Former US Senator George McGovern, the Democratic Party’s 1972 presidential nominee, died the other day. Since 1972, it has often been possible to argue that one major party’s presidential candidate was a lesser evil than the other party’s offering; I thought Barack Obama was a demonstrably lesser evil than John McCain in 2008, for example. But Senator McGovern was not at all evil. He was quite admirable and thoroughly sane. Of course he lost by one of the biggest landslides in history, to Richard Nixon.
Four years ago, I posted a link to a commercial the McGovern campaign put on television in 1972. Here’s another link to the same commercial, the only political ad I’ve ever seen that is 100% free of bullshit. The senator talks with a group of veterans just returned from Vietnam with newly acquired disabilities; it’s as uncomfortable to watch as you’d suppose it would be, and that seems to have been the intention.
acilius
believer1
lefalcon
losthunderlads
vthunderlad
Panther Red 
Tommy
/ October 22, 2012George McGovern was the type of elder statesman that every party loves to have among the ranks; fondly remembered by many but never actually elected to have caused any real havoc. Was George McGovern the President the world missed out on, or a dangerous liberal trounced by that stalwart of the Republican movement Richard Nixon? Either way – his death marks the end of the ‘Liberal Left’ within the Democrats: http://goo.gl/iIZtX
acilius
/ October 23, 2012You can accuse the leadership of the Democratic Party of just about anything, but one thing they definitely don’t do is love their elder statesmen. Lose an election, and you are dead to them, as Senator McGovern was in a position to testify.