Talk:Eugene McCarthy

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I'm not especially happy with the flow of the third paragraph, so if anyone sees a way to improve it, be my guest. Ground 13:46, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] RIP Clean Gene

We'll miss you.

Hear Hear Thesocialistesq 18:18, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

I worked for him in 68 when he was the only Democrat willing to run against incumbent Johnson. Like many of his supporters, I felt betrayed when Kennedy and then McGovern split the antiwar movement and guaranteed Nixon's election. Why does it seem like we need someone like him again? alteripse 04:20, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Oh gods, the the isolation of college takes it toll. As I was too busy sleeping in and studying for exams, dear Gene passed away without me even hearing a word of it until I came here. What a loss for the entire country. Fare thee well, Gene. --BDD 06:05, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] 1980 Endorsement

I know this had probably already been gone over somewhere before but he didn't endorse Clark in 1980, he just wrote the intro to his book. He endorsed Reagan. Pimpalicious 17:46, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

To me, a Swedish Wikipedian, it seems rather odd thet Eugene McCarthy, who seems to have been a radical or at least a liberal democrat, endorsed Reagan in 1980. Reagan was a not-so-liberal republican. What is the reason for this slip? Anger with the party? --Astor Piazzolla 19:10, 9 March 2006 (UTC)
It was mostly a protest against the Democrats. He was particularly mad at Jimmy Carter for boycotting the Moscow Olympics. He was origionally going to endorse either Barry Commoners, Ed Clark, or Congressman John Anderson, all of whom had no chance of winning. He decided to go with Reagan because, as much as he disagreed with Reagan, he thought Jimmy Carter was being unfair by portraying him as being as far right as he did. The Secretary of Funk 00:27, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
At the time. McCarthy said he supported Reagan because Reagan had a better conception of the presidency. McCarthy thought that Reagan would be less "imperial." Revenge against the democrats was certainly a motive for the embittered McCarthy, and he loathed Carter. Nicmart 15:52, 28 April 2006 (UTC)
Here's a quote from a recent Slate article:

I once had quite an argument with the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, who maintained adamantly that it had been right for him to vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980 for no other reason. "Mr. Carter," he said, "quite simply abdicated the whole responsibility of the presidency while in office. He left the nation at the mercy of its enemies at home and abroad. He was the worst president we ever had." 58.107.102.215 01:49, 25 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The other anticommunist McCarthy

I worked in McCarthy's 1976 campaign, and supported him in 1968. During the '76 campaign I came to realize that McCarthy was politically shallow, unrealistic, and incoherent. Most casual observers think of McCarthy as a McGovern-style liberal, so this comes as a surprise to them:

Hubert Humphrey, mayor of Minneapolis, vowed to drive the Communists out of the DFL in 1948 — and Gene McCarthy was recruited as part of that effort. The campaign was ruthless; the Communists were denounced as subversives and appeasers. The liberals' success was total, and the group that drove the reds out of the party went on to dominate the DFL for a generation, producing two vice presidents and three presidential candidates — Humphrey, McCarthy and Walter Mondale.
Over the next decade, Republicans tried to challenge McCarthy as insufficiently anti-Communist but never succeeded. "I have supported the un-American activities committee and every basic piece of legislation directed to control subversive activities," he told the press during the 1952 campaign. He was right about that. (http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/12/12/1354248)

Prior to that McCarthy and his wife " founded a Catholic anticapitalist rural commune in Minnesota." (ibid) He was not one of the two senators who had the good sense to oppose the Gulf of Tonkin resolution that launched the U.S. into the Vietnam quagmire.

McCarthy had a shtick and worked it as long as he could. Aside from his brief moment of valor in 1968 his political career was a minor footnote. See "Eugene McCarthy and the Rise and Fall of Postwar American Liberalism," by Dominic Sandbrook.

This article is quite weak, missing entirely McCarthy's anticommunism and much of his early bio. Nicmart 15:52, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

McCarthy was bad because he was anti-Communist? Driving the Communists out of the DFL was bad? Anti-Communism was a core part of post-World War II American liberalism, including organized labor and democratic socialists. Are *you* a communist? Look, American liberalism succeeded because the communists were shown the door. They were disruptive fanatical true believers, automatons taking orders straight from the Kremlin, who would have destroyed the DFL Party, the CIO, and the legacy of the New Deal. Eugene McCarthy was right.n 70.108.135.136 15:39, 30 April 2006 (UTC)
You misconstrued my point, which I don't think was your fault. I think anticommunism was a good thing, although not all the nonsense of the U.S. Senate. My point was that McCarthy's reputation with liberals is based largely on their misconception of his political history. Nicmart 18:20, 1 May 2006 (UTC)
What makes you think there were misconceptions? --jpgordon∇∆∇∆ 18:30, 1 May 2006 (UTC)

I'd also like to see some evidence of him supporting Nader in 2000. I've seen several sources that say he supported Gore and he isn't talked about as being a support anywhere in Nader's book Crashing The Party, which is full of name dropping. Pimpalicious 17:46, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Nevermind, I should read more carefully. I feel dumb now. Anyway, I'll go ahead and add that he supported Gore. Pimpalicious 17:48, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

View of Politics

Sometime in the 70s I heard him on the radio saying that a successful politician has to fit Vince Lombardi's description of a successful football coach: "Smart enough to master and manipulate a complicated set of rules and variables, and stupid enough to think that it means anything."

Like most of McCarthy's quips, he repeated that one for decades, ad nauseum. Nicmart 15:52, 28 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Great quote

"Being in politics is like coaching football. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it's important." 86.17.246.75 20:57, 18 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Merge from Eugene McCarthy presidential campagin 1968

I see no reason to have a completely separate, uncited article when the uncited section here can cover the topic just as well. Pairadox (talk) 13:51, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

Agreed. The separate article appears to be a word-for-word duplicate of the section in this article. Completely redundant.--JayJasper (talk) 21:48, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
Hold on - there's something more going on here - the article you cited is Eugene McCarthy presidential campagin 1968 - with typo in name and no comma. There also is another separate article Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign,1968 which is also an identical copy of the campaign section from this article. Both of these should be deleted. See Nick37 (talk • contribs • logs) Talk page - there seems to be a bunch of articles that are questionable. Tvoz |talk 22:15, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
I nominated the one with the typo in it for speedy deletion since it was re-created as Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign, 1968. I think that one should be deleted too, but will move the merge request there. Tvoz |talk 22:25, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
Actually, the latter article you mentioned is a redirect to the campaign section of this article, which means it is already merged. The article with the typo in the title is a redundancy which needs to be deleted.--JayJasper (talk) 22:29, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
No - it's more complicated than that:
I don't know if these are honest errors, an attempt to cover all bases, or someone playing games, but a look at the editor's talk page (Nick37 (talk • contribs • logs)) shows that there are a lot of problem articles. I'll post something at AN/I if this isn't resolved quickly. Tvoz |talk 22:44, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

[outdent] I looked it over again: the typo'd article has been changed to a redirect too, so I changed Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign,1968 (no space before 1968) to a redirect to the section here as well. Let's see if anything further happens. Tvoz |talk 22:51, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

That sounds like a good plan.--JayJasper (talk) 22:53, 7 February 2008 (UTC)
This one may fall into the category of "some people have too much time on their hands"..... cheers Tvoz |talk 22:55, 7 February 2008 (UTC)