Kiss Frontman Gene Simmons Voices Support For Mitt Romney, Regrets Voting For Obama In ’08

mediaite ^ | 4/3/2012 | by Noah Rothman

[mkjessup]

Good points O-Six.

Gene McCarthy was simply ahead of his time politically, as his ideological bedfellow (George McGovern) would succeed 4 years later as the ‘Rat Party embraced the far left in every way.

Had LBJ not withdrawn from the primaries it would have been interesting to see what that Chicago convention would have looked like, Humphrey would not have entered the race, which would have left RFK and McCarthy to challenge Johnson.

McCarthy would (IMHO) have eventually withdrawn and thrown his support to RFK. While RFK was running as the ‘peace’ candidate, he was in fact an ardent anti-Communist having served on Senator JOE McCarthy’s staff in the 1950’s, in fact McCarthy was Kathleen Kennedy Townsend’s godfather, I can only imagine how she’s had to live that down with her fellow liberals over the years, lol

But would LBJ have been denied the nomination if he had chosen to compete instead of withdraw? I say no, because Johnson was if nothing else, one helluva politician and just as JFK chose Johnson to balance the ticket in ‘60, I’d bet that he would have convinced Humphrey to withdraw for some screwball reason or another, and put RFK on the ticket with the understanding that LBJ would not run for another term in ‘72, but would pass the torch to Bobby. I can almost hear LBJ’s drawl now, “Bobby? I know we’ve had our differences, but for the good of the Party and the good of our Nation, we need to work together or else sure as hell we’re gonna see that sonuvabitch Nixon in the White House” ;)

Alternate history, if nothing else.

Have a nice rest o’ the week.

[ought-six]

Interesting theory that LBJ might have dumped Humphrey and asked RFK to be his running mate in 1968. It makes some kind of sense because that’s kind of what JFK did in 1960: JFK and LBJ were rivals for the 1960 Democtratic nomination, and they were engaged in a very visceral and acrmonious primary fight. They despised each other (just as LBJ and RFK despised each other), yet JFK tagged him as his running mate after the convention. No question he did it because he needed a Southerner on the ticket (let’s be frank: he needed Texas); but LBJ could conversely have tagged RFK as a running mate to pick upthe Northern vote and the anti-war vote.

You’re right: Alternate history is always interesting.