The system is rigged

[Admiral Loinpresser]

27. I have a different take.

McGovern's campaign was centrally identified with his opposition to the Viet Nam war in my recollection and I believe that is the main reason he got the nomination. But his campaign was a disaster after he secured the nomination. It started with giving his acceptance speech at 2am and within a day or two his campaign was in free fall because he nominated Tom Eagleton for VP, said he was behind him "1,000 per cent," then within a day replaced him with Sargeant Shriver. He received no support from the Democratic establishment as I recall.

By contrast, Bernie has come out of nowhere, with no money and no name recognition and is on the verge of seizing the lead in this primary race. The social conditions in 1972 were very different than now, and particularly the economic conditions were much, much better in terms of minimum wage and upward social mobility. So there was not the sense of economic anger, which is so widespread now.

Also, I did not have a sense of McGovern being a transformative figure. Bernie fits that profile to me, in the same way as FDR and Reagan and, to some extent, LBJ. That's what Bernie represents to me--historic change in the direction of America and the fulfillment of the promise of the New Deal (i.e. a New Deal for everybody).