Hart was a brilliant campaign organizer. He managed George McGovern’s campaign through the Democratic convention and beat the Dem establishment at ever turn. After the Dem convention the usual political hacks pushed Hart and his young campaign staff aside and took over.
Hart hired a young Pat Cadell as his pollster during the primaries and managed to position McGovern as a political maverick who was able to gain the support of both liberal Dems and blue collar workers. After the Dem convention the hacks had McGovern on platforms shaking hands with corrupt pols like Richard Daly, who McGovern and many Americans despised, and McGovern lost any credibility he had. McGovern would have been much better off sticking with Hart.
In my younger days as a vet at college, I worked for Gary Hart campaign doing phone bank work for slices of pizza. Don’t even remember what he stood for. It was one of those born into being a democrat kinda thing. Can’t even remember if he won the primary back then in California. Oh well. I don’t regret it. Life is a learning process. When I found out he dropped out of the race, I thought...well there goes that. Would he have made a decent Democrat candidate...probably as well as any of the others I suppose. Pat Caddell I really like. A democrat through and through, but an old school America loving democrat. A Truman -Kennedy type of democrat.
Hart was a known scumbag and philanderer in Denver. His Donna Rice escapade was but an extension of what he had always gotten away with.