RFK funeral train photos

[David Andrews]

Because, y'know, people used to have faith in a crisis:

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2020/jul/17/robert-f-kennedy-funeral-train-by-paul-fusco-in-pictures

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks. They are all good.

 

But  the third one and seventh one always get me.

[Ray Mitcham]

It pains to think what the U.S. could have become.

[Kirk Gallaway]

Nice reminder, Dave!

Here's an RFK topic that could almost have it's own thread, but is a bit too much in the political weeds as a forum topic.

There's a local radio talk show guy in the SF Bay area, John Rothman who back in the day worked for Nixon but defected to the Democratic Party after being broken after Nixon's resignation, he's a die hard centrist Democrat now with an expertise in politics, campaigning , polls.

He said more recently something on his show that stunned me. He said Hubert Humphrey was a shoo in to get the Democratic nomination in 1968 despite Bobby Kennedy's surge. He said that machine politics were much more entrenched then. We know 100 years ago, there were candidates picked in ''smoke filled rooms" but I thought that was becoming on the outs in 1968 from my memory. Still, on the other hand,  I think a lot of people, in hindsight  just naturally think the opposite, that Bobby was a shoo in.

I liked Eugene Mc Carthy, I thought he was the authentic anti VN war candidate.. I was way under age , I couldn't vote,  (in California, the voting age was 21.) I was disappointed that Bobby took so long to throw his hat in the ring. But for me, even though I do remember Hubert Humphrey leading, it just seemed RFK was inevitable by the time he took California, and there was just no way they were going to deny him the Democratic nomination, and I was looking forward to that.

California was the last major state to do it's primary, But looking it up, Rothman was more right than I thought, at least about the delegate  count.  Humphrey 561.5, Bobby 393.5 and Mc Carthy 258. It was going to be the U.S. history's last brokered convention, with Bobby having to play ball with Mc Carthy to get his delegates to throw him over the top, but  Mc Carthy is stubborn, he's no pushover. It's "get out now" or else, but I think Bobby had already adapted that as his message.  But even with Mc Carthy throwing all his delegates to Bobby, the percentages would have been Bobby only 53.7% and  Humphrey 46.3%. Very close!

But here's a scary thought. If Humphrey had gained only 22% of Mc Carthy's delegates, he would have gotten the majority. All he needed was 46 more delegates to get over the top!

Edited July 18, 2020 by Kirk Gallaway