A Little History
Posted on Wed Jun 04, 2008 at 02:09:18 PM EST
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One of the ironies of this campaign is the role some prominent players and issues in the current drama played in the past. We have heard about the fact that Harold Ickes was the primary champion of caucuses and proportional allocation of delegates. As Chris Bowers notes, the most important reason Barack Obama won (not Iraq, though I wish it was and am willing to help create that myth) was the brilliant plan the Obama campaign executed in caucuses in Red States. And credit to the Obama campaign and discredit to the Clinton campaign for that.
Now I am not as old as some, but the biggest upset in political history I can remember was not Obama's win, despite that new myth, but George McGovern's win in 1972. Wikipedia has an interesting article on the 1972 race and convention and some interesting name, themes and issues pop up:
The new rules for choosing and seating delegates created an unusual number of rules and credentials challenges. Many traditional Democratic groups such as organized labor and big city political machines had small representation at the convention. Their supporters challenged the seating of relative political novices, but for the most part were turned back by the supporters of South Dakota senator George McGovern. McGovern had amassed the most delegates to the convention by using a grass roots campaign that was powered by opposition to the Vietnam War.
Many traditional Democratic leaders and politicians felt that McGovern's 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. California had a "winner-take-all" primary format, which was contrary to the delegate selection rules. So even though McGovern only won the California primary by a 5% electoral margin, he won all 273 of their delegates to the convention. The anti-McGovern group argued for a more proportional distribution of the delegates, while the McGovern forces stressed that the rules for the delegate selection had been set and the Stop McGovern alliance was trying to change the rules after the game. As with the credential fight, McGovern's army carried the day effectively handing the nomination to Senator McGovern. 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 delegation was challenged by McGovern supporters arguing that the results of the primary did not create a diverse enough delegation in terms of women and minorities. The credentials committee, headed by Patricia Roberts Harris, rejected the entire elected delegation, including elected women and minorities, and seated an unelected delegation led by Jesse Jackson and pledged to George McGovern.
(Emphasis supplied.) Pretty interesting, ironic and funny stuff.
One personal anecdote. In 1972, I was a kid and my family used to spend their summers in Miami Beach. And I remember being fascinated by a map in the Miami Herald showing all the candidate's headquarters (they were at all the big hotels that existed at the time). And there were many many candidates at the Convention. Even Ted Kennedy. But I was a kid and was not paying much attention. But we all know the story of McGovern's 3AM acceptance speech.(The next summer I apparently became politically aware because I remember watching the Watergate Hearings quite religiously. My parents are Republicans so they were sure that Nixon was being railroaded. The detested John Dean especially.) By contrast, the GOP Convetion in Miamai Beach later that summer ran like clockwork.
There is no real point to this story other than to evidence once again that, as Will Rogers said, we Dems are not an organized party.
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