1984: Reagan vs JFK

[Alcibiades]

This is a rather convoluted scenario I thought up, but bear with me. In 1963, JFK survives the attempt on his life in Dallas, but suffers serious injuries, and resigns the presidency to LBJ. Assume that there are no butterfly effects, and events pan out after this as they did in OTL. Kennedy stays out of the spotlight after he leaves office due to his life-changing injuries, and is rarely seen in public, allowing some of the same mythology and conspiracy theories which developed around him in OTL to grow. Eventually, though, as he gradually rehabilitates and recovers, he can no longer resist his natural calling to public service, and wins election to the United States Senate from Massachusetts in 1978.

In 1984, (of course not being term-limited) craving one final shot at a return to the presidency he never got to complete, and with many Democrats feeling he is their only hope of defeating Reagan, the 67-year old Kennedy wins his party’s nomination for the presidency, and faces the incumbent Republican in a clash of two of the 20th century’s most iconic presidents. Who wins, and how does the map look?

[Agonized-Statism]

President Ronald Reagan (R-CA) / Vice President George Bush (R-TX) ✓
Senator John Kennedy (D-MA) / Governor Martha Collins (D-KY)

The New Deal Coalition was dead.

[Alben Barkley]

Without actually dying and being martyred, I find it hard to imagine JFK’s legend/mystique is quite as powerful as it was. Especially after he’s been back in the public spotlight as a senator for six years. Hell, given all the health problems he already had, it would be somewhat surprising if he even made it this far in good enough shape to run again.

But just rolling with it, this is more or less what I think would be JFK’s best case scenario:

Reagan would simply be too tough to beat that year. And a guy who was president 20 years earlier simply wouldn’t be as special as the mythical figure JFK became after his death.

I do think, however, that if JFK was wounded in the assassination attempt but stayed in office, he would have won a massive landslide in 1964. Perhaps even bigger than LBJ’s.

[Motorcity]

1. Kennedy wouldn't gain the same mythical status if he survived

2. If he is able to recover, he would run in 1968, 1972, or 1976. No one is going to try to return to the presidency after 20 years. The best bet is returning in 1968 to defeat Nixon.

3. If he is injured, he'll probably leave it to Bobby or Ted to run

4. JFK was too smart to run in 1984 in a suicide run

5. The country was a lot harsher to disabled people. FDR had to hide his wheel chair. JFK hid his many illinesses. JFK might have been resecpeytd but the countyr would have been too wary to vote for someone shot in the head even if they had a full injury

[Alben Barkley]

1. Kennedy wouldn't gain the same mythical status if he survived

2. If he is able to recover, he would run in 1968, 1972, or 1976. No one is going to try to return to the presidency after 20 years. The best bet is returning in 1968 to defeat Nixon.

3. If he is injured, he'll probably leave it to Bobby or Ted to run

4. JFK was too smart to run in 1984 in a suicide run

5. The country was a lot harsher to disabled people. FDR had to hide his wheel chair. JFK hid his many illinesses. JFK might have been resecpeytd but the countyr would have been too wary to vote for someone shot in the head even if they had a full injury

This is kind of overblown. Pictures of FDR in his wheelchair were actually published in the extremely prominent Life magazine while he was president. It's true that he tried to avoid presenting himself in a wheelchair to the public as much as possible, but it was at least an open secret that he was crippled, and the reality is that probably most of the nation knew that he had a debilitating ailment of some kind. They nonetheless elected him to four terms.

And my thinking here was that Oswald would have missed the fatal headshot, and only hit JFK the first time which he subsequently recovered from. There is literally no physical way possible to survive half of your head being blown off, so it's even more fantastical to assume JFK somehow survived the headshot.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

It's doubtful Kennedy would have lived that long tbh given his health.

[MATTROSE94]

No offense, but this is probably the weirdest election scenario I’ve ever read.

[Fuzzy Bear]

It's doubtful Kennedy would have lived that long tbh given his health.

He's have been 67.  Improvements in medicine could have kept him alive that long.  The last President to die in office under the age of 60 who was not assassinated was Warren Harding (age 57).  Prior to that, James Polk died at age 53, months after leaving the White House.

Of the Presidents who died in their 60s, FDR was a heavy smoker with a history of polio who was, truthfully, too sick to run for a 4th term (and, likely, too sick to run for his 3rd term).  Coolidge died at age 60 of a heart attack; he was a clean liver with cholesterol issues.  TR died at 60, but he had health problems stemming from an enlarged heart due to his childhood asthma, malaria, a 1916 gunshot wound, and other health conditions that came about from his strenuous lifestyle.  Grant, a heavy cigar smoker, died at age 63 of cancer.  Andrew Johnson, an alcoholic known as "Andy The Sot"' died at age 66 after returning to the Senate in 1875.  Franklin Pierce, age 64, was a depressed drunkard.  Zachary Taylor supposedly died of a stomach disease from being poisoned by drinking water at age 65, but there have been theories that he had been poisoned, and they have not been definitively disproved.  William Henry Harrison died at age 68, also from poisoned drinking water (not from his bad cold).  

So who knows if JFK would have made it.  Likely, he would have.  I suspect, however, that had he made it, his health would have been a major issue.

[TransfemmeGoreVidal]

It's doubtful Kennedy would have lived that long tbh given his health.

He's have been 67.  Improvements in medicine could have kept him alive that long.  The last President to die in office under the age of 60 who was not assassinated was Warren Harding (age 57).  Prior to that, James Polk died at age 53, months after leaving the White House.

Of the Presidents who died in their 60s, FDR was a heavy smoker with a history of polio who was, truthfully, too sick to run for a 4th term (and, likely, too sick to run for his 3rd term).  Coolidge died at age 60 of a heart attack; he was a clean liver with cholesterol issues.  TR died at 60, but he had health problems stemming from an enlarged heart due to his childhood asthma, malaria, a 1916 gunshot wound, and other health conditions that came about from his strenuous lifestyle.  Grant, a heavy cigar smoker, died at age 63 of cancer.  Andrew Johnson, an alcoholic known as "Andy The Sot"' died at age 66 after returning to the Senate in 1875.  Franklin Pierce, age 64, was a depressed drunkard.  Zachary Taylor supposedly died of a stomach disease from being poisoned by drinking water at age 65, but there have been theories that he had been poisoned, and they have not been definitively disproved.  William Henry Harrison died at age 68, also from poisoned drinking water (not from his bad cold).  

So who knows if JFK would have made it.  Likely, he would have.  I suspect, however, that had he made it, his health would have been a major issue.

It would have, I could see it sort of being an issue on both sides. His health vs Reagan's age. Who knows who would have come out on top. Would definitely have made for an interesting matchup.