George McGovern, proud liberal, dead at 90
WASHINGTON Former Sen. George McGovern, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate who won his party's nomination in 1972 on an anti-war platform but lost in a landslide to President Richard Nixon, has died. He was 90.
A family spokesman said the former U.S. Senator died early Sunday morning.
McGovern represented his home state of South Dakota for more than 20 years, first in the House of Representatives and then in the Senate, where he championed liberal social and economic reforms.
"I accept your nomination with a full and grateful heart," McGovern told conventioneers when he won the party's nomination for president.
Gary Hart, who would go on to run for president twice himself, was McGovern's campaign manager. And a young future president, Bill Clinton, ran his campaign operations in Texas.
McGovern, an unabashed liberal, called for an immediate end to the Vietnam War.
But he lost in a landslide to then-President Richard Nixon after winning just one state, Massachusetts.
"We're not going to shed any tears tonight over the joys that this campaign has brought us," McGovern said in his concession speech.
One of the great ironies of that race was that Nixon ordered the break-in to the Democratic Party headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in 1972 because he feared being bested by whoever his Democratic opponent might be. That break-in led to his resignation just two years after overwhelming McGovern in the election.
Before entering politics, McGovern flew 35 combat missions as a B-24 bomber pilot during World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He married his college sweetheart, Eleanor, during the war, and they had five children together. Eleanor died in 2008.
The confident defeat that wasn't
He was tapped by three presidents to represent the U.S. at the United Nations on issues ranging from disarmament to world hunger. He launched a program with former Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole in 2002 to provide education and food to poor children in the U.S. and around the world.
"There is one problem that I think we can lick, absolutely, and that's world hunger," McGovern said at a 2000 press conference with Dole.
McGovern was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000 and the World Food Prize in 2008.
He stayed active until the end, backing then-Sen. Barack Obama in the 2008 election.
"Let's seize that opportunity and vote Barack Obama for a more hopeful world," McGovern said at an Obama rally.
And he went skydiving in 2010 to celebrate his 88th birthday.
A prolific author, McGovern wrote eight books including, most recently, "What It Means to Be a Democrat" (Blue Rider Press), and almost no one knew better.
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There's quite a story around McGovern...McGovern's loss to Nixon, that is. It was the unions' support of Nixon over McGovern that enabled the birth of pseudo-Democrats - those of the neoliberal/DLC/"Blue Dog" variety. They justified their crass pursuit of personal wealth and global glory with a trumped up "miffed-ness" at that union "betrayal".
You see, they justified inequitable free trade as carrying on McGovern's quest to end world hunger - even though they KNEW it would be at the expense of what they saw as an ungrateful American people. Conveniently, the latter value judgement allowed them to shove aside the uncomfortable matter of how they somehow seemed to be winding up quite wealthy themselves.
'Tis a poor Democrat - a poor American - who thinks himself to have satisfied his Constitutional duty to his constituents if he treats them like a drunkard treats his dogs: By beating them most of the time, and throwing them a bone now and again. That behavior is to be expected of modern Republicans, but when someone who claims to be of the party of McGovern does it, it is...reptilian.
So RIP, Senator: You did your duty to your country and the American people. But the Republicans and pseudo-Democrats who have followed in your footsteps? They don't even leave a mark on the shadow you cast.
But he always had the courage of his convictions. He thought out the issues, decided on his position, and then stuck to it. Not like so many of today's politicians that change their stance almost hourly to pander to their current audience.
At least, with George, you know where he stood and you could decide whether you agreed with him or not.
Whether humanly possible or not, I do think believing that we could -- eventually -- solve world hunger is still an objective worth pursuing. "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, Or what's a heaven for?" - Robert Browning.
We've lost a true American and his spirit will live long after he's gone.
Looking back, he was correct on his perspectives.
RIP