What did they do when LBJ dropped out?
In the LBJ case very few delegates had been chosen.
The few LBJ candidates were free.
RFK won a bunch of delegates in primaries.
Then he was assassinated.
That freed up a whole bunch more delegates.
Then the convention picked Humphrey.
Humphrey had not run in any primaries.
LBJ dropped out after New Hampshire. Eugene McCarthy was already running, and Bobby Kennedy had entered the race. Primaries weren’t as important then, and Hubert Humphrey was able to get enough delegates to win the nomination without entering any primaries.
Biden may go all the way through the primaries — nobody’s really running against him and the party machine supports him — and then let the convention pick his successor. If he lasts longer than that, the Democratic National Committee will have to pick a candidate.
I thought Biden was going to speak to the country tonight, and that he might step down. But that TV address story actually was about last night and the disastrous press conference. Now it looks like he won’t go willingly and would have to be forced out.
They shot Bobby Kennedy and held the convention in Chicago.