1968 Democratic Nomination: Whom would you have voted?

[jeter]

[bluestateguy]

1. LBJ dropped out on 3/31/68

He had only run in Iowa and New Hampshire. My father supported McCarthy, my mother RFK. She saw him at a rally the day before he was killed.

[David__77]

2. McCarthy, I think...

I believe that he best fit my views.

[jeter]

3. Dean reminds me of RFK

They had a similar type of appeal. Both to the left side of the party but with another lefty (McCarthy for Kennedy - Kucinich for Dean) in the race against them.

[kodi]

14. No way, Kennedy touched people like no one has since he was murdere

I was around in ’68, my mom and I volunteered for his campaign in California at the age of 14 and can tell you that there has been no one like Robert F. Kennedy since his murder.

His words to the crowd the night Dr Martin Luther King was murdered still makes me cry like a baby when I remember it. Dean does not go anywhere as deep in people’s hearts.

Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Senator Robert F. Kennedy
Indianapolis, Indiana
April 4, 1968

"I have bad news for you, for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and killed tonight.

"Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice for his fellow human beings, and he died because of that effort.

"In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in. For those of you who are black--considering the evidence there evidently is that there were white people who were responsible--you can be filled with bitterness, with hatred, and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country, in great polarization--black people amongst black, white people amongst white, filled with hatred toward one another.

"Or we can make an effort, as Martin Luther King did, to understand and to comprehend, and to replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that has spread across our land, with an effort to understand with compassion and love.

"For those of you who are black and are tempted to be filled with hatred and distrust at the injustice of such an act, against all white people, I can only say that I feel in my own heart the same kind of feeling. I had a member of my family killed, but he was killed by a white man. But we have to make an effort in the United States, we have to make an effort to understand, to go beyond these rather difficult times.

"My favorite poet was Aeschylus. He wrote: "In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God."

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black.

"So I shall ask you tonight to return home, to say a prayer for the family of Martin Luther King, that's true, but more importantly to say a prayer for our own country, which all of us love--a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke.

"We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we've had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder.

"But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land.

"Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world.

"Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people."

http://www.jfklibrary.org/r040468.htm

Don't even try to mention Dean's name alongside Kennedy's.

[DerekG]

18. Comparing Dean to Robert Francis Kennedy is blasphemy...

RFK was the one man who could have saved us from the right-wing, at possibly the last juncture in our history. Now I fear things will worsen until we can successfully pick up the pieces. I don't know.

Now I could see a RFK/Kucinich parallel.

[JohnKleeb]

19. I wouldnt even compare those two out of respect for Mr. Kennedy

but Ive seen DK speak, he appeals to the heart much like Bobby did, and I do see some but not full parallels.

[JohnKleeb]

20. I wouldnt even compare those two out of respect for Mr. Kennedy

but Ive seen DK speak, he appeals to the heart much like Bobby did, and I do see some but not full parallels.

[w4rma]

24. You've never seen Dean speak in person. Correct, kodi? (n/t)

[kodi]

25. nope. explain how that matters. and w4rma i ask from the heart, truly i do

seriously, explain how howard dean, who i have watched on tv, listened on radio, examined exhaustively his web site(s), reading all of his positions on his site, repeatedly, and as an extremely additive DU politico-maniac who himself spends hours on the net pouring over alternative news journalism (sites... buzzflash, eschaton, counterpunch, altercations, smirking chimp, instapundit, calpundit, daily kos, wide world socialist, orcinus, tom paine, daily hamster, uggabugga, and 2 dozen others, and involved local democratic political and general civic group meetings in my community)

explain to me what it is about howard dean that does not remind me of a smug asshole who is smart as a whip but who has the distinct smell of rank opportunist using my concerns as an avenue to his own ego and political power.

i dont like the guy, i hear what he says, it sounds like what i believe in, but i dont trust him...and i sent him money too!

however, i do like entirely what his campaign is about, it is, as he says repeatedly, "not about me, but you." this is true and very intoxicating.

but, again, i dont trust him. he has to me the complete feature of efficent expendibility. meaning he will cut his losses at the drop of a hat and devil take the hindquarters. in this way i dont believe he has compassion as his driving force, but merely projects that compassion is.

i consider him a faux progressive, who will break our hearts.

[mitchum]

29. Apparently you don't know much about RFK, Dean, or the left

[Screaming Lord Byron]

4. Deleted message from psychopathic, grammatically challenged freep.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

5. (facetiously) Hmm. I wonder who'll win?

[Antilope]

6. Pat Paulson

Who? :)

[BringEmOn]

26. Separated at birth?

Marc Racicot/Pat Paulsen separated at birth? I first noticed it during the 2000 Florida debacle. I thought Pat was making another run for the presidency.

[critchmj]

7. I *did* vote for Eugene McCarthy in 1968! :-) n/t

n/t

[jeter]

8. I was sperm in 1968

[HERVEPA]

9. Gene

He set it up for RFK by knocking out LBJ with his New Hampshire showing.
Kids campaigning for him were "Clean for Gene", cleaning up their physical appearance (hair, beards, ...) in order to help him.

.
.
...there were a whole bunch of us who did things like cut our hair and dress up in respectable clothes and go out and work for Gene McCarthy, and it was called `Clean for Gene,' and all the guys cut their hair and shaved their beards...and went out, in an attempt, this was the ultimate sacrifice we made, in an attempt to stop the killing, we were willing to cut our hair, which just shows you how intensely self-absorbed we were... we really thought if we cut our hair, the War would end. -Deborah Brayton
.
.

<http://www.stg.brown.edu/projects/1968/issues/usPolitics.html>

[blackcat77]

10. McCarthy was my first political campaign

He visited my hometown and I got to see him in person. Very exciting for a 16-year-old and the thrill of politics just never wore off for me.

[edzontar]

11. I worked for McCarthy in 1968

But was too young to vote.

I was old enough in 1972 though, since they lowered the age to 18.

I voted for McGovern.

Proudly.

He carried my state by a landslide.

[VOX]

16. Identical story here. Worked for McCarthy, couldn't vote, too young.

Cast my first presidential primary vote for McCarthy, too -- he was on the ballot, and I wanted to vote for him just once.

Cast my first presidential vote for McGovern.

:toast:

[CO Liberal]

12. Look At My Avatar Image & Sig For Clues.......

:-)

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

28. Ah, a Humphrey Man... never understood the attraction

Hubie was a great Senator, should have stayed there. Same thing with Gephardt, he should stay in the Senate and work to get the majority back.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

13. Clean for Gene, baby!

..

[RichardRay]

15. worked, voted for Gene, went to Chicago...

...got gassed while trying to be nice. I still don't like to go back there.

[jeter]

17. I wish I were at Chicago

[absyntheNsugar]

21. RFK was an enigma

I love him, especially his enigmatic nature...I love how the mob definitely helped his brother in politics, and as Attorney General he went after them. I love how he was probably the only Hawk at the time (and he was known as a hawk) to be against Vietnam.

This man was truly the uniter, not the divider - he was proabably our only shot at healing the rift between the right and the left that now polarizes our country.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Knowing what I know now...

I would voted for Robert Kennedy, BUT

in fact, I was an 18-year-old living in Minnesota in 1968, and so my Minnesota pride made me a Humphrey supporter, even though 18-year-olds couldn't vote yet. I still remember the day after that squeaker of an election, going around on the University of Minnesota campus, with people asking one another all the time for the latest election results.

By the way, I would never compare Howard Dean to Robert Kennedy. Never. Dean simply does not have RFK's depth, way with words, or vision of a brighter future. Kucinich comes closer to that than anyone I've seen since 1968.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

27. Closer than Clinton was in 1990?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

30. Oh, definitely.

Clinton doesn't have the steadfastness that Kucinich has. Clinton was too apt to change his mind if he thought that his current position might displease someone.

[mitchum]

23. Clean for Gene