Hillary's McGovern Problem - Going Off Script

[Kittycat]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/25/george-mcgovern-still-bac_n_98599.html

McGovern, a Clinton Supporter is going off-script in support of Obama

Former senator and Democratic presidential aspirant George McGovern says he sees some striking similarities when it comes to his run at the White House and that of Sen. Barack Obama. But ultimately, McGovern argues, Obama has organized a much wider political coalition and thus a greater chance of electoral success.

"I think that is his strength," McGovern told The Huffington Post. "He has very broad appeal. He certainly is going to galvanize the black vote. But he has strong appeal to voters of all kinds. Some of the old buckaroos out here in South Dakota are for him."

--snip

But McGovern, who lost the 1972 election to incumbent Richard Nixon by landslide margins, doesn't attribute his defeat to merely the contours of his political base. Indeed, he argues that his candidacy was damaged more by the infighting that occurred within the Democratic Party even after he had secured the nomination.

"After I had the nomination won and everything except the crowning at the convention, the other candidates that I had defeated in the primaries and the caucuses ganged up on me and spent the next month just bad mouthing me around the country," he said. "And, of course the Nixon people used some of the quotes and threw them back at me in the general election."

Much more at link - including his disagreement with Clinton on the Michigan Votes.

[truebrit71]

1. Yet another reason for Hillary to admit defeat and STFU already...

...

[book_worm]

2. That was a big part of it but also McGovern's first choice of VP backfired on him

and he had to replace him which didn't help. Had the so-called "Eagleton affair" not happened I think the '72 election would have been closer. Nixon would have still won (it was a GOP year) but not by the landslide proportions. Yet, had the Eagleton situation happened today I think people are more aware of mental illness and it wouldn't have been the same kind of issue it was in '72.