Former senator and presidental candidate George McGovern. (File photo)
Posted on 11/14/2005 4:58:17 PM PST by SJackson
Former senator and presidental candidate George McGovern. (File photo)
The man whose candidacy for the presidency this newspaper enthusiastically championed in 1971 and 1972 returns to Madison today to deliver a distinguished lecture, and it is with great pride and pleasure that we welcome George McGovern back to the city that had the wisdom to want him - as opposed to Richard Nixon - as its president.
McGovern will deliver the University of Wisconsin Law School's Robert W. Kastenmeier Lecture at 7:30 p.m. in the Wisconsin Union Theater, 800 Langdon St. And he has chosen an appropriate theme: "The Iraq War: Lessons From the Past."
McGovern's 1972 presidential candidacy held out the promise of a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces from the quagmire that was Vietnam. As a decorated World War II veteran - a bomber pilot - and a historian who served in both the U.S. House and the Senate for the better part of two decades, McGovern knew that ending the war and getting this country's troops out of harm's way was not merely wise but also patriotic.
Unfortunately, the 1972 campaign saw the beginning of a politics of personal destruction that warped the electoral process beyond recognition. McGovern's wisdom and patriotism were attacked by Nixon's dirty tricksters and media that portrayed the heroic World War II veteran as a wide-eyed pacifist.
McGovern lost badly. As a result, thousands of additional American soldiers and tens of thousands of additional Vietnamese civilians died needlessly.
More than 30 years later, the American political process has degenerated to an even more troubling place than it was in 1972.
In the 2004 campaign, a Vietnam War veteran, John Kerry, was portrayed as soft on national defense and unpatriotic, while a man whose family used its political connections to ensure that he would not serve in Vietnam, George Bush, was presented as the great defender of America's security in a troubled world.
A year later, the United States is sinking deeper into the quagmire that is Iraq. And there are still too few wise voices calling for the only appropriate action: the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Indeed, as McGovern arrives in Madison, President Bush is once more attempting to "sell" the case for a war that was founded on lies about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that never posed a threat.
McGovern, who from the start has been a wise and consistent critic of the Bush administration's misguided policies regarding the Middle East, has much to offer the current debate. He is a military veteran who knows the horrors of war, and who recognizes well that there are times when Americans must fight. He is, as well, a political veteran who recognizes that when an unnecessary war is spinning out of control, it is right to open a debate about how to end it.
His wisdom is needed now more than ever.
It has been a long time since we were privileged to endorse his candidacy for the presidency. But we are not inclined to withdraw it quite yet.
Indeed, were it left to this newspaper, we would gladly replace George Bush, a man who avoided serving his country in a time of war but has few qualms about sending others to die for it, with George McGovern, a man who proudly served when his country called but who has always recognized that the call must be made only when it is absolutely necessary.
So we issue our endorsement once more: McGovern for president.
As long as Liberals are in the minority party or the make-beleive world (media, academia, Hollywood, State Department or Wal-Mart greeters), they can huff and puff and charm to their heart's content. Just don't let them anywhere near the levers of power.
I had dinner with George McGovern once. He was a very charming guy. He has this strange way of talking while hardly moving his lips, which is kind of distracting.
1. LOL
2. I get it
3. ...but I needed the hint!
dan
McGovern has seen about 75% of his campaign platform implemented - higher taxes, eco-fascism, out of Vietnam. The only big one missing is government health care, but the republicans are working on that.
I guess that means when we are attacked on American soil......oh, - never mind. Reagan got it right when he said:
"It is not a matter of Peace or War, only of Fight or Surrender."
So, what about it, George???
George McGovern destroyed the Democratic Party of JFK and Harry Truman.
Listen, you. I was getting my a$$ shot at as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam in Spring 1972 while this worthless a$$hole was announcing how he'd `go on my knees to Hanoi' to beg the release of the POWs suffering hideously at the hands of those North Vietnamese ANIMALS!
The hellish Nixon bombed the living $hit out of North Vietnam and actually secured the POWs release in 1973.
McGOO has been badmouthing the American people ever since for failing to elect him President-for-life.
McGovern is a worthless, arrogant snot. In 1984 he praised former KGB chief Yuri Andropov in the same sentence in which he denounced Ronald Reagan.
A small, mean, vicious man.
Call him Mr. Nice Guy all you want!
You''re right, much of it by R's
I do think that McGovern would be a good Dem nominee for President in 2008.
I was referring to his WWII service. He was wrong in 72, but raising the issues is legitimate. And he'd paid the price, unlike most of todays dems. In general though, you're right, perhaps I credit that too much.
I think the have their Mc's mixed up. They are probably referring to McCain.
If you turn one of those wheels you break the others, right?
You haven't a clue.
Probably not.
Compared to what the Democrats have on tap today, McGovern would be a sharp turn to the right.
The gear chain is locked. It can't possibly turn.
And if, in the entire brain trust of the Democratic Party, they don't have one person with the common sense of any ordinary bicycle repairman, then what hope do they have of solving the really complex problems?
Yeah that's what I thought, turning one of the gears would break the legs off at least one of the others (if forced). It is a stunningly accurate emblem of the Democrat party during my lifetime.
Sadly..that is what gave so many GOPers such heart ache..why did they have to do what they did..Nixon was a shoo-in against such a loser like mcloser..I know Nixon didn't orchestrate the break-in..but it was the cover-up that killed this wonderful man..(kicking in disgust)..
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