Today in 1968 was a sad day for America, Robert F Kennedy, the hope for a country mired in Vietnam and looking for the shining days of John F Kennedy, saw their dreams dashed. Sirhan B Sirhan who was upset with RFK's pro Israel stance assassinated the former Attorney General and US Senator. RFK had just won the California primary and was rallying the people to Chicago and the 1968 Democratic Convention.
Sirhan Sirhan managed to get to Bobby Kennedy as he was leaving through the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles California and fired all the bullets his gun one of which hit RFK in the back of the head near his right ear. He would be taken to Central Receiving Hospital near death, but later transfered to Good Samartian Hospital for surgery, where he would died just over 24 hours later from his wounds.
This event shaped the next decade as the democrats were now without their leader. LBJ had decided not to challenge the Kennedy machine in 1968 after years of animosity with RFK and the Kennedy clan who viewed him as a power hungry oaf who the unworthy heir to the Presidency after the death of JFK in 1963. Now with RFK dead and LBJ not running they saw a bleak outlook for the country's future. Vice President Hubert Humphrey stepped in and won the nomination for the Democrats and faced GOP nominee and former US VP Richard Nixon and Alabama Governor George Wallace (running as an independent). Richard Nixon would win the election but Humphrey showed strong in the northeast and kept it close but Wallace was able to do what no 3rd party candidate has done since and won an entire state in a Presidential Election. Wallace won Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisana and Arkansas which may have gone democrat if not for the strong campaign of Wallace.
The death of Robert Kennedy altered the future and the election of loss of 1968 ended over 30 years of the New Deal Coalition that had dominated politics since the days of FDR.
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