What Should Hubert Humprey Have Done in Order to Win in 1968?

[President Mitt]

What about talking more about the good economy? I'm sure the economy mattered to many voters in 1968. If Humphrey would have talked more about JFK's and LBJ's economic record and about how he'll continue it, I'm pretty sure he would have gotten some voters that were unhappy with Vietnam due to their desire to keep the prosperity going.

Or he could have just opposed the Vietnam War entirely.

[President Mitt]

What about talking more about the good economy? I'm sure the economy mattered to many voters in 1968. If Humphrey would have talked more about JFK's and LBJ's economic record and about how he'll continue it, I'm pretty sure he would have gotten some voters that were unhappy with Vietnam due to their desire to keep the prosperity going.

Or he could have just opposed the Vietnam War entirely.

Didn't he kinda do that on the campaign, though? He said he'd end the war as soon as possible.

Not really. If I recall, at the end of the campaign, he only inched a tad to the left of LBJ. He mostly ignored the Vietnam War entirely, which was stupid. If he was a critic of Johnson's Vietnam policy, he would have gained a large amount of support, and probably not losing much, if any at all either. Anti-War-ism wasn't exclusive among the new left, quite the contrary, it was a middle class phenomenon as well.

[President Mitt]

What about talking more about the good economy? I'm sure the economy mattered to many voters in 1968. If Humphrey would have talked more about JFK's and LBJ's economic record and about how he'll continue it, I'm pretty sure he would have gotten some voters that were unhappy with Vietnam due to their desire to keep the prosperity going.

People are not only voting on the economy. It would have given him maybe some voters more, but not enought to win.

Humphrey only needed about 1.5% more of the popular vote to flip in order to win (since that would have flipped NJ, MO, and AK, and sent the election to the House, where Humphrey would have won). Talking more about the good economy (unemployment was at a 15-year low in 1968) might have allowe Humphrey to get a 1.5-2% swing of the popular vote in his favor.

The people didn't really care about the economy. They were more concerned with the butchering of American soldiers in Vietnam. That's why they elected Nixon, who had been able to conceal himself as the "Peace" candidate.