Kennedy picks Humphrey in 1960

[Lincoln Republican]

Goldwater does better against the very liberal Humphrey than he did against the more moderate Johnson.

Goldwater is able to do well in the south, and is able to hold on to many traditionally conservative states.

Still a big win for Humphrey.

Humphrey/Morse                       415
Goldwater/Miller                         123

[Lincoln Republican]

That's true about Miller.  Congressman William E. Miller was a Catholic from upstate New York, and this therefore provided, Goldwater believed, geographic and ethnic balance to the ticket.

Miller had a reputation as a skilled and quick debater, and one who could provoke outbursts from his opponents, and  who, Goldwater thought, would put Johnson and Humphrey on the defensive.

But, during the campaign, Miller was unable to put Johnson and Humphrey off balance.

Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania had let it be known that he would accept the Vice Presidential nomination in 1964.  He later allowed a campaign to draft him for the Presidential nomination.  I do not believe that Goldwater and Scranton would have made a very cohesive team, as there were obvious and fundamental ideological differences between the two.  Had Scranton been on the ticket in 1964, this would not have the changed the results, and the Republicans would not have won Pennsylvania, or any other moderate state, I do not believe.  Goldwater, the Presidential nominee, the one at the top of the ticket, was simply too unacceptable to most of the country in 1964, and that combined with the fact he was running against the new President who came to office after the tragic assassination of the former President, spelled doom for the Republicans in 1964.

A name I have come up with that I believe would have made a suitable running mate for Goldwater would be Senator John J Williams of Delaware.  Williams, then age 60, he had the maturity, had been serving in the U.S. Senate since 1947, he had the necessary credentials and experience.  Williams had a reputation as an opponent of government waste and bureaucracy, and for rooting out corruption in the Internal Revenue Service.

Another possibility I was thinking of for Vice President would have been Senator Thruston B Morton, age 57, of Kentucky.  He had been a member of the House of Representatives 1947-1953, and a U.S. Senator since 1957.  He was a moderate Republican who voted for the Civil Rights Rights Act of 1964. 

I am not sure, however, that either of these two Senators would have accepted the Vice Presidential nomination, surely knowing they would be headed for a big defeat in the election.

Actually, in my humble opinion, I believe that Senator John J Williams of Delaware would have been a good pick for Vice President for Richard Nixon in 1960.  There has been much discussion that Henry Cabot Lodge was not the best pick Nixon could have made in 1960, although Nixon believed in 1960 that the Republicans could only win the Presidential election if the election was fought on foreign policy, not domestic policy, and Lodge had been a U.S. Senator and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. 1953-60.