Battle of the Extremes: McCarthy vs. Reagan 1968

[Peter the Lefty]

Say former RFK delegates manage to hold their noses and vote for Eugene McCarthy in the 1968 DNC as the only other major anti-war candidate, and he beats Humphrey for the nomination.  He chooses Muskie as his running-mate for the sake of party-unity.  And say Reagan, Romney, and Rockefeller all manage to join together in a "Stop Nixon" movement in spite of sharp ideological differences, and Reagan is chosen as their candidate.  He beats Nixon for the nomination and picks Charles Percy as his running mate.  Then, when you add in Wallace, it makes for a very interesting matchup. 

[RogueBeaver]

The problem is that you can't get Gene the nomination when only 25% of delegates are chosen by primaries, the rest by Daley & Co. Handwaving... yeah, it'd be a very interesting election.

[Phony Moderate]

Rockefeller wins.

[reagan84]

Is Wallace still in this election or is it a 2 way head to head?
   

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Interesting scenario, although the RL election was essentially the battle of the extremes: Wallace of the far-right, Humphrey of the far-left, and Nixon in the center (which is a large part of how Nixon won.)  But anyway, here's my map:

McCarthy- 305
Reagan- 153
Wallace- 80

McCarthy carries several liberal, but Republican-leaning states (OR, VT, etc.), and in the South, he also carries Texas.  McCarthy also narrowly picks up Illinois, a crucial swing state, as a result of his liberalism and the Daley machine in Chicago (much like Kennedy in 1960).  Reagan carries most of the West as well as New Hampshire as a result of libertarian-leanings in those states; he also carries several Peripheral Southern states on the strength of wealthy suburban voters in those states as well as the Democratic split between Wallace and McCarthy over civil rights.  Wallace carries most of the Deep South as well.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Reagan wins in a close race in my opinion. The electorate was quite pissed off and Reagan could easily cast McCarthy as a leader of the protests that had plagued middle America for the last few years. I don't see how Wallace improves in this scenario. While Nixon had to pull all his tricks to keep the RNC's Southern delegates in the bag, they were mighty tempted to go for Reagan and the rest of the South would've as well been more likely to go for Reagan than Nixon.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

I don't think America would be ready for somebody as conservative as Reagan, but they'd be definitely ready for McCarthy, since liberals had dominated the terms of political debate since FDR's election in 1932 (and still do, for the most part.)