George McGovern was number 27 on the list.
George McGovern: The Loser Who Became A Hero For Baby Boomers
George McGovern, the Democratic liberal senator who ran for president in 1972 against Richard M. Nixon and was a hero to many baby boomers, died on Sunday in Sioux Falls, S.D. He was 90.
A World War II veteran who strongly opposed the Vietnam War, McGovern took up the fight for boomers who had lost brothers and friends in what they saw as a senseless battle, and feared being drafted themselves. Among other things, his platform advocated immediate withdrawal from Vietnam, abolishing the draft and amnesty for draft dodgers. His supporters included Bill and Hillary Clinton, who took time off from their studies at Yale Law School to work on his campaign.
McGovern lost brutally to Nixon, carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia and winning 17 electoral votes to Nixon’s 520.
Factors that contributed to his defeat included the debacle surrounding his choice of Thomas F. Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate. Two weeks after the nomination Eagleton withdrew in the face of revelations that he had been hospitalized for mental illness, and R. Sargent Shriver, the Kennedy in-law, took his place. Against the advice of his staff, McGovern did not emphasize his own war record, leading some voters to peg him as a liberal antiwar activist two didn’t put a high enough premium on national security.
Within less than two years, history proved that the American voters had made a poor choice. First the dirty tricks of Nixon’s 1972 campaign and the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel came to light. Then, during the summer of 1974, Nixon resigned in disgrace.
As is customary with famous people, McGovern was interviewed for his New York Times obituary much in advance of his death. (David E. Rosenbaum, a former Washington correspondent for The New York Times, whose byline appears on McGovern’s obiturary, died in 2006.) McGovern’s comments during that interview, in 2005, are especially poignant when taken in the context of the 2012 election campaign:
I always thought of myself as a good old South Dakota boy who grew up here on the prairie. My dad was a Methodist minister. I went off to war. I have been married to the same woman forever. I’m what a normal, healthy, ideal American should be like. But we probably didn’t work enough on cultivating that image. We were more interested in ending the war in Vietnam and getting people out of poverty and being fair to women and minorities and saving the environment. It was an issue-oriented campaign, and we should have paid more attention to image.
The third and final presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney is Monday, Oct. 22, at 9 p.m. Foreign policy will be the focus, as it was for McGovern 40 years ago. During the past two debates we judged the candidates so much on their image and temperament. It would be refreshing if this time we could stay focused on the issues.
When asked how long it took him to get over the disappointment of losing, McGovern told The Times, “You never fully get over it. But I’ve had a good life. I’ve enjoyed myself 90% of the time.”
Initially he stayed in politics — he was reelected as the Senator from South Dakota in 1974, riding the Democratic coattails after Watergate. But he was defeated six years later by Republican James Abdnor. After that, McGovern earned a living teaching and writing–before entering politics he had been a college professor in history and political science. The Times obituary reports that he also briefly owned a motor Inn in Stratford Conn. and a bookstore in Montana, where he had a summer home.
In 1997 Bill Clinton, the young supporter who grew up to be the first baby boomer president, appointed McGovern ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Three years later Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
McGovern lost brutally to Nixon, carrying only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia and winning 17 electoral votes to Nixon’s 520.
Factors that contributed to his defeat included the debacle surrounding his choice of Thomas F. Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate. Two weeks after the nomination Eagleton withdrew in the face of revelations that he had been hospitalized for mental illness, and R. Sargent Shriver, the Kennedy in-law, took his place. Against the advice of his staff, McGovern did not emphasize his own war record, leading some voters to peg him as a liberal antiwar activist two didn’t put a high enough premium on national security.
Within less than two years, history proved that the American voters had made a poor choice. First the dirty tricks of Nixon’s 1972 campaign and the break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel came to light. Then, during the summer of 1974, Nixon resigned in disgrace.
As is customary with famous people, McGovern was interviewed for his New York Times obituary much in advance of his death. (David E. Rosenbaum, a former Washington correspondent for The New York Times, whose byline appears on McGovern’s obiturary, died in 2006.) McGovern’s comments during that interview, in 2005, are especially poignant when taken in the context of the 2012 election campaign:
I always thought of myself as a good old South Dakota boy who grew up here on the prairie. My dad was a Methodist minister. I went off to war. I have been married to the same woman forever. I’m what a normal, healthy, ideal American should be like. But we probably didn’t work enough on cultivating that image. We were more interested in ending the war in Vietnam and getting people out of poverty and being fair to women and minorities and saving the environment. It was an issue-oriented campaign, and we should have paid more attention to image.
The third and final presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney is Monday, Oct. 22, at 9 p.m. Foreign policy will be the focus, as it was for McGovern 40 years ago. During the past two debates we judged the candidates so much on their image and temperament. It would be refreshing if this time we could stay focused on the issues.
When asked how long it took him to get over the disappointment of losing, McGovern told The Times, “You never fully get over it. But I’ve had a good life. I’ve enjoyed myself 90% of the time.”
Initially he stayed in politics — he was reelected as the Senator from South Dakota in 1974, riding the Democratic coattails after Watergate. But he was defeated six years later by Republican James Abdnor. After that, McGovern earned a living teaching and writing–before entering politics he had been a college professor in history and political science. The Times obituary reports that he also briefly owned a motor Inn in Stratford Conn. and a bookstore in Montana, where he had a summer home.
In 1997 Bill Clinton, the young supporter who grew up to be the first baby boomer president, appointed McGovern ambassador to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Three years later Clinton awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
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