Current Ne. election is an echo of 1968 (RFK vs McCarthy history lesson)

[Omaha Steve]

I went door to door for Bobby. I had a wonderful talk with his daughter Kathleen back in March: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=2999271


Link for story below: http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10332591

Published Monday May 12, 2008

BY HENRY J. CORDES
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

The charismatic Democratic presidential candidate surged into Omaha, wowing a huge crowd at the Civic Auditorium.

He inspired listeners with his hopeful message.

He decried an unpopular war raging halfway around the globe.

He promised change.

Barack Obama, 2008?

Nope. Bobby Kennedy, 1968.


More than 2,000 Omahans ignored the rain to listen to Sen. Robert F. Kennedy as he campaigned in north Omaha during his brief, quixotic quest to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968.


When it comes to selecting a new president, Nebraska had its brief moment in the national spotlight with its Democratic Party caucuses in February.

But in this state long considered a presidential election backwater with its May primary, there may never be another year like 1968.

During one of the most tumultuous years of 20th century America, the leading candidates campaigned from Omaha to Chadron, giving farmers, laborers, office workers and college students a rare chance to take the measure of the men who would be president.

Scores of national reporters and celebrities — astronaut John Glenn, Marlo "That Girl" Thomas and actor Paul Newman — followed in the candidates' wakes.

But it was RFK who emerged as the star.

FULL story at link.

[msedano]

1. distorted echo if at all

kennedy lacked the courage and character to run on his own. he sat back and let mccarthy do all the hard work. it was mccarthy's rising tide of support that convinced LBJ it was time to abdicate. only after clean gene had blazed the trail did bobby--ever the opportunist never the leader--leap into the fray. "quixotic" is a weird term to apply to bkennedy's campaign. albeit opportunistic and cowardly, his was hardly a misplaced vision tilting at windmills. once LBJ was gone, it was open season on the nomination. and mccarthy? left in the dust, unthanked and disregarded by the old politics politicians.

there is no parallel between barack obama and the 1968 campaign.

[Omaha Steve]

2. Not so fast, I have links

With film: http://video.aol.com/video-detail/robert-f-kennedy-announces-his-candidacy-for-the-presidency/78918748

On March 16, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the younger brother of assassina...ted president John F. Kennedy, announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Robert Kennedy, a legal counsel for various Senate subcommittees during the 1950s, served as the manager of his brother's successful presidential campaign in 1960. Appointed attorney general by President Kennedy, he proved a vigorous member of the cabinet, zealously prosecuting cases relating to civil rights while closely advising the president on various domestic and foreign issues. After Kennedy's assassination in 1963, he joined President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration, but resigned in 1964 to run successfully in New York for a Senate seat. Known in Congress as an advocate of social reform and defender of the rights of minorities, he also voiced criticism of the war in Vietnam. In 1968, he was urged by many of his supporters to run for president as an anti-war and socially progressive Democratic. Hesitant until he saw positive primary returns for fellow anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, he announced his bid for the presidency on March 16, 1968. Fifteen days later, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the key Democratic hopeful, with McCarthy and Kennedy trailing closely behind. However, Kennedy conducted an energetic campaign, and on June 4, 1968, he won a major victory in the California primary. In the early hours of the next morning, he gave a victory speech to his supporters in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and then, while making his way to a press conference by a side exit, he was shot by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Critically wounded, Robert F. Kennedy died on June 6, and like his slain brother, was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


LBJ dropped out on March 31st AFTER RFK entered the race.

http://www.pbs.org/previews/amex_rfk/

While RFK grieved, President Johnson claimed the Kennedy legacy as his own and began to consolidate presidential power. Bobby resigned from the cabinet and ran for the Senate from New York, winning, much to his chagrin, with Johnson's help. Bobby was searching for a way to carry on his brother's legacy and at the same time find a voice of his own. He began to sympathize with Americans who had been left behind - blacks, Latinos, Indians, the poor - and came to be seen as a man of the people.

Meanwhile, LBJ was escalating the war in Vietnam. While Bobby believed that the Vietnamese communists needed to be defeated, he began to question Johnson's strategy. As the presidential election approached, aides, friends and ordinary Americans pleaded with Bobby to run, but he refused. It was only after another liberal democrat, Eugene McCarthy, entered the race, and the Vietnamese Tet offensive demonstrated to Americans that the war was far from over, that Bobby announced his candidacy.

His campaign for the Democratic nomination was part politics, part crusade. As he spoke out against the war and railed against Johnson, rapturous crowds did anything they could to get close to him. Johnson watched with undisguised panic. On March 31, 1968, a physically and emotionally exhausted LBJ put an end to the contest, announcing that he would no longer seek or accept the party nomination.

Kennedy's plan was to prove that he was the candidate of the people. With the overwhelming support of blacks and Mexican-Americans, he gained a much-needed victory in California. Bobby still had a long road ahead of him, but at a celebration at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel, he confidently told an aide, "I feel for the first time that I've shaken the shadow of my brother."

The party was in full swing just minutes after midnight on June 5, 1968, when Kennedy, on his way to a back exit, was fatally shot. Like JFK less than five years before, Robert Kennedy passed on into legend. Carved on his gravestone are the words from Aeschylus that he could recite from memory: "He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God."