US Presidential election 1972

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

Nixon beat McGovern by, I think, an all time record margin for a Republican win in terms of popular vote percentage.

Various factors cited by Wikipedia for McGovern's huge defeat, but one of them is that he was perceived as "extreme left wing". What positions did he espouse to earn that label? Not very much, I'd guess, given the hugely anti-Socialist views of almost the entire US electorate in those days?

[ursus arctos]

US Presidential election 1972

McGovern's "extreme left wing" views were primarily/exclusively grounded in his strong opposition to the Vietnam War and insistence that the US withdraw its forces as soon as possible. I'd add to that his critique of the excesses of the state security apparatus (the true extent of which was not yet apparent).

McGovern was pretty much a standard 70s Democrat when it came to economic issues (i.e., supportive of organised labour, but by no means a socialist), and on environmental issues it's worth noting that Nixon had created the Environmental Protection Agency in 1970.

All that said, opposing the War, even in 1972, was enough for one to be labelled as a "Red", "Pinko", "Commie", etc., and to be spat on by self-designated "patriots" (as your 13 year old correspondent was during that campaign).

There was much more of a consensus on economic issues at that time. Libertarians were extremely rare and largely confined to Ayn Rand acolytes, while truly rapacious tycoons like the Kochs and more red-toothed hedgies didn't really exist (and to the extent they did, had nowhere near the influence they now have, because we had some campaign finance laws).

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

US Presidential election 1972

"Amnesty, abortion and acid", a quote attributed to his own VP nominee Eagleton, who he then withdrew support from shortly after, when it was revealed that Eagleton was undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Apart from Eagleton's name (which I'd forgotten) I remember that verbatim from my studies of US politics from about 1990. It's almost a case study in a shambolic campaign. It would have had to have been, to re-elect Nixon, which it did (he resigned 3 years later).

[ursus arctos]

US Presidential election 1972

Nixon would have beaten Humphrey or a more "mainstream" Democratic candidate. He was really very popular at the time.

I highly recommend Rick Perlstein's Nixonland to anyone interested in the period.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

US Presidential election 1972

Nixon had learnt his lesson about the power of television, iirc, from the 1960 election. He had the major TV corporations (of which there were only two) if not in his pocket, then very careful not to piss him (as "The President") off. He'd made sure that he was the first man to speak to Neil Armstrong on the moon. All that sort of stuff. The 1972 election was fought out on the new colour TV screens of suburban America.

His eventual downfall, almost ironically, would be via the print media - who might not have done so much digging on Nixon had their own industry's entire future been under implicit threat from the magic box in the corner.

Valid hypothesis?

[ursus arctos]

US Presidential election 1972

Hmmmmmmmm

First of all, there were three national networks (ABC, CBS and NBC), plus the relatively new public broadcaster PBS.

And colour television was common in suburban households by the mid 60s.

Then there's the fact that Walter Cronkite, who was by far the most respected television newsman in the country, had abandoned the official line with regard to the War in 1968, before Nixon was even elected the first time (LBJ famously said that if he had lost Cronkite, he had lost Middle America).

Finally, I wouldn't say that the Post and the Times were motivated by perceived competition with television. Then, as now, they were elite media outlets interested in breaking news, and were not at all adverse to going after an administration that had made it abundantly clear that they were the "enemy" (even to the point of including them on the official enemies list).

But you are right about Nixon taking the lesson his disastrous television debate against JFK to heart, and being very careful about the cultivation of his media image.

[Amor de Cosmos]

US Presidential election 1972

The Democrats were floundering after the assassinations of the previous decade and the debacle of the '68 Convention. At least that was my sense at the time. If Bobby Kennedy (certainly) or Eugene McCarthy (possibly) had taken that convention, Nixon would probably not have won the election, and hence not been around in '72. As it was no one under 30 trusted Humphrey to end the war so turned their backs on the party, and — in many cases — conventional politics altogether. McGovern's candidacy seemed like a belated attempt to recapture the energy of '66-'68 but it just wasn't there anymore.

[ursus arctos]

US Presidential election 1972

That's certainly how it looked to me (but then I was a 8 and 9 year old McCarthy volunteer who became a 13 year old McGovern volunteer).

RFK would have won in '68. I'm less certain that Gene McCarthy would have, especially as it is hard to see the Daley forces allowing him to emerge from the Chicago convention unscathed.

[Borracho]

US Presidential election 1972

Hunter S Thompson's book about 1972 is terrific. Probably the last really good thing Hunter ever wrote before the Wild Turkey took hold.

[Amor de Cosmos]

US Presidential election 1972

ursus arctos wrote:

I'm less certain that Gene McCarthy would have, especially as it is hard to see the Daley forces allowing him to emerge from the Chicago convention unscathed.

Yeah. It would have required Bobby not to run for him to have any chance, (personal bitterness against RFK badly hurt his campaign I think) and even then it would have been a stretch. Not impossible though.

[NHH]

US Presidential election 1972

What UA said about Nixonland, and the two other books of the trilogy (which I hope he extends up to Reagan's election).

There's a really good documentary movie called One Bright Shining Moment: The forgotten Summer of George McGovern which is very instructive on some stuff. McGovern's campaign had been an insurgency, and they'd not fully realised that once they got the nomination, they became the party leadership, and so made no real plans for the management of the convention, which went on and on to the extent that McGovern's speech was well after midnight and missed all the networks (and was preceeded by interminable floor fights).

That said, the simple reason Nixon won wasn't the might-have beens here (what if the Eagleton farrago hadn't have panned out, what if Watergate would have been more heavily investigated etc). Nixon's ratfuckers wanted to run against McGovern and sabotaged other opponents to do their bit to enable McGovern, and that was that Nixon understood that as much as there was an enormous movement behind McGovern, an even bigger slice of the voting population considered that movement to be the very thing that was literally destroying everything Americans stood for, and needed to retain to be great, and he knew he could mobilise it on election day.

[E10 Rifle]

US Presidential election 1972

McGovern's campaign had been an insurgency, and they'd not fully realised that once they got the nomination, they became the party leadership, and so made no real plans for the management of the convention, which went on and on to the extent that McGovern's speech was well after midnight and missed all the networks (and was preceeded by interminable floor fights).

Some contemporary lessons there?