Jeff Greenfield is a political correspondent and commentator for CBS News. He previously worked for ABC, contributing to “Nightline” when it was a serious program. For a while, he was also part of what CNN modestly calls, “the best political reporting team in television.”

He knows a great deal about politics, having worked for Robert Kennedy when RFK was a senator and then presidential candidate in 1968. Greenfield has seen the good, bad, and ugly of politics from the inside and outside.

Because United States history is tarnished with four presidential assassinations and even a greater number of attempted ones, we have come to expect the unexpected. This leads inevitably to “what if” ruminations about what might have been had we not experienced unforeseen detours.

Greenfield, who has previously written a variety of non-fiction and fiction books, has taken a series of accurate historical facts and mixed them with three hypothetical “what ifs” to create scenarios of what-might-have-been in his novel, Then Everything Changed. It is a fascinating read that generates more “what ifs” on the part of the reader. He enlightens and entertains by ensuring that the alternative scenarios have Sarah Palin, Monica Lewinsky, and George W. Bush moments, only with different people in different settings.

The first of the three “everything changed” moments was in 1960. It occurred after John F. Kennedy had been elected, but not really. In this scenario, something happens before the esteemed Electoral College codifies the popular election of John F. Kennedy. The event that changed everything is an alteration of a documented event that did not occur because of good fortune.

The second event falls in the category of “wishful thinking” for people who were alive, conscious, and semi-progressive in 1968. When Sirhan Sirhan attempts to assassinate Robert Kennedy, someone literally intervenes and Robert Kennedy leaves the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles alive and well. Greenfield was actually present that evening. Undoubtedly during those fleeting moments between when it became clear the Kennedy had won the California primary and when he was slain by Sirhan Sirhan, Greenfield did what so many other Kennedy aides did. He was gaming certain strategies so that RFK’s popularity among the Democratic electorate could be transferred into a majority of delegates at the August convention in Chicago. To his credit, Greenfield doesn’t even try to make the happenings in Chicago any more bizarre than they actually were.

The third “everything changed” moment involved President Gerald Ford. If you’re thinking that Greenfield altered history by having either Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme or Sarah Jane Moore successfully assassinate Ford in their separate attempts in California in September, 1975, you’re wrong. You have to fast-forward to October 6, 1976, when Ford and Democratic challenger Jimmy Carter were in a televised debate from The Palace of Fine Arts Theater in San Francisco. In a moment that might be attributed to fatigue, Ford said the following, thirteen years prior to the end of the Cold War:

“There is no Soviet domination of eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration.”

Even after he was given a second chance to correct his faux pas, Ford stood by his initial words.

In Then Everything Changed, Greenfield hypothesizes that, upon further reflection, Ford recognizes that he had mis-spoken his position and assures everyone that he is well aware of the Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. He commits himself to do everything he can to extend liberty to the peoples of Poland, Hungary, East Germany, and a number of other buffer countries on the Soviet Union’s western border.

Even though Carter presented himself as, and in many ways was, the beacon of integrity that the United States needed after the Nixon years, Ford came remarkably close to defeating him. Ford barely lost both Ohio and Wisconsin, states wit large immigrant populations from Eastern Europe, many of whom were baffled by his repeated misstatement.

The book ends shortly after a scintillating campaign in 1980. By this time, Ford was term-limited out and could not run again after his hypothetical victory in 1976.

Greenfield’s thirty-seven page Afterword provides enough factual credibility to the alternate histories to give them plausibility and credibility.

At the end of the book, Greenfield references a political genius who is not only gaming scenarios for the presidential election of 2012, but also for 2016 and 2020. I wonder how many combinations and permutations he has. He’s looking nine years ahead. Nine years ago who heard of Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, or Rand Paul? Nine years ago Barack Obama was an Illinois state senator who was more than two years removed from gaining his initial visibility at the 2004 Democratic convention.

What is clear from Greenfield’s book is that the United States is a very resilient country. But if we fast forward thirty years from the conclusion his book in April, 1980, we might wonder how much reserve there is left in our resilience. A year of lying by an otherwise very capable president in the 1990s, the unexpected a vicious attack of September 11, 2001, the “wag the dog” war of Iraq, the absurdity of American being involved in its longest war in a country that has not been conquered since A.D. 600, and a large portion of the electorate thinking that the president of the United States was born in a different country.

We can find amusement and engagement in Then Everything Changed. We might also take it as a parable of caution as to how much stress we can place on the world’s oldest democracy. As Greenfield subtly asserts, we came close to achieving stable governance that was progressive during the Kennedy years. Are we doing that now; can it be done now? Much to think about.

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Okay, you hear Scranton, Pennsylvania and what do you think?  In contemporary America, most think of a branch office of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company and its quirky branch supervisor Michael Scott (played by Steve Carell).  But one of the descendants of the founders of the city, steel moguls Selden and George Scranton, was William Scranton III, the progressive (or at least moderate) Republican governor of the state from 1963-1967.

No sooner had he been inaugurated as governor than a “draft Scranton for president” movement began.  This might not have happened in ordinary times, but in early 1963, it was becoming clear that Senator Barry Goldwater of Arizona would be a serious Republican candidate for president in 1964.  An affable fellow whom John F. Kennedy liked and hoped would win the nomination so that they could have a traveling debate show, Goldwater was a serious threat to the moderate-to-progressive wing of the Republican Party.  This included Senator Jacob Javits about whom I have previously written.  Richard Nixon was about as conservative as moderate members of the GOP could tolerate; Goldwater was considered beyond the pale.

In 1963, Nixon was “between comebacks” and not available to challenge Goldwater.  Moderate Republicans, mostly from the Northeast, looked for “one of their own” to challenge Goldwater.  William Scranton had all the credentials — coming from a prominent family, a graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, a Presbyterian, and attorney by profession.  He had served a term in the House of Representatives and had some foreign policy experience, having served as a special assistant to U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles.  While his resume was not full of accomplishments, the key to his viability was that he was “clean, good-looking, and calm in demeanor.”

But Goldwater had learned a lot from his friend across the aisle, Kennedy, and he put together a juggernaut campaign in 1964, staffed by young, energetic, passionate, and resourceful individuals.  Kennedy was going to be tough to defeat, and after Kennedy’s tragic assassination, Lyndon Johnson had the strength of the nation’s sympathy, so mainstream Republicans largely left the path to their nomination open for Goldwater.  Scranton never declared himself as a candidate to oppose Goldwater; he just didn’t resist the “Draft Scranton” campaign initiated by his fellow northeastern Republicans.

Scranton served the entirety of his term as governor from 1963 – 1967.  He focused on the state’s educational needs, pushing through legislation creating the state’s community college system and a Higher Education Assistance Agency.  Nothing earth-shattering, at least for the times, but unlike many of today’s Republican governors, he did not try to dismantle what was there.  Under Pennsylvania law he was limited to one term, and when Richard Nixon was elected president in 1968, on the wave of one of his numerous comebacks, Scranton accepted a position as a special envoy to the Middle East.  He favored an “even-handed” policy in the Middle East, meaning that he endured some enmity from the American Jewish community.

When Gerald Ford assumed the presidency following another Nixon demise (his resignation), the new president asked Scranton to become United States ambassador to the United Nations.  Scranton accepted the short-term appointment and focused on human rights; again a strategy rather foreign to recent Republican ambassadors to the U.N.

Also to Scranton’s credit is that he assumed a very difficult task following the Kent State shootings in 1970.  He was chairperson of the President’s Commission on Campus Unrest.  The “Scranton Report” called the Kent State shootings “unjustified” and acknowledged that the ebb and flow of campus unrest was directly related to U.S. escalation in Vietnam and Cambodia.

As we write this, Scranton is 92 years old.  His name has long since drifted from the headlines.  His record includes accomplishments in the fields of education, human rights, and international cooperation.  In light of the positions and demeanor of today’s Republican Party, his greatest accomplishments may lie in what he did not do.  He did not seek to fragment; he did not demonize; he did not participate in the dismantling of government that Barry Goldwater and later Ronald Reagan advocated during the time that Scranton was active.

If he were in the U.S. Senate now, would Scranton collaborate with Democrats?  This falls into the world of conjecture, but it’s likely that he would keep his distance from the likes of Mitch McConnell or John Boehner.  That would be a first step for today’s Republicans; to have the temerity to “just say no” to the bullying of its leaders in Congress and most virulent supporters in the populace.  Of course this all begs the question of whether he could be elected today.  It will be a fine day for the country when a William Scranton can be present and accepted in the tent known as the Republican Party.

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