The Race According to George McGovern

NYTimes ^ | November 5, 2003 | DAVID E. ROSENBAUM

[RJCogburn]

1972 was my first election, and I couldn't bring myself to vote for either candidate

My intention as well, but Ayn Rand, who was and is a heroine of mine (even if I am not an Objectivist) encouraged a vote for Nixon because she thought McGovern posed such an enormous threat to the country. I listened and later realized that heroine or not, she was not infallible.

[Wonder Warthog]

"McGovern is becoming senile if he thinks Weasley Clark is a good choice for the leader of the free world."

For my money, McGovern was senile DURING his run for president, and has gone further downhill since.

However, I "do" hope the Democrats take his advice--LOL!!

[wai-ming]

Thanks for the information.

I always wondered if there was a connection. Guess not.

[Big Horn]

You would think that a man that ran for president and carried one state out of fifty would be smarter than that.

[GUNDEK]

“He is "very high" on Gen. Wesley K. Clark, "with what he says and his background and his ability to reach lots of people."”
Now if General Clark can stop making up stories and crediting them to the Washington rumor mill he may have a chance to get somewhere.

[Terry Mross]

So, if Kerry is "having second thoughts" he should come right out and lie and CLAIM he was lied to.

I though Muskie cried because he was caught using the term "Canuck".

[RJCogburn]

I though Muskie cried because he was caught using the term "Canuck".

No, though that was a claim the Union Leader and Loeb made based IIRC, on a letter. Later it turned out to probably have been a bogus charge, but Loeb did not always play entirely nicely.

Muskie became tearful concerning a criticism regarding his wife. I think it had to do with drinking, supposedly.

[NYCVirago]

In his own case, Mr. McGovern said, "no Democrat could have beaten Nixon" in 1972. But he said his showing would have been much stronger had George C. Wallace not been forced from the campaign, badly wounded in a shooting. Mr. Nixon carried every state that year except Massachusetts. Had Mr. Wallace remained in the race, he would have carried all the Southern states as a third-party candidate, Mr. McGovern said, and taken enough votes away from Mr. Nixon in other states that Mr. McGovern might have carried 10 or 12.

10 or 12 states was his best-case scenario? Whoop-de-do!

[NYCVirago]

That business about Wallace is eyewash. I don't believe he would have run as a third party candidate in 1972; he tried it in 1968, and it didn't work. But he was having significant success in the Democratic primaries, and might have had enough delegates to force the nominee to kiss his ring if he hadn't been shot. That would have been quite a spectacle.

And do you notice that the media never refers to Wallace as a Democrat, even though he stayed one for the rest of his life?

[Fledermaus]

And under Bush 41 we got "cable bill acts" and the Americans with Disability Act and inroads into Family Leave.

And now his son is shoving up pork spending, prescription drugs at $40 billion a year that is so low it's not funny, and backing away from all his principles by caving in on school vouchers, free market reform of Soc Sec and Medicare, a farm bill that defies belief, etc.

[RJCogburn]

I quite agree.