, Columnist
What If 1968 Never Happened?
Looking back on 50 years of politics since Robert Kennedy’s assassination. Plus, Jonathan Bernstein’s morning links.
What if?
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
We just passed the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. It’s not hard to argue that this might have been the assassination with the largest political consequences of the 1960s. Let’s play a little What If.
It’s virtually certain that Kennedy would not have won the Democratic nomination for president in Chicago. In the pre-reform system, winning a few primaries just wasn’t that important. As long as Lyndon Johnson backed Hubert Humphrey, Humphrey had the delegates necessary to win.