Former Sen Eugene McCarthy

[Len Colby]

I always thought of Kennedy as a spoiler in '80. It seemed to be about his ego and maybe feeling he had to live up to some legacy more than anything else.

Let's not forget that although Carter lost biggest the Electoral College landslide since IIRC Madison back in 1808, the popular vote was fairly close and Kennedy contributed to that loss.

Edited December 18, 2005 by Len Colby

[J. Raymond Carroll]

What made the Roger Mudd interview response so noteworthy was the context of challenging an incumbent from one's own party, which requires some particularly compelling reason. Also, there is the fact that Ted Kennedy is generally an articulate person, and he has proven by applying his skills laudibly in the Senate for over forty years. He's a great liberal champion.

All very true. but Ted was running against the background of the HSCA Report on the murder of his brother. It is now a known fact that the Carter Justice Department (like all subsequent Justice Departments) did absolutely nothing to pursue the areas of inquiry (especially the murder of Lee Oswald) that Robert Blakey and the HSCA had recommended. If Ted considered his brother's murder to be a major issue, and if he had a reasonable concern for his own safety, then his best answer would have to be either dishonest or incoherent. Perhaps he chose incoherence over dishonesty?

[Ron Ecker]

Walter Cronkite asked Ted why he wanted to be president, and Ted couldn't even answer the question.

In 1980, Roger Mudd was the CBS reporter who conducted the interview in which Ted stumbled so badly over the question of why he was running.

Tim,

Thanks for the correction. I should have remembered that the interviewer's name was Mudd. When Cronkite retired as CBS anchor, Mudd should have gotten the job, but it was given instead to Dan Rather, the ultimate reward, I guess, for Dan's famous exclusive description from Dallas of the Zapruder film ("Then the President's head went violently forward"). I think his ill-gotten gains may be why Rather eventually became mentally ill.

Ron

[Tim Carroll]

Let's not forget that although Carter lost biggest the Electoral College landslide since IIRC Madison back in 1808, the popular vote was fairly close and Kennedy contributed to that loss.

The 1980 election was very tight until the last weekend, when a developing initiative for the release of the hostages held by Iran fell apart. Little did we know then that the Reagan campaign had pulled Nixon's 1968 Vietnam ploy out of the playbook, and secretly negotiated for Iran to get a better deal by waiting for Reagan's inauguration.

T.C.

[Pat Speer]

Let's not forget that although Carter lost biggest the Electoral College landslide since IIRC Madison back in 1808, the popular vote was fairly close and Kennedy contributed to that loss.

The 1980 election was very tight until the last weekend, when a developing initiative for the release of the hostages held by Iran fell apart. Little did we know then that the Reagan campaign had pulled Nixon's 1968 Vietnam ploy out of the playbook, and secretly negotiated for Iran to get a better deal by waiting for Reagan's inauguration.

T.C.

I'm with you on this one, T.C. The "October Surprise" has been covered by two books I believe to be credible, by Barbara Honegger and Gary Sick, and was even investigated by congress. (The charges were basically tossed out after Clinton was elected, but before he took office; the reasons given for throwing them out were completely contrived, as I remember.)

I believe this is one of the great under-investigated stories of recent times.

Edited December 18, 2005 by Pat Speer

[J. Raymond Carroll]

Let's not forget that although Carter lost biggest the Electoral College landslide since IIRC Madison back in 1808, the popular vote was fairly close and Kennedy contributed to that loss.

The 1980 election was very tight until the last weekend, when a developing initiative for the release of the hostages held by Iran fell apart. Little did we know then that the Reagan campaign had pulled Nixon's 1968 Vietnam ploy out of the playbook, and secretly negotiated for Iran to get a better deal by waiting for Reagan's inauguration.

T.C.

Politics makes strange bedfellows. Oddly enough, Democrat Eugene McCarthy supported Republican Reagan against Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election. I discovered this by reading today's New York Times article on McCarthy's funeral (see below).

McCarthy himself ran for President (unsuccessfully of course) a total of 5 times between 1968 and 1992.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

January 15, 2006

Hundreds Honor McCarthy as Man Who Changed History

By JOHN FILES

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 - Eugene J. McCarthy, the Minnesota senator who upended President Lyndon B. Johnson's re-election effort amid the Vietnam War tumult of 1968, was remembered at a service on Saturday as a man of sharp intellect, broad curiosity and a deep sense of justice and compassion.

An audience of about 800, including Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, Ralph Nader and John D. Podesta, President Bill Clinton's last chief of staff, gathered at the National Cathedral here, where lawmakers, relatives and friends spoke of a humble and independent-minded leader who opposed the Vietnam War and believed that politics could make a difference in the lives of ordinary citizens.

Mr. Clinton, who eulogized Mr. McCarthy, said he had been instrumental in building pressure to stop the war.

"It all began with Gene McCarthy's willingness to stand alone and turn the tide of history," Mr. Clinton said.

With the war taking thousands of American and Vietnamese lives, Mr. McCarthy, an unabashed liberal, stoked a national debate over the war and over the model of an all-powerful presidency. He challenged Johnson in the New Hampshire primary in 1968, and Johnson, facing almost certain defeat, withdrew from the race. The Democratic party machine then forced the nomination of Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey to face President Richard M. Nixon. But Mr. McCarthy became the quintessential candidate of the Vietnam War protest movement.

"We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it," Mr. McCarthy told his supporters, the "Clean for Gene" legions who embraced his candor.

On Saturday, Mr. Clinton spoke of Mr. McCarthy's central role in the upheaval that occurred in 1968, a year during which Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated. "One thing remained constant," Mr. Clinton said. "The country had turned against the war."

Mr. McCarthy died last month of complications related to Parkinson's disease at an assisted-living home in Washington's Georgetown neighborhood. He was 89.

Mr. McCarthy took on a contrarian role in the Democratic Party, even endorsing Ronald Reagan, the Republican candidate for president in 1980, rather than Jimmy Carter. Indeed, in 1998 Mr. McCarthy called for the resignation of President Clinton, who he said had "been running a pretty messy presidency in terms of constitutionality and tradition."

He was a habitual presidential campaigner, running in 1972, 1976, 1988 and 1992. Some of the audience wore McCarthy campaign buttons and nodded approvingly at the testimonials. Others were there for a bit of a history lesson.

Bill Gallery, 23, who lives in Washington and works at an international development firm in Bethesda, Md., said: "I had read about McCarthy, and I knew about his role in Democratic and progressive politics. But I thought it would be interesting and, well, educational to come and hear those who knew him."

Representative James L. Oberstar, Democrat of Minnesota, told the audience, "Gene McCarthy showed us moral force in politics without preaching."

Two of Mr. McCarthy's children, Michael and Ellen, also spoke at the service. Mr. McCarthy's son joked that his father had once suggested the Freedom of Information Act ought to afford people the right to review their obituaries before they die.

"He thought it would make reporters be more careful," he recalled his father saying.

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[Tim Gratz]

One thing I would note is it was magnanimous of Clinton to provide a laudatory eulogy for McCarthy after McCarthy had called for Clinton's resignation.

[J. Raymond Carroll]

One thing I would note is it was magnanimous of Clinton to provide a laudatory eulogy for McCarthy after McCarthy had called for Clinton's resignation.

Clinton's magnanimity is only one reason why so many people look back on the Clinton years as an Age of Enligtenment, compared to the Dark Age we live in today.