Could Robert F. Kennedy have won the 1968 Presidential Election?

[Bomster]

Setting aside the already difficult process of attaining the Democratic nomination, if Bobby Kennedy was the 1968 Democratic Nominee, would he have been able to beat Nixon and Wallace? On one hand he is the brother to a beloved martyred President. On the other hand it’s a year in which Democrats and liberalism overall is unpopular, and as a Senator I believe some saw him as left-wing.

 

[gentleman biaggi]

considering that hube went from polling at 28% to being ~310,000 votes away from the presidency within a month, im willing to bet that most democrats would’ve had a chance with a more united party. meanwhile rfk also could’ve improved hube’s turnout amongst black and mexican voters, which could be enough to change the margins in illinois + california

 

[Stikfigur]

My hangup is that Humphrey was already practically guaranteed to win to convention by the time Kennedy or McCarthy could even have a chance. Humphrey was already pretty close to getting sufficient delegates by the time RFK won CA for instance.
Even if he won, the other big question would be if he could still pull in the Old New Deal and Humphrey's voters without sacrificing them to Nixon or Wallace.

 

[Time Enough]

Whilst I do think RFK would do better with certain groups and not have a McGovern style blowout I still think it’s possible he loses, or the election is thrown to the House because Nixon would probably pull in every favour to get dirt on Robert Kennedy and also he probably finds it easier to portray himself as the moderate choice between two extremes etc.

Nixon & Wallace would probably find it easier to attract the kind Conservative Democrats who would be put off by Kennedy’s attempt to build a new coalition of Unions, Blacks, Hispanics etc.