Reply #5: McCarthy & we voters drove LBJ out of the race

[msedano]

Eugene McCarthy created an overwhelming message that voters were sick and tired of war-as-usual bullshit that told LBJ he didn't stand a chance. And LBJ's ego was completely deflated by the ridicule he faced wherever he went. "Hey, hey, LBJ! How many kids have you killed today?" LBJ thought himself a man of the people, a genuine hero. He who had arranged to bury a Chicano KIA at Arlington after a local "Christian" cemetery refused to bury the soldier's body in the local Texas cemetery--whites only, don't you know? Thanks, LBJ, but we laughed in your face regardless.

Could Gene have defeated Nixon? sure thing. I remember sitting in the hot Santa Barbara sun for hours awaiting McCarthy's delayed appearance. A campaign in chaos, underfunded but with a rich treasury of voters. We coulda done it. But, that's when the opportunist Bobby Kennedy jumped into the race. Pretty face, with the assassination of JFK still fresh in our ears, excellent PR machine. So, after McCarthy had lighted the way and earned the spot, along comes RFK and, shortly thereafter, Sirhan Sirhan. So we get Hube Humphrey, third choice in our race, and second choice to tricky Dick. And 8 more years of war. Good ol' fashion Republican war.

Other than that, yes, solidarity behind ending the war. Sadly, only one candidate today is against war.