A Former Presidential Candidate and Obama

Lately there's a grumbling in the media about the similarity of former Democratic nominee George McGovern's run for the White House and Barack Obama's. Maybe that makes him unelectable!!! *sarcasm* Those same people said that electability was a factor that couldn't — and shouldn't — be assessed in the primaries just a couple of months ago. I won't go into the details of McGovern's 1972 run for President, but the gist is that he was wildly popular with a segment of the population — not enough to win the general election. It certainly looks like a comparison that is worth some investigation, but the media is not really investigating it. Not the mainstream media, that is.

I read an interesting piece about George McGovern's take on the campaign by Sam Stein in Huff Post the other day: http://tinyurl.com/3fdsg5. In it Mr. McGovern explains that the problem with his candidacy in 72 was with other Dem. nominees who lost to McGovern before the convention. That nomination process went long and was decided late. The competition was fierce — and dirty — and apparently the rifts didn't heal in the brief Fall general election period. According to the former nominee, himself, his opponents continued their attacks throughout the Fall adding to the opposition's appeal.

I know that it is appealing to look back for a precedent that mirrors 2008. But it's hard if not impossible to use McGovern's name as a curse if that person debunks the very basis for the curse. On the other hand, history is not entirely wrong — McGovern had a loyal and limited group of supporters as all candidates do. So many aspects of our political climate are different from that time in our history, let alone any other, that we would be much better off just reporting on the progress of the race for a Dem. nominee. Journalists hardly report anymore, they represent interests that are sometimes obvious and sometimes obscured. Now journalists interpret, something that used to be left to Sunday morning talking heads. Now every minute of 24 hours news is full of tea leaf reading and innuendo, guessing and cataloging.

Obama is not like McGovern, yet. When the Democrats figure out that they can only win the White House if they come together for the general election then the big truth of McGovern's loss in 72 can be avoided. That will have to included all the candidates who lost. Already we see in the "Vote for Change" 50 state voter registration, a solid effort by the Obama campaign. The media can help by avoiding tags like McGovern or Brady that are divisive rather than illuminating. They can help by telling like it is and not like they think it should be. Some people are still listening.