Not much went right for Senator George McGovern after he won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1972. He chose a running mate he hadn’t adequately vetted, dutifully promised to stand by him “a thousand percent,” and then dumped him. In the end, McGovern lost 49 states, winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. For years afterward, that overwhelming loss made him the butt of jokes — including his own. “Ever since I was a young man, I wanted to run for the presidency in the worst possible way,” he said later. “And I did.” Yet a fuller view of McGovern’s life shows there was more to him, as there is to most losing candidates, than the stereotypes and impressions that grow up after a tough defeat.
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Even more to your point, remember his epiphany after he experienced the private sector: "I wish I had known more firsthand about the concerns and problems of American business people while I was a U.S. senator and later a presidential nominee. That knowledge would have made me a better legislator and a more worthy aspirant to the White House….legislators and government regulators must more carefully consider the economic and management burdens we have been imposing on U.S. businesses. . . . Many businesses, especially small independents such as the Stratford Inn, simply can't pass such costs on to their customers and remain competitive or profitable." "George McGovern, after his Connecticut hotel/restaurant closed in 1991. Published in the Nation’s Restaurant News. If only Obama and Warren had some experience in the private sector before becoming politicians, they might not be so utterly clueless on economic issues.
The recent wave of deaths caused by the phamrma compounders havn't taught you anything about regulation.
And add to that asbestos, food contamination, water and air pollution, dangerous cars, various telephone scams, investment scams, the whole 2008 crash...
McGovern was a victim of a vicious hatchet job by that snake Nixon, and we all saw how great a president HE was.
Didn't McGovern advocate 100% taxation for all estates exceeding $400,000? I'm not sure about this. Could someone clarify?
Well I'm not going to knock Sen. McGovern on any level. Not so much because I supported him but because when I returned from Vietnam he was the only one after Bobby Kennedy who stood up and said the war was wrong. In its usual fashion the American public went for Richard Nixon's "secret" plan to end the war and more of my brothers died to prove a point. One can never bring them back nor diminish what they did for each other. I will however never forgive Nixon or the country for the pain it inflicted on a generation for no good reason. Sen. McGovern, Gene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy at least had the courage to stand up to the "faux" patriots and say this war is wrong.
Others can knock him for various social and economic reasons, but for courage to stand up for what is right is something you can't take away from him.
I voted for Nixon in 1968 and again in 1972. 40 + years later, in the light of history, I would do so again, with even more conviction.