RFK was essentially a charismatic HHH. I was 14 and hated Kennedy, because he had stolen the nomination from my hero, Eugene McCarthy. (Yes, I was young and stupid. Like David Horowitz, I had my epiphany and left the Left.) Anyone living at the time knew that Nixon vs. RFK would have been a reprise of the 1960 election, with RFK winning in a walk. If HHH had been more politically savvy, he would have put Ted on the ticket for VP and let Ted bring in the left while Humphrey brought in the working class, and he would have won--and Ted wouldn't have been driving that car in Chappaquiddick, which would have let him run for President in '76 instead of the peanut farmer. Reagan would have still become president, either in 76 or 80, but without having to go through Gerald Ford to get there.
HHH thought he had a big “prize” in Edmund Sixtus Muskie, whom the media called “a second Lincoln.”