I was just catching up on John Gizzi Articles
http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/nixon-buchanan-democrat-senator-stennis/2017/05/20/id/791365/
So Buchanan says that Nixon considered appointing John Stennis as Vice President, weird.
An article on Gianforte mentions Joe McMarthy getting in a fight with a lib columnist in a bathroom. The guy, Drew Pearson, sounded like a real scumbag.
Stennis would’ve been a crazy choice. Worse, yet, he was “growing” in office and moved to the left in order to keep from getting primaried by a new generation of young lefties. He got an 83% left-wing rating from the ACU by 1987.
Of course, Nixon almost ended up choosing another Massachusetts RINO left-winger to be his running mate in 1968, Governor John Volpe (he wanted a White ethnic). Volpe, of course, did not have the ethical baggage that Agnew turned out to have, so he would’ve become President (presuming Conservatives wouldn’t have forced him off the ticket in 1972).
Other than for then-Gov. Reagan, who would’ve been tainted by the association in a future run, I think Nixon’s best bet in 1968 would’ve been choosing someone from the heartland, Conservative Governor Jim Rhodes of Ohio (the last decent Governor from that state who wasn’t a RINO).
Notably, had Rhodes been President in 1976 running against Carter, he would’ve carried the one state that Ford needed and narrowly lost, and that was Ohio. Of course, had that happened, we might never have ended up with President Reagan.