Did George McGovern pay a price for supporting the Tonkin Gulf Resolution?

[bluestateguy]

There are many reasons why McGovern lost and lost so badly. First of all Nixon cheated. Second he had boatloads of money that McGovern did not have. Third, McGovern was closely associated with the 60's counterculture, which many Americans wanted to put behind them.

McGovern is often compared to Howard Dean, yet McGovern voted to authorize the Vietnam War in 1964 by voting for the Tonkin Gulf resolution. You could argue that that was a far more explicit authorization of war than was the Iraq War Resolution. Anyway, my question is, did McGovern suffer in that election because he supported the resolution? Was his credibility damaged by that vote? The anti-war crowd sure didn't seem bothered by it. Then again, I was -4 years old in 1972, so please enlighten me.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. McGovern's vote for the Tonkin Gulf Resolution did not hurt in in '72

It wasn't an issue. Only two senators voted against it; at least one of them, Senator Gruening of Alaska, was an early supporter McGovern's candidacy in 1972.

McGovern, like many in Congress who voted for the resolution, distanced himself from that vote in the following years. For those of us who supported his candidacy in 1972, including me, that was all that mattered.

[coloradodem2005]

3. Sounds like what Kerry has been doing.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Yes

Kerry was not quite in my first tier during the primaries, but he was always the most acceptable of those who voted for the IWR. The IWR was more complex measure than the Tonkin Gulf Resolution; those who voted for it could claim one of many reasons for doing so. Kerry claims to have voted for it in order to require Bush to seek international support before going to war.

I considered that vote a mistake then and I consider it so now. Bush made a mockery of any attempt to seek international support. Failing to get an enabling resolution through the UN, Bush launched a rogue attack anyway. There was no way he would be stopped and it would have been better to have just opposed him every step of the way.

Nevertheless, there is a difference between Kerry's vote for the IWR and that of others, such as Senator Lieberman's, which makes Kerry's vote more palatable if not acceptable. Kerry wanted Bush to get international support for the war; Lieberman just wanted to go to war and continued throughout the campaign to repeat the same lies that Bush told to drum up support for what has turned into a quagmire.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. No. Because by the time he ran for Pres, 8 years had passed

and he could credibly say, it was a bad idea, it didn't work, we should have already gotten out.

If you are suggesting a parallel between Kerry's vote for the crusade vis a vis his candidacy, I don't think it will work.

For one thing, it was too recent, and Kerry favors continuing the crusade, whereas McGovern's biggest issue was that he would end the war.

What is an interesting thing to reflect on is that in 1972, there was some not insignificant displeasure with the war on the part of the electorate. Counter-culture and flower children aside, many of their parents had also tired of it. And McGovern still lost.

Compare that to today, the crusade is very popular. Kerry's support of it and pledge to continue it is an advantage, not a liability.

Just compare his numbers, both in primary results and funds raised to those of candidates who advocate not even ending it, just running it off on UN letterhead.

[aquart]

4. Ever heard of Eugene McCarthy?

I was a McCarthy supporter in 1968. During the convention riots, McCarthy was running out into the hotel hall, trying to get medical help for injured people.

McGovern, however, was giving self-serving interviews about himself while people were being beaten to a bloody pulp in the streets of Chicago.

I was never able to look at the man after that. People could tell me what a great liberal he was till the cows came home, but I remembered Chicago.

Nobody scums just one. If he came across as heartless to me, he must have struck others as hollow, too.

[Faygo Kid]

6. McCarthy? Me, too. But, also worked for McGovern in 1972.

Welcome to Geezerville. Man, I get a headache from this primary season; can't refight 1968 or 1972, but was proud to support both, and wished either would have won.