Word: mcgoverns
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...George McGovern surveyed the wreckage of his presidential campaign from the poolside of the Virgin Islands retreat of one of his most generous financial backers, Henry Kimelman. The Senator's attitude toward the labor leaders and other traditional Democrats who had refused to help him was bitter. He declared that men like AFL-CIO President George Meany were party "wreckers" and that he would do "whatever I can to make sure that they don't come back into a dominant role in the Democratic Party." He also said that he was "not sure how you accommodate within...
...McGovern's reckoning, the biggest single factor in his loss was Richard Nixon's ability to attract voters who otherwise would have favored Alabama Governor George Wallace. If Wallace had not been shot and had run as an Independent, McGovern contended, "we would have had a far different result...What we now have is a country presided over by a President who has married the Republican Party to the Wallace people...
...McGovern did concede that he had made some mistakes-all minor to hear him tell it. They included giving his acceptance speech at Miami Beach about 3 a.m. instead of in prime television time. He also said that he should have insisted upon taking another day to choose a vice-presidential candidate-and thus avoided what he called "the Eagleton thing." The selection and dropping of Missouri Senator Thomas Eagleton as his running mate could be considered among his "mistakes of the heart," McGovern argued...
...McGovern's top aides, Frank Mankiewicz, uttered the same alibis; he agreed that while the election "was tough before Eagleton, it certainly wasn't winnable after the Eagleton affair." Yet he had seen a glimmer of hope as the Republican-corruption issue "started to move pretty hard" about ten days before the election. "And then a day later, there was Henry [Kissinger] on the tube with peace, and the corruption thing died-bang...
...thought he had contributed only "one rock in that landslide," adding: "When you've got a spread of 23 points in the polls, translating into many millions of votes, I can't describe the Eagleton situation as being the determinant." He offered a solid reason for McGovern's loss: "I think he was misinterpreted in many respects, but nevertheless the perception of him on issues was one that caused this term radical to stick. The candidate we field in 1976 will have to be perceived as a bit closer to the so-called political center...