[Jim Noble]

“Nervous” Democrats are reportedly raising the alarm about the “lack of urgency” surrounding President Joe Biden’s 2024 campaign...Remember LBJ in 1968, where Gene McCarthy did very well against him in the New Hampshire primary. That likely helped LBJ decide to not run for reelection.

I was a 17 year old McCarthy field worker in NH in December and January 67-68.

Glorious times.

Most people don't know that Bobby held back until LBJ quit, but we were not working for RFK, not even a little bit - we were SO PISSED, it felt like we did the heavy lifting to make something happen that no one believed possible, so that "another Kennedy" could step in, pick up our chips without asking, and be the nominee.

As late as the awful night of June 4, 1968 it was still a race, McCarthy won Oregon that night but RFK won California.

[Jim Noble]

I forgot until just now how close California was - RFK 1.47 million, McCarthy 1.32 million. It was a rare thing then, a "winner take all" state, RFK got 172 delegates and McCarthy got 0.

Of course, the Kennedy delegates were all party men, by the time the sun rose on June 5, most of them were already declaring for Humphrey.