2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhat Do You Mean 'Sanders Might Be Another George McGovern'?
That's the core question being asked as "establishment" Democrats worry that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders would be "too far to the left" to compete against the Republican nominee in a general election.
Snip......
He went up against Nixon and the divisive, race-baiting, media-savvy (Roger Ailes!) Republican politics of big money, corruption, lawbreaking, cynicism and manipulation. Nixon used red-baiting, war and race to win working class voters, and corporate money enabled him to outspend McGovern 2-to 1. The Nixon campaign also notoriously used illegal tactics, including such "dirty tricks" as bugging and wiretapping the Democratic Party and McGovern campaign offices.
McGovern lost in a landslide.
Snip.............
Dirty Tricks
The public also did not know at the time that the Nixon campaign had been using "dirty tricks" to knock out Democratic primary candidates who were considered to be stronger opponents than McGovern. A 1972 Washington Post report, "FBI Finds Nixon Aides Sabotaged Democrats," by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, explained:
The activities, according to information in FBI and Department of Justice files, were aimed at all the major Democratic presidential contenders and since 1971 represented a basic strategy of the Nixon re-election effort.
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/01/what-do-you-mean-sanders-might-be-another
mikehiggins
(5,614 posts)is because that is his strong suit. As Rove points out, that's where you have to attack an opponent, on his strongest attribute. Problem is the primary voters are paying too much attention to what is going on for simple attacks to work. As to the GOPukes, does anyone really think that any of them could stand face to face with Sanders or O'Malley or HRC? As JEB! has shown all the money in the world will not work this year.
What the GOPukes need is Nixon. Fortunately, he's not available.
Snotcicles
(9,089 posts)just asking a question is all they to make a bad decision.
global1
(25,270 posts)From Wikipedia:
McGovern struggled to get endorsements from figures such as former President Johnson and Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley. The AFLCIO remained neutral, after having always endorsed the Democratic presidential candidate in the past. Some southern Democrats, led by former Texas governor John Connally, switched their support to the incumbent President Nixon through a campaign effort called "Democrats for Nixon." Nixon outspent McGovern by more than two-to-one.
So one of the lessons learned by the Dems should be is to back the nominee no matter who it is. It is important to put the full weight of the Party behind the person that emerges from the primaries to be the nominee.
KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)UCmeNdc
(9,600 posts)Nixon probably had some blackmail information on Conally. Nixon was a crook and would stop at nothing to get what he wanted. The original Republican political gangster.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)Horrendously long gasoline lines, high double digit interest rates...money no longer had value. It became just numbers, bits and bites, later. Gold is hard to manipulate. Numbers, not so much.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)I'm 71.
Zen Democrat
(5,901 posts)We're a wiser bunch of people now. "W" ended the Reagan era. That America elected Barack Obama is testament to that. Now it's time for the Progressive Movement to grow and flourish by forging a new road paved with egalitarian rights and providing for the common good without the encumbrance of bailing out the Wall Street banks.
If that's pie in the sky, then I plead just as guilty as the Founding Fathers who were radical, revolutionary progressives. We've been on the wrong damned road for multi-decades. Obama was the light that exposed what things look like on this road and he has tried to turn the country around. I think he's succeeding quite well as the catalyst for long-term change.
tokenlib
(4,186 posts)And it really pisses me off. Sure enough the Third Way corporatists will bring this out ..like they have for over thirty years now..to attack any true populist progressive candidate..