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United States presidential election, 1972
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The United States presidential election of 1972, the 47th quadrennial presidential election was held on Tuesday, November 7,1972. Overall, he won 60. 7% of the popular vote, Johnson’s in 1964, but with a larger margin of victory in the popular vote, thus becoming the fourth largest in presidential election history. He received almost 18 million more votes than McGovern, the widest margin of any United States presidential election. McGovern only won the votes in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. It was also the first time that Hawaii was carried by a Republican, together with the House and Senate elections of 1972, it was the first electoral event in which people aged 18 to 20 could vote in every state, according to the provisions of the 26th Amendment. It was also the first election in which California had the most votes in the electoral college, furthermore, the presidential term of 1973–1977 is notable for being the only one in American history in which both the original President and Vice President fail to complete the term. Ultimately, the 1973–77 term would see two different Presidents and three different Vice Presidents, as of 2016, this is the last time Minnesota voted for the Republican candidate. Overall, fifteen people declared their candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination, mcCarthy, former Senator from Minnesota Henry M. C. The favorite for the Democratic nomination then became Senator Ed Muskie, Muskie’s momentum collapsed just prior to the New Hampshire primary, when the so-called Canuck letter was published in the Manchester Union-Leader. Subsequently, the published an attack on the character of Muskie’s wife Jane, reporting that she drank. Muskie made a defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper’s offices during a snowstorm. Nearly two years before the election, South Dakota Senator George McGovern entered the race as an anti-war, McGovern was able to pull together support from the anti-war movement and other grassroots support to win the nomination in a primary system he had played a significant part in designing. On January 25,1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm announced she would run, Hawaii Representative Patsy Mink also announced she would run and became the first Asian American to run for the Democratic presidential nomination. On April 25, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary, once middle America – Catholic middle America, in particular – finds this out, he’s dead. ”The label stuck and McGovern became known as the candidate of amnesty, abortion, and acid. It became Humphrey’s battle cry to stop McGovern—especially in the Nebraska primary, alabama Governor George Wallace, an anti-integrationist, did well in the South and among alienated and dissatisfied voters in the North. What might have become a campaign was cut short when Wallace was shot in an assassination attempt by Arthur Bremer on May 15. Wallace was struck by five bullets and left paralyzed from the waist down, the day after the assassination attempt, Wallace won the Michigan and Maryland primaries, but the shooting effectively ended his campaign and he pulled out in July. In the end, McGovern won the nomination by winning primaries through grassroots support in spite of establishment opposition, McGovern had led a commission to re-design the Democratic nomination system after the divisive nomination struggle and convention of 1968
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George McGovern
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George Stanley McGovern was an American historian, author, U. S. Representative, U. S. Senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election. McGovern grew up in Mitchell, South Dakota, where he was a renowned debater and he volunteered for the U. S. Army Air Forces upon the countrys entry into World War II and as a B-24 Liberator pilot flew 35 missions over German-occupied Europe. Among the medals bestowed upon him was a Distinguished Flying Cross for making an emergency landing of his damaged plane. After the war he gained degrees from Dakota Wesleyan University and Northwestern University, culminating in a PhD and he was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives in 1956 and re-elected in 1958. After a failed bid for the U. S. Senate in 1960, as a senator, McGovern was an exemplar of modern American liberalism. He became most known for his opposition to the growing U. S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He staged a brief run in the 1968 presidential election as a stand-in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy. The McGovern–Hatfield Amendment sought to end the Vietnam War by legislative means but was defeated in 1970 and 1971, in the general election McGovern lost to incumbent Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in American electoral history. Re-elected Senator in 1968 and 1974, McGovern was defeated in a bid for a term in 1980. Throughout his career, McGovern was involved in related to agriculture, food, nutrition. McGovern was born in the 600‑person farming community of Avon, South Dakota, McGovern, born in 1868, was pastor of the local Wesleyan Methodist Church there. Joseph – the son of an alcoholic who had immigrated from Ireland – had grown up in states, working in coal mines from the age of nine. He had been a baseball player in the minor leagues, but had given it up due to his teammates heavy drinking, gambling and womanizing. George was the second oldest of four children, Joseph McGoverns salary never reached $100 per month, and he often received compensation in the form of potatoes, cabbages, or other food items. Joseph and Frances McGovern were both firm Republicans, but were not politically active or doctrinaire, when George was about three years old, the family moved to Calgary for a while to be near Frances ailing mother, and he formed memories of events such as the Calgary Stampede. When George was six, the returned to the United States and moved to Mitchell, South Dakota. McGovern attended public schools there and was an average student and he was painfully shy as a child and was afraid to speak in class during first grade. His only reproachable behavior was going to see movies, which were among the worldly amusements forbidden to good Wesleyan Methodists
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Thomas Eagleton
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Thomas Francis Tom Eagleton was a United States Senator from Missouri, serving from 1968 to 1987. He is best remembered for briefly being the Democratic vice presidential nominee under George McGovern in 1972 and he suffered from bouts of depression throughout his life, resulting in several hospitalizations, which were kept secret from the public. When they were revealed it humiliated the McGovern campaign and Eagleton was forced to quit the race and he later became adjunct professor of public affairs at Washington University. Eagleton was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Zitta Louise and Mark David Eagleton and his paternal grandparents were Irish immigrants, and his mother had Swedish, Irish, French, and Austrian ancestry. He graduated from St. Louis Country Day School, served in the U. S. Navy for two years, and graduated from Amherst College in 1950, where he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and he then attended Harvard Law School. Following his graduation in 1953, Eagleton practiced law at his fathers firm, Eagleton married Barbara Ann Smith of St. Louis on January 26,1956. A son, Terence, was born in 1959, and a daughter and he was elected circuit attorney of the City of St. Louis in 1956. During his tenure, he appeared on the TV show Whats My Line. as District Attorney of St. Louis and he was elected Missouri Attorney General in 1960, at the age of 31. He was elected the 38th Lieutenant Governor of Missouri in 1964, long in the Democratic primary and narrowly defeating Congressman Thomas B. Curtis in the general election. He was also known to have suffered from depression, between 1960 and 1966, Eagleton checked himself into the hospital three times for physical and nervous exhaustion, receiving electroconvulsive therapy twice. The stomach troubles have contributed to rumors that he had a drinking problem, on April 25,1972, George McGovern won the Massachusetts primary, and conservative journalist Robert Novak phoned Democratic politicians around the country. On April 27,1972, Novak reported in a column his conversation with an unnamed Democratic senator about McGovern, Novak quoted the senator as saying The people dont know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion, and legalization of pot. Once middle America — Catholic middle America, in particular — finds this out, because of the column McGovern became known as the candidate of amnesty, abortion, and acid. On July 15,2007, several months after Eagletons death, oh, he had to run for re-election, said Novak, the McGovernites would kill him if they knew he had said that. Political analyst Bob Shrum says that Eagleton would never have been selected as McGoverns running mate if it had known at the time that Eagleton was the source of the quote. Boy, do I wish he would have let you publish his name, then he never would have been picked as vice president, said Shrum. Because the two things, the two things happened to George McGovern — two of the things that happened to him — were the label you put on him, number one. We had a convention, but he could have, I think in the end, carried eight or 10 states
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George McGovern presidential campaign, 1972
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McGovern vied to become the first South Dakota native to become president. McGovern had run a presidential campaign in 1968, acting as a stand-in for the assassinated Robert F. Kennedy leading up to the 1968 Democratic National Convention. McGovern then spent the remainder of the election campaign ensuring his own re-election to the Senate. But following the 1968 convention, he had planned on running for president again and he began hiring legislative aides who could double as campaign policy staff, press secretaries, and the like. McGovern hired an agent to book speaking engagements, and beginning in early 1969 began doing an average of three appearances a week, McGoverns early efforts were beset by organizational problems and much activity without plan or result in polls. McGovern began replacing most of the campaign staff, at a July 25,1970, get-together at McGoverns farm in St. Michaels, Maryland, the McGovern campaign was restarted. The early entry, nearly two years before the date, was designed to give him time to overcome Muskies large lead. In his announcement speech, the 48-year-old McGovern promised to withdraw every American soldier from Indochina if elected and he said economic conditions would also be improved by an end to the war and reduced military spending. McGovern declared some themes of his campaign, I seek the presidency because I believe deeply in the American promise, I make one pledge above all others—to seek and speak the truth with all the resources of mind and spirit I command. I seek to call America home to those principles that gave us birth, at the time of his announcement, McGovern ranked fifth among Democrats in a presidential preference Gallup Poll. Gary Hart, who became a presidential contender himself 12 years later, was McGoverns campaign manager, MIT Sloan School of Management professor Edwin Kuh headed McGoverns economic advisory panel, for which he recruited Lester Thurow and other academic economists. Abner Abby Levine served as Vice-Chairman of Finance, the biggest one filled Madison Square Garden, featuring Warren Beatty, Nichols and May, Simon and Garfunkel, Peter, Paul and Mary, Shirley MacLaine and Jack Nicholson among the celebrities. Mr Levine was also a delegate at the Democratic Party convention in Miami, participation in the war by Congressional action. McGovern responded, Under such circumstances, wed have to take action, the personal income tax exemption later became $1000 under President Reagan. In addition, McGovern supported ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, the establishment favorite for the Democratic nomination was Ed Muskie, the moderate who acquitted himself well as the 1968 Democratic vice-presidential candidate. In August 1971 Harris polling amid an economic crisis, Muskie came out on top of incumbent Nixon if the election had been held that day. Jimmy The Greek Snyder gave 200–1 odds against McGovern winning, Campaign manager Hart, along with Rick Stearns, an expert on the new post-McGovern commission system, decided on a strategy to focus on the 28 states holding caucuses instead of primary elections. They felt the nature of the caucuses made them easier to win if they targeted their efforts, in the initial event of the campaign season McGovern placed a strong third in the Iowa caucuses
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1972 Democratic National Convention
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The 1972 Democratic National Convention was the presidential nominating convention of the Democratic Party for the 1972 presidential election. It was held at Miami Beach Convention Center in Miami Beach, Florida, lawrence F. OBrien served as permanent chairman of the convention, while Yvonne Braithwaite Burke served as vice-chair, becoming the first African American to hold that position. It nominated Senator George McGovern of South Dakota for President and Senator Thomas Eagleton of Missouri for Vice President, previously excluded political activists gained influence at the expense of elected officials and traditional core Democratic constituencies such as organized labor. A protracted vice presidential nominating process delayed McGoverns acceptance speech until 2,48 a. m. —after most television viewers had gone to bed, Hunter S. Thompson covered this convention in detail in several articles and in Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail 72. After McGovern resigned from his position as chair, he was replaced as chair by U. S, representative Donald Fraser, which gave the McGovern–Fraser Commission its name. The 28-member commission was established after the tumultuous 1968 convention, among the most significant of the changes were new quotas mandating that certain percentages of delegates be women or members of minority groups. As a result of the new rules, subjects that were deemed not fit for political debate, such as abortion and gay rights. The new rules for choosing and seating delegates created a number of rules. Many traditional Democratic groups such as organized labor and big-city political machines had small representation at the convention, many traditional Democratic leaders and politicians felt that McGoverns delegate count did not reflect the wishes of most Democratic voters. Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter helped to spearhead a Stop McGovern campaign, the stop-McGovern forces tried unsuccessfully to alter the delegate composition of the California delegation. The Illinois primary required voters to select individual delegates, not presidential candidates, most Illinois delegation members were uncommitted and were controlled or influenced by Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, the leader of the Chicago political machine. The delegation was challenged by McGovern supporters arguing that the results of the primary did not create a diverse enough delegation in terms of women, singer, Jesse Jackson and pledged to George McGovern. The California primary was winner-take-all, which was contrary to the selection rules. So even though McGovern only won the California primary by a 5% electoral margin, as with the credential fight, McGovernites carried the day effectively handing the nomination to McGovern. McGovern recognized the results of the changes that he made to the Democratic nominating convention, saying. Formed after divisive platform battles, the 1972 Democratic National Conventions platform has been characterized as probably the most liberal one ever adopted by a party in the United States. It advocated immediate withdrawal from Vietnam, amnesty for war resisters, the abolition of the draft, a job for all Americans. The Feminist Movement was an influence on the Democratic platform of 1972
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Richard Nixon
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Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he became the only U. S. president to resign from office. He had previously served as a U. S, Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, after completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife Pat moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government and he subsequently served on active duty in the U. S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950 and his pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president and he waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968, he ran for the presidency again and was elected by defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft. His administration generally transferred power from Washington D. C. to the states and he imposed wage and price controls for a period of ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon also presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race and he was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U. S. history in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern. The year 1973 saw an Arab oil embargo, gasoline rationing, the scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and on August 9,1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he was issued a pardon by his successor, in retirement, Nixons work writing several books and undertaking of many foreign trips helped to rehabilitate his image. He suffered a stroke on April 18,1994. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9,1913 in Yorba Linda, California and his parents were Hannah Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith, Nixons upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. Nixon had four brothers, Harold, Donald, Arthur, four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in historical or legendary England, Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart. Nixons early life was marked by hardship, and he quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood, We were poor. The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the moved to Whittier
