1964 Viva Kennedy!!!

The 1964 United States presidential election was the 45th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 3, 1964. Incumbent Democratic President John F. Kennedy defeated Senator Barry Goldwater, the Republican nominee, and George Wallace of the American Independent Party in a landslide victory.

Kennedy took office in 1960 and emphasized a new kind of American liberalism. He easily defeated a primary challenge by Governor George Wallace of Alabama, to win the nomination to a full term. At the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Kennedy selected his Vice President of the United States Lyndon B. Johnson as his running mate again. After Wallace was defeated, he left the Democrats to form the American Independent Party, championing racial segregation and southern Democrat policies. In the Republican contest Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona, a leader of his party's conservative faction, defeated Nelson Rockefeller of New York and Governor William Scranton of Pennsylvania.

Kennedy championed his passage of the Civil Rights Act, and advocated a series of anti-poverty programs collectively known as the New Frontier. Goldwater espoused a low-tax, small-government philosophy. Wallace championed escalation in the Vietnam War along with opposing Civil Rights. Democrats successfully portrayed Goldwater as a dangerous extremist, most famously in the "Daisy advertisement". The Republicans were divided between its moderate and conservative factions, with Rockefeller and other moderate party leaders refusing to campaign for Goldwater. Kennedy led by wide margins in all polls during the campaign.

Kenndy carried 29 states and the District of Columbia, which voted for the first time in this election. Goldwater won his home state and many states in the Midwest.

Kennedy's victory coincided with the defeat of many conservative Republican congressmen. The subsequent 89th Congress would pass major legislation such as the Social Security Act of 1965 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The 1964 election marked the beginning of a major, long-term re-alignment in American politics, as Goldwater's and Wallace's unsuccessful bid significantly influenced the modern conservative movement. The movement of conservatives to the Republican Party continued, culminating in the 1980 United States presidential election of Ronald Reagan. Additionally, many southern Democrats were dissatisfied with the changes that Kennedy made after the election and during it, and some like Strom Thurmond would switch to the Republican party, drawn by Goldwater and his traditional conservative values.

Candidates
The only candidate other than President Kennedy to actively campaign was then-Alabama Governor George Wallace, who ran in a number of northern primaries, though his candidacy was more to promote the philosophy of states' rights among a northern audience; while expecting some support from delegations in the South, Wallace was certain that he was not in contention for the Democratic nomination. Johnson received 1,106,999 votes in the primaries.

After Kennedy´s nomination, Southern delegates from Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisana walked out in protest, led by Governor George Wallace. After this walkout, Wallace announced his bid for the Presidency as an independent and founded the American Independent Party to promote state´s rights and to challenge Goldwater and Kennedy. Wallace hoped to win enough Electoral votes to prevent a majority, thus forcing the election into the House. There, he expected to gain legislation reversing some of the Civil Rights laws passed.

Convention
The 1964 Republican National Convention, July 13–16 at Daly City, California's Cow Palace arena, was one of the most bitter on record. The party's moderates and conservatives openly expressed their contempt for each other. Rockefeller was loudly booed when he came to the podium for his speech; in his speech, he roundly criticized the party's conservatives, which led many conservatives in the galleries to yell and scream at him. A group of moderates tried to rally behind Scranton to stop Goldwater, but Goldwater's forces easily brushed his challenge aside, and Goldwater was nominated on the first ballot. The presidential tally was as follows:


 * Barry Goldwater 883
 * William Scranton 214
 * Nelson Rockefeller 114
 * George W. Romney 41
 * Margaret Chase Smith 27
 * Walter Judd 22
 * Hiram Fong 5
 * Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. 2

The vice-presidential nomination went to little-known Republican Party Chairman William E. Miller, a Representative from western New York. Goldwater stated that he chose Miller simply because "he drives [President] Johnson nuts". This would be the only Republican ticket between 1952 and 1976 that did not include Nixon.

In accepting his nomination, Goldwater uttered his most famous phrase (a quote from Cicero suggested by speechwriter Harry Jaffa): "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." For many GOP moderates, Goldwater's speech was seen as a deliberate insult, and many of these moderates would defect to the Democrats in the fall election.