1964: MLK selected as LBJ's Vice presidential candidate

[President Johnson]

I know this scenario is a bit crazy: What if LBJ picked Martin Luther King Jr. as his running mate (King accepts the offer in this scenario)? Does this affect his victory significantly or not?

[heatmaster]

LBJ might have been a hill-billy hick and for Civil Rights and all that. The guy was, if anything, a practical politician; but no way, particularly in 1964, is he going to select a Afro American Preacher from the South - who was considered only a marginal figure at best and not the iconic figure he is to day. You are trying to impose a political reality through the prism of today and in 1964, America was still in the dark ages, regarding race. So not picking MLK was a no brainer in LBJ's calculus.