2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: In 1980, did Ted Kennedy endorse Jimmy Carter? [View all]Chathamization
(1,638 posts)As did most people at the time. Yes, a few people close to LBJ knew that he was considering not seeking a second term; though in '68 some of those that he ended up making the decision to seek one (which he actually was doing whether he eventually planned to drop out or not, so claiming there was "a vacancy at the top of the ticket" is simply wrong). That's the people close to him. One of the reasons given for the late announcement was that LBJ didn't want Congress to view him as a lame duck president, so it's not like this was an open secret among people in the know (and again, Johnson was in the primary at the time). Most reports I've seen suggest that RFK was anticipating a fight against Johnson, not anticipating Johnson dropping out.
Not really sure why you're trying to push this very unorthodox theory, particularly since it seems mostly to stem from you originally not realizing that LBJ made his announcement after RFK's entry:
HHH "arrived" over a month after RFK.