1972: Nixon/Connally(R) vs Muskie/Askew(D)

[Nothing Matters]

The backstory is the 1968 being thrown into Congress. After a rough voting, third party candidate George Wallace was assassinated and would splinter his support in Congress. After a fight Richard Nixon was chosen as President as the Senate chose Edmund Muskie for Vice President. From 1969 to the 1972 election, Muskie and Nixon would get along and would fight over some issues for most of the term. In 1971 Connally decided to switch to the Republican Party and caught Nixon's eye as a possible VP candidate in 1972. The Democrats easily nominated Vice President Muskie and chose Governor Askew over several other supporters, mainly Senators Bayh and Gravel. So how would the election play out? Discuss, with maps if you wish.

Republicans
-President Richard Nixon, CA
-Treasury Secretary John Connally, TX

Democrats
-Vice President Edmund Muskie, ME
-Governor Reubin Askew, FL

[Lincoln Republican]

Nixon just became President in 1969, and had undertaken many meaningful initiatives.

Running against Vice President Muskie in 1972 would no doubt make the race much closer than the real race against McGovern.

Connally is a very good VP pick. 

I really do not believe that Askew would be successful in prying southern states away from Nixon, expecially with northeastern liberal Muskie as the presidential candidate.

Actually, in real life, Nixon had wanted to dump Agnew in 1972 and replace him with Connally, but by then Agnew had become somewhat of a folk hero to conservatives, and Nixon did not want to disrupt the base.

An interesting scenario, but I see no reason President Nixon would not win in 1972.

Nixon/Connally                      360
Muskie/Askew                       178

[Psychic Octopus]

PRESIDENT MUSKIE! (Don't you feel better already)

[Robespierre's Jaw]

PRESIDENT MUSKIE! (Don't you feel better already)

Actually I don't. Maybe some Ibogaine would do the trick.

Anywho, this is how I would think such a scenario in 1972, between Richard Nixon and Edmund Muskie would turn out.

Richard M. Nixon/John B. Connally (R): 342 EV, 52% of the PV
Edmund S. Muskie/Reubin O. Askew (D): 196 EV, 47% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, American Independent, etc); 0 EV, 1% of the PV

Vice President Muskie does profoundly better than Senator George McGovern of South Dakota in RL 1972, but fails to defeat President Richard Nixon. Vice President Muskie does better thanks to the Unions actually supporting his campaign unlike McGovern's, thus Muskie is able to pull off victories in Union friendly states, West Virginia, Michigan for example.

[Lincoln Republican]

PRESIDENT MUSKIE! (Don't you feel better already)

Actually I don't. Maybe some Ibogaine would do the trick.

Anywho, this is how I would think such a scenario in 1972, between Richard Nixon and Edmund Muskie would turn out.

Richard M. Nixon/John B. Connally (R): 346 EV, 52% of the PV
Edmund S. Muskie/Reubin O. Askew (D): 192 EV, 47% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, American Independent, etc); 0 EV, 1% of the PV

Vice President Muskie does profoundly better than Senator George McGovern of South Dakota in RL 1972, but fails to defeat President Richard Nixon. Vice President Muskie does better thanks to the Unions actually supporting his campaign unlike McGovern's, thus Muskie is able to pull off victories in Union friendly states, West Virginia, Michigan for example.

Although, I have no doubt that Muskie, as the Presidential nominee, would carry his home state of Maine in this scenario.

Maine did go for Humphrey in 1968, after all, which can be attributed to the fact that Muskie was Humphrey's VP nominee.

[Robespierre's Jaw]

PRESIDENT MUSKIE! (Don't you feel better already)

Actually I don't. Maybe some Ibogaine would do the trick.

Anywho, this is how I would think such a scenario in 1972, between Richard Nixon and Edmund Muskie would turn out.

Richard M. Nixon/John B. Connally (R): 346 EV, 52% of the PV
Edmund S. Muskie/Reubin O. Askew (D): 192 EV, 47% of the PV
Others (Libertarian, American Independent, etc); 0 EV, 1% of the PV

Vice President Muskie does profoundly better than Senator George McGovern of South Dakota in RL 1972, but fails to defeat President Richard Nixon. Vice President Muskie does better thanks to the Unions actually supporting his campaign unlike McGovern's, thus Muskie is able to pull off victories in Union friendly states, West Virginia, Michigan for example.

Although, I have no doubt that Muskie, as the Presidential nominee, would carry his home state of Maine in this scenario.

Maine did go for Humphrey in 1968, after all, which can be attributed to the fact that Muskie was Humphrey's VP nominee.

Thanks for picking that up Winfield. I thought I did include Maine in the Muskie collum in my map, obviously not. Yes, Muskie would have easily carried Maine, probably by a grander margin than Humphrey's victory in the state in 1968.