think that anyone in their right minds would reelect Nixon and Agnew under these circumstances.

McGovern and Shriver win this election by a huge landslide, dare I say sweeping the nation, as the electorate reacts with disgust and anger at the Nixon and Agnew behavior. 

They would take their chances with McGovern, and hope for the best.

[Boris]

Judging by Nixon's approval ratings around Watergate, I'd say that McGovern takes all fifty states.

[True Democrat]

Nixon/McGovern (if the election were held in 1972):



387-151

[Nym90]

Judging by Nixon's approval ratings around Watergate, I'd say that McGovern takes all fifty states.

Exactly. Nixon got down to a 19 percent approval rating I believe in the last Gallup poll before his resignation.

I'd vote for McGovern, and he would've won. I can't imagine anything McGovern could or would possibly have done that would've been as bad as Watergate.

[True Democrat]

Judging by Nixon's approval ratings around Watergate, I'd say that McGovern takes all fifty states.

Exactly. Nixon got down to a 19 percent approval rating I believe in the last Gallup poll before his resignation.

I'd vote for McGovern, and he would've won. I can't imagine anything McGovern could or would possibly have done that would've been as bad as Watergate.

I'm assuming that with hindsight does not refer to right after Nixon resigned.  Obviously Nixon would have won then.  But say, 20 years later, if all the people in 1972 voted again, I think McGovern would not have won by as much.

[NewFederalist]

My vote would not have changed since I did not vote for either of them in 1972.