Nixon and Muskie/Wallace/Kennedy?

[TommyC1776]

Why was Nixon afraid one of these men was gonna win the Democratic nomination in 1972?  I kinda have a feeling Kennedy because his brother beat Nixon in 1960.

[TommyC1776]

I even read this somewhere.

[Dr. Cynic]

Well, let's go in the order you asked:

Muskie: Edmund Muskie had distinguished himself as Hubert Humphrey's perfect balance wheel during the '68 campaign. He was a calm and rational speaker, and often invited hecklers up onto the podium to debate him or speak their views. He was smart on foreign policy and had a good record in the Senate. Nixon feared that Muskie could possibly make him look foolish, because Muskie was calm and collected... Thus the necessity of slandering his wife... (Although you can't say 100% Nixon had something to do with that, I suspect he had involvement in it, knowing Muskie would lose his cool when defending a loved one)

Wallace: George Wallace was a southerner who by this time had moderated his view on segregation, but was still a social conservative. He had always been an economic liberal, and apart from his stance on Civil Rights, he was very much a Democrat. The thing about it is, Wallace would easily upset Nixon in the south, and northern states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other states that had huge blue collar populations, that tend to be economically populist. Wallace would also be able to carry northern states after recanting his segregation views, and might've beaten Nixon.

Kennedy: For all intensive purposes, had John and Bobby not been gunned down, Ted would've ended up the least memorable of the three. He had Kennedy charisma, but it paled and still pales with his brothers. As of yet he really wasn't very distinguished or stand outish, except he was a Kennedy. Had he run, he would've garnered support from liberals as well as rank and file Dems for his name and his charisma. Nixon probably feared Kennedy could beat him if it came down to it. However, Nixon caught a break with the Chappaquidick incident, and Ted's Presidential dreams would be dashed forever (It's probably the main reason he lost the 1980 primaries, along with an unfortunate gaffe he made when asked why he wanted to be President)

[Ferdinand]

Could it be that Nixon was a sinking ship that would have lost to any mainstream candidate? None-the-less, I am glad that McGovern won that primary...he was the last Democratic candidate with fortitude and integrity.

[gorkay]

1) Nixon was extremely paranoid.
2) In 1970 and 1971, before the trips to China and the USSR and the scaling-down of the Vietnam War, Nixon had looked like anything but a sure thing for re-election. Muskie was thought to be his strongest potential opponent, based on his fine performance in the '68 campaign. (It was around this time, incidentally, that Nixon was floating the possibility of dumping Agnew in favor of John Connally, because he thought the ticket needed strengthening.)
3) Kennedy would not have run, because he promised his mother he wouldn't. I don't know if this was widely known by political insiders at the time, though. Even with Chappaquiddick hanging over his head, the Kennedy aura was still strong in '72, so he would have been a strong enough possibility to scare Nixon, who of course had a special paranoia about all things Kennedy.
4) Nixon may have been more afraid of Wallace as a third-party candidate than a Democrat, and of course it wasn't known for sure until late '71 or early '72 which way he was going to run, or if he was going to run at all. As the Democratic candidate, he would have hurt Nixon in the south but run far behind him just about everywhere else; but as a third-party candidate, he could have drained enough conservative votes from Nixon to cost him the election against a strong Democratic candidate like Muskie (or Humphrey, who was also a strong possibility in '72).
5) The one Democratic candidate who didn't enter into this discussion at all was McGovern. If you will remember, McGovern only got into the '68 race after Bobby Kennedy was killed, but he was in it long enough to make himself a bit better-known. I think he announced for '72 earlier than anyone else, but he wasn't taken seriously until Muskie faltered and Wallace's primary successes scared mainstream and liberal Democrats enough to understand that the only way of depriving him of the nomination was to choose between McGovern and Humphrey. Humphrey still had too much of the LBJ/Vietnam stigma, so McGovern was the choice, pretty much by default. (There were many, many other Democratic candidates, but none who ever gained much support anywhere.) How much Nixon's dirty tricks had to do with any of this is a matter of conjecture.

[StateBoiler]

Why was Nixon afraid one of these men was gonna win the Democratic nomination in 1972?  I kinda have a feeling Kennedy because his brother beat Nixon in 1960.

If you were a Republican, and had a choice between facing those three and McGovern, who would you pick?

[TommyC1776]

Why was Nixon afraid one of these men was gonna win the Democratic nomination in 1972?  I kinda have a feeling Kennedy because his brother beat Nixon in 1960.

If you were a Republican, and had a choice between facing those three and McGovern, who would you pick?

probably McGovern or Wallace.  the 2 that could've lost me if I was a Republican.