A question about RFK

[yellowcanine]

6. Pat Brown might have been an inspired choice.

He soundly defeated Nixon in 1962, inspiring Nixon's churlish observation to the press that "they wouldn't have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore." Even if Brown could not deliver California for RFK, having him on the ticket would have reminded voters of Nixon's darker side and the press certainly would have made a big deal of it. And Nixon's margins of victory in California in both 1960 and 1968 were small, so Nixon by no means had California sewed up. There is no question that putting CA in the Democratic column would have boosted RFK's chances a lot given that JFK won without California in 1960. And there was a strong connection between Pat Brown and RFK in the form of Dick Tuck, a political fixer and prankster whom Nixon partially blamed for his 1960 loss to JFK and his 1962 loss to Pat Brown. Tuck was a genius at getting under a candidate's skin and the paranoid Nixon seemed to be the perfect foil for him. To have RFK, Pat Brown, and Dick Tuck on the same team would have brought out the worst of Nixon.