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I've posted this before but this is germaine to it, and needs to be restated.
I've been rereading Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72 and there are some interesting parallels. The McCarthy and McGovern campaigns offered
new politics, an invitation to a new generation to get interested in politics as a vehicle for change and equality. There was that bastard Nixon, and we
have that bastard Bush, who may be the only politician that ever made me miss Nixon. McCain is following Bush's policies and is essentially campaigning
as the next Bush, but nice and straight talking.
There is Barack Obama, who represents what McCarthy, McGovern and Bobby Kennedy brought back then, bringing excitement, the hope of change
inclusion and the possibility of enticing a new generation into the belief that the system can be a profound instrument for change, and asks us to believe
all that's good about ourselves and our country, and to strive to be that.
Then there is Hillary, who almost used to be that at one time, who sort of reminds me of Hubert H. Humphrey. He'd been VP, the candidate in 68 who thought he could do it again in 72.
Well, Hunter Thompson states it beautifully when describing a significant failure of McGovern and his campaign.
McGovern did blow it himself with the Eagleton mess, there is no question of that, but he also was blindsided by what Thompson calls the "Humphrey/Meany Axis" and I quote
"So the minor flaws didn't matter a hell of a lot. It was the Big One, the Humphrey Sidewinder- that blew the spine out of McGovern's campaign strategy. The one
thing that never occurred to Gary Hart or Frank Mankiewicz (his campaign mgr.s) or to me either, for that matter, despite my rancid contempt for the Humphrey / Meany
Axis and everything it stood for - was the ominous possibility that those evil bastards would refuse to close ranks behind McGovern once he had the nomination.
It was almost inconceivable that they would be so bitter in defeat that they would tacitly deliver their own supporters to a conservative Republican, instead of at least
trying to rally them around the candidate of their own party"
Now Hillary hasn't done that yet, but she's walking a very fine line, and if she keeps walking it, whether by design, or just lust for power, she will effectively
do the same thing, and we will have the Democratic Party once again snatching defeat from the Jaws of Victory
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