Free Republic

Since February I have been saying that Barack Obama would get crushed in this year’s presidential election. … The signs of trouble for the Democrats have always been there… ….Today it is no longer “wishful thinking” or “proof you have been smoking something” to say John McCain will crush Barack Obama. ..here are the numbers that say it is over.. To win Obama must get these numbers with these groups: ..women, he needs at least plus 7. He is down 12. White males needs at least 36%. If he gets 30% he will be lucky Catholics: needs 50%. He is...

We keep saying this — and no one seems to listen — but over the course of this campaign, we’ve met about 50 people who worked on McGovern-72, and every one of them said to us, without quivocation, that the main reason McGovern lost to Nixon was McGOVERN’S SUPPORTERS. The way McGovern’s “youth army” behaved, and the terrible things they did in McGovern’s name, worked against their candidate and every day drove more people who would have never voted Republican over to Nixon. [more (but not much) at source URL

Although he didn’t have a winning track record in presidential elections, 1972 Democratic presidential nominee and former South Dakota Sen. George McGovern had no problem critiquing the media for lack of substance. McGovern, an anti-war icon of the left in the late 1960s and early 1970s, appeared at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on August 12. He discussed news coverage of the Democratic nominating process with Washington Post columnist David Broder and University of Maryland journalism professor Haynes Johnson. McGovern told reporters that the changing news business – offering more media outlets – led to too much coverage,...

As a congressman, senator and one-time Democratic nominee for the presidency, I've participated in my share of vigorous public debates over issues of great consequence. And the public has been free to accept or reject the decisions I made when they walked into a ballot booth, drew the curtain and cast their vote. I didn't always win, but I always respected the process. Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending...

Voting is an immense privilege. That is why I am concerned about a new development that could deny this freedom to many Americans. As a longtime friend of labor unions, I must raise my voice against pending legislation I see as a disturbing and undemocratic overreach not in the interest of either management or labor. The legislation is called the Employee Free Choice Act, and I am sad to say it runs counter to ideals that were once at the core of the labor movement. Instead of providing a voice for the unheard, EFCA risks silencing those who would speak....

Is Barack Obama the next George McGovern? The question has been posed apprehensively by Democrats and gleefully by Republicans. McGovern, the antiVietnam war candidate, ran for president against Richard Nixon in 1972 and lost 49 states out of 50, a landslide defeat that still haunts his party. “Obama is the fullest flowering of liberal orthodoxy since George McGovern,” conservative columnist Rich Lowry wrote last week. Harold Ickes, a Hillary Clinton adviser, dropped thinly veiled comparisons between Obama and McGovern while trying to keep his candidate’s campaign alive. So is it true? The former candidate, 85, can speak for himself. It...

US Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass) was offering the Marxist FARC terrorists assistance in undermining the Colombian government. This information was discovered on the computer of FARC rebel leader Raul Reyes after his death in March at an Ecuadorean FARC camp.Last week Interpol confirmed the the computers were not tampered with or manufactured by the Colombian government.Interpol confirmed that documents on the captured computer of FARC leader had not been manufactured by the Colombian government. One of the documents shows that US Congressman James McGovern (D., Mass.) (pictured), a leading opponent of the Colombia free-trade deal has been working with...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate and an early backer of Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined a noisy rally for Barack Obama on Friday night, describing the Illinois senator as a "ripple of hope" who can win the White House. McGovern has shifted his allegiance to Obama and suggested it's time for Clinton to pull the plug. He offered an explanation to a cheering crowd of 6,500. "Last October, I endorsed Senator Hillary Clinton," said McGovern. "She and her remarkable husband, President Clinton, way back 36 years ago worked their hearts out for me...

LOS ANGELES — It is a thought that sends shivers down the backs of Democrats, a name that brings to mind memories of an election lost that might have been won, against a war hero once referred to in headlines as a “wimp” who won not so much by his own strengths but because of the skill of his operatives in painting his lesser-known opponent as an out of touch “liberal” who refused to salute the flag or admit his mistakes, not to mention his supposedly unpatriotic wife. Could Obama be another Dukakis? It isn’t just die-hard Clinton supporters who...

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Former Sen. George McGovern, an early supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, urged her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race and endorsed her rival, Barack Obama. After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern said Wednesday it's virtually impossible for Clinton to win the nomination. The 1972 Democratic presidential nominee said he had a call in to former President Clinton to tell him of the decision, adding that he remains close friends with the Clintons. "I will hold them in affection and admiration all of my days," he...

Sioux Falls, S.D. (AP) -- Former Sen. George McGovern, who backed Hillary Rodham Clinton, is urging her to drop out of the Democratic presidential race. McGovern said Wednesday he has decided to endorse Barack Obama. After watching the returns from the North Carolina and Indiana primaries Tuesday night, McGovern says it's virtually impossible for Clinton . . .

Hillary won just enough to show that it is ludicrous to oust a 10-point winner at this late junction, but not quite the blow-out that might cause a stampede to her in the next few states. The Democrats are tottering at the edge of the abyss. They are about to nominate someone who cannot win, despite vastly out-spending his opponent, any of the key large states — CA, NJ, NY, OH, PENN, TX, etc. — that will determine the fall election. And yet not to nominate him will cause the sort of implosion they saw in 1968 or the sort...

History, in Marx's famous dictum, tends to repeat itself: the first time as tragedy and the second time as farce. So what do you call it the third time around? A bad sitcom? A bad marriage? A bad dream? All three of those seem like viable ways of describing the Democratic Party's current predicament, locked in an endless and self-destructive struggle with itself, like a would-be Buddhist penitent unable to atone for eons' worth of bad karma. Even in the annals of Democratic ritual suicide, the 2008 campaign is something special: It's not just that the protracted and painful nomination...

WASHINGTON - Former Sen. George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, said Tuesday it would be easier for a black man to be elected to the White House than a woman. The former South Dakota senator has endorsed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he has known for decades since she helped campaign for him. She is in a close race with Sen. Barack Obama for the party nod. "I have a feeling that in this country where we're at today in our thinking, it's going to be harder to elect a woman than to elect a black man," he told...

Now that even Rush is speaking truthfully about the election, some inescapable facts need to be considered. Forget Obama’s given middle name. It won’t be important. By Election Day everyone will think of his middle name as McGovern. Barack McGovern Osama will lose by a wide margin for the following reasons: * Twenty percent of White Democrats already ADMIT they will not vote for him (Pew).Moreover they say they WILL vote for McCain, a double hit. *No one can win giving away 20% of his base. * Forty three percent over all ADMIT they will not vote for him (...

Believe it or not, George McGovern is now the right wing of the Democrat party. He is even to the right of the Virginian Pilot and the Virginia legislature. In today's Wall Street Journal he makes an impassioned plea for freedom ... The Right has been accused of wanting to peer into your bedroom to see who you are sleeping with. They have been roundly defeated on this issue. The Left has invaded our bathrooms with toilet laws, our workplaces and schools with speech police, our means of transportation with mileage standards, our right to defend ourselves from mass murderers...

Nearly 16 years ago in these very pages, I wrote that "'one-size-fits all' rules for business ignore the reality of the market place." Today I'm watching some broad rules evolve on individual decisions that are even worse. Under the guise of protecting us from ourselves, the right and the left are becoming ever more aggressive in regulating behavior. Much paternalist scrutiny has recently centered on personal economics, including calls to regulate subprime mortgages. Health-care paternalism creates another problem that's rarely mentioned... I've come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a healthy...

When the Democratic Party moves too far left for George McGovern, you know they’re in trouble. The former Senator and presidential aspirant writes about the dangers of economic paternalism in a free society, specifically about the impulse among both Democrats and Republicans to protect adults from the consequences of their own free choices. Expect a lot less choice in the future, McGovern warns, if the nanny-state succeeds: Since leaving office I’ve written about public policy from a new perspective: outside looking in. I’ve come to realize that protecting freedom of choice in our everyday lives is essential to maintaining a...

...The voice at the end of the line was that of an old friend from Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, who had since become the godfather, at least to some, of the Democratic Party. “ ‘We’ve been with you all these years,’ ” former President Bill Clinton said, according to Mr. Herrera. “ ‘Now the time has come for you to be with us.’ ” Mr. Herrera, who had up to that point been undecided in the Democratic race, promptly pledged his support to the Clintons. “The don never asks for a second favor when the first one has...

’72 McGovern Team Rallies for One of Its Own: Clinton By JULIE BOSMAN AUSTIN, Tex. — Frank Herrera, a prominent lawyer in Texas, was sitting at home two Saturdays ago when he received a telephone call. The voice at the end of the line was that of an old friend from Senator George McGovern’s 1972 presidential campaign, who had since become the godfather, at least to some, of the Democratic Party. “ ‘We’ve been with you all these years,’ ” former President Bill Clinton said, according to Mr. Herrera. “ ‘Now the time has come for you to be with...

1972 All Over Again By Jennifer Rubin Published 2/25/2008 12:08:35 AM Forget all the pundit chatter about post-partisanship, maverick candidates, and New Media driven campaigns. The 2008 presidential race is shaping up to be a nice old-fashioned race between a conservative and a liberal, indeed an ultra-liberal who makes the conservative seems more conservative with each passing day. On the Democratic side, Barack Obama is pulling away to victory. In perhaps her final contribution to Republican solidarity Hillary Clinton called Obama's bluff and did the GOP a great service. By ridiculing his empty rhetoric and messianic style of politics, Clinton...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Strategists for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign believe it is imperative to identify her high-flying opponent, Sen. Barack Obama, with the "McGovern wing" of the Democratic Party -- but they want to keep their candidate's fingerprints off the attack. During the two weeks remaining before the important Ohio and Texas primaries on March 4, Clinton insiders want to spread the message that Obama represents the radical left-wing politics of George McGovern's 1972 candidacy, which won only one state. But they don't know how to accomplish this. When Clinton herself has launched past attacks on Obama, it has...

Demagoguery: At 85, George McGovern, whose far-left candidacy for president in 1972 brought in less than 38% of the popular vote, has accused President Bush of murder. Then as today, desperation brings out the ugly in liberal Democrats.In an op-ed in Sunday's Washington Post, the former senator whose effort to replace Richard Nixon in the White House was once summed up as "the three A's — acid, amnesty and abortion," charges George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney with genocide. "The dominant commitment of . . . the Bush-Cheney regime," McGovern writes, "has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against...

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president. After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me. Today I have made a different choice. Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The...

WASHINGTON (CNN) – George McGovern, the Democratic Party's 1972 nominee for president, is calling on Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. And in an editorial in Sunday's Washington Post, McGovern writes the case for impeaching the current president is "far stronger" than the case made against former President Richard Nixon — the man who soundly defeated McGovern in the general election match up."Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses," McGovern writes. "They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after...

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president. After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me. Today I have made a different choice. Of course, there seems to be little bipartisan support for impeachment. The...

(CBS) The former Democratic nominee for president who ran against a president later driven from office under threat of impeachment, today said that impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is "the rightful course for an American patriot." George McGovern, a former South Dakota Senator who ran on the Democratic ticket in 1972 as an anti-war advocate, wrote in an op-ed for The Washington Post that, while he steered clear of calling for the impeachment of Richard Nixon in the '70s - fearing it would appear as "an expression of personal vengeance" against his opponent who...

''I knew that Sen. McGovern had a lot of friends around the country and world, but I was a little surprised,'' museum director Donald Simmons was quoted as saying in The Daily Republic newspaper.

...He recalled receiving a phone call in 1972 from his campaign manager, someone named Gary Hart, saying he'd come upon a bright, young man in Arkansas named Bill Clinton who had a hardworking friend named Hillary Rodham and they both were going to work Texas for McGovern. "There's nothing in politics," said McGovern, "that requires more courage than trying to sell George McGovern in Texas." The crowd roared. McGovern praised the entire current field of Democratic candidates and said he hoped to live long enough to see an African American president. But, he added, "We have an old rule of...

For Democrats of a certain age, there is no figure more haunting than George McGovern, who ran for president pleading, "Come home, America," but instead was sent home himself with just 38 percent of the vote. Among those who worry that the lessons of 1972 may still spell trouble for Democrats in 2008 is none other than … George McGovern. He is 84 now, is as opposed to the Iraq war as he was to the one in Vietnam -- and is paying close attention to the race for president. "I'm not sure that an anti-war Democrat can win," McGovern...

Vice President's Remarks to the Heritage Foundation Ritz-Carlton Chicago Chicago, Illinois 10:42 A.M. CDT THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's quite a welcome. Well, thank you very much. Ed, I appreciate the introduction, and the opportunity to come speak with all of you today. You've chosen one of America's truly great cities for your meeting. I'm delighted to be in Chicago once again, to have the opportunity to speak about some important issues facing the country. I used to come to Chicago a lot, because our oldest daughter and her husband lived here while she went to law school at the University...

“Do we sit on the sidelines and watch a population slaughtered, or do we marshal military force and put an end to it?” -- Senator George McGovern, August 21, 1978 The “it” McGovern wanted US troops to put an end to was the killing of millions of Cambodians in the late 1970s by the communist Pol Pot dictatorship. Three and a half years after congressional Democrats made that slaughter possible by cutting off all US aid to anti-communist forces with their so-called December, 1974 “Foreign Assistance Act”, their leader McGovern had made a complete reversal and was suddenly calling for...

It would be pleasing to write about an anti-American war Senator who finally saw the light. But McGovern was not actually flip-flopping. He was consistently representing the interests of what he described in an August 25, 1978 speech on the Senate floor as, “Ho Chi Minh’s popularly-based revolution for independence in Vietnam.”

Relatives of the Sept. 11 victims ripped into Condoleezza Rice yesterday after she insisted the Bush administration had no clue the U.S. would be attacked. "Shame," Terry McGovern, a New Yorker whose mother was killed, yelled at the national security adviser during Rice's testimony before the 9/11 commission. Other relatives ridiculed Rice's assertion that she had no idea that Osama Bin Laden's men would hijack planes and crash them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. "How could she not know that?" asked Kristen Breitweiser, who lost her husband in the attacks. She noted that several similar threats were made,...

Before we put Plame "leak" story to bed once and for all, I want to reiterate out what I first posited almost two years ago, which now seems to be more true than ever. It was almost certainly Mr. Joseph C. Wilson IV who "outed" his wife as a CIA officer. And he probably did this in early May 2003 at after meeting with top level Democrats and around the time he began to work for the John Kerry for President campaign.Let's run through the chronology.January 28, 2003: President George W. Bush gave his State of the Union speech.February 6,...

Retired U.S. Sen. Thomas F. Eagleton -- a towering figure in national and state politics for half a century and the person for whom the federal courthouse downtown is named -- died late Sunday morning. He was 77. He had been ill for several months with various health problems. He died at St. Mary's Health Center in Richmond Heights.

Dear Friends, Colleagues and Servicemembers: Many of you may know that since June 2006, I have served as co-civilian counsel, along with Neal Puckett who is lead counsel (and Of Counsel to my law office), for SSgt Frank Wuterich, USMC. Frank is now facing multiple counts of murder for the events arising from the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha, Iraq on November 19, 2005. He was the squad commander for the 3/1 that tragic day. This is a highly unusual case for me. Other than the dozen or so military courts-martials I handled back in 1999-2000 dealing with...

Dec. 5. 2006 - In a surprise twist in the debate over Iraq, Rep. Silvestre Reyes, the soon-to-be chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he wants to see an increase of 20,000 to 30,000 U.S. troops as part of a stepped up effort to “dismantle the militias.”

Democrats will lead us "forward" into a better future, says Nancy Pelosi and her band of revelers in the aftermath of their takeover of Congress? Democrats have "new" ideas, they claim? Not if this report is any indication of that "forward" looking... McGovern to meet with Congress on war LINCOLN, Neb. - George McGovern, the former senator and Democratic presidential candidate, said Thursday that he will meet with more than 60 members of Congress next week to recommend a strategy to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by June. McGovern, if you do not know, was one of the Democrat's biggest...

George McGovern, the former senator and Democratic presidential candidate, said Thursday that he will meet with more than 60 members of Congress next week to recommend a strategy to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by June. If Democrats don't take steps to end the war in Iraq soon, they won't be in power very long, McGovern told reporters before a speech at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. "I think the Democratic leadership is wise enough to know that if they're going to follow the message that election sent, they're going to have to take steps to bring the war to a...

Who is Paul Pillar? By Michelle Malkin   ·   September 27, 2006 11:14 AM Drip, drip, drip? In its original report leaking details of the National Intelligence Estimate on the Iraq war, the New York Times relied on anonymous, unnamed leakers to spin its contents and embarrass the White House. Today, the Times includes comments from some named sources. Pay attention to this one: What was most remarkable about the intelligence estimate, several experts said, was the unremarkable nature of its conclusions. “At one level it is unsurprising stuff,’’ said Paul Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the...

YOUR DISMISSAL of comparing President Bush and Hitler as ``hyperbole" (``Loose lips sink history," editorial, Aug. 31) is a gravely wrong and dangerous reading of history, Bush's program, and our responsibilities today. Nazism's horrors didn't emerge the moment Hitler took power in 1933, but over 12 years, driven by the logic of empire and war. No analogy is exact, but the Bush administration has already invaded two countries, guided by an official doctrine of global dominance and illegal preemptive war. It now threatens Iran, possibly with nuclear weapons. It has committed war crimes through torture, rendition, and illegal detention --...

Most conservative commentators have heralded Ned Lamont's victory as the solidification of far left's grip on the Democratic Party. Lamont's victory "defined the Democratic Party as a vigorous, motivated, organized force that is...completely out of touch with mainstream America," claimed Kathleen Parker. "Today, the Democratic Party is, simply, a McGovernite party," said Jonah Goldberg. "That is where the passion and the money are. But, nedrenaline addicts beware: That is not necessarily where the voters are." The reasoning goes that Lamont's win means that Democrats have succumbed to the McGovern thinking of "Come Home America." This spells disaster for the Democrats...

Newly resurgent radical liberals are reasserting control over the Democrat party and are demanding zero tolerance for Democrats (especially high profile ones) who veer away from their pacifist, anti-war party line. In order to gain compliance with the new policy they found themselves needing to make an example of someone. And no Democrat has been more high profile and more supportive of the ongoing war effort (and displayed more common sense about the true nature of our enemy) than Joe Lieberman. It was almost comical to watch how soon after Ned Lamont’s victory that “mainstream” Democrats, even those that had...

CASTLEGAR, British Columbia (Reuters) - George McGovern, who ran for the U.S. presidency on an anti-Vietnam War platform, said on Saturday history will show Canada was right to have sheltered that era's war resisters. McGovern, who was in Canada to speak to a reunion of Vietnam War draft dodgers, said the Iraq war was also "needless and mistaken," but he said it would be presumptuous of him to say Canada should again provide haven for U.S. deserters. "I always appreciated the generosity and imagination of Canada... I think history will be on the side of the Canadians," McGovern, 83, said,...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. John Murtha, an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, unexpectedly announced on Friday he will run for the No. 2 leadership post in the U.S. House of Representatives if Democrats regain control of that chamber in elections this fall. "If we prevail as I hope and know we will and return to the majority this next Congress, I have decided to run for the open seat of the majority leader," Murtha, a Pennsylvanian, said in a letter sent to House Democrats. "I would appreciate your consideration and vote and look forward to speaking to you...

A Democratic stalwart warns that labor's old strategy can't win against a new competitive reality. Many of my friends will consider this view heretical. But it is based on stark reality... It can be galling to hear companies argue that they have to cut wages and benefits for hourly workers — even as they reward top executives with millions of dollars in stock options. The chief executive of Wal-Mart earns $27 million a year, while the company's average worker takes home only about $10 an hour. But let's assume that the chief executive got 27 cents instead of $27 million,...

Jeane J. Kirkpatrick's eyes twinkle at the mention of that August 1984 night at the Republican National Convention in Dallas when she eviscerated liberal Democrats as the "blame America first crowd." "When Marxist dictators shoot their way into power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies," ... "They blame United States policies of 100 years ago. But then they always blame America first." With those words, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations -- a long-time Democrat -- described the difference between President Reagan's determination to defeat communism and Democratic Party leaders'...

Though the investigation into who “outed” Plame was premised on the notion that (a) her identity was not publicly known before Robert Novak’s article in July 2003 and (b) the disclosure came from the Administration—particularly persons in the White House to somehow “punish” Wilson, there is increasing evidence that Wilson himself widely divulged that information to burnish his own credentials as an expert. I reported long ago that at the June 14, 2003 EPIC conference (where he listed his wife as Valerie Plame in the program) Wilson revealed he was the Ambassador who was the source for the May 2003...

"The same unit [the Office of Special Plans] that fed Chalabi's intelligence on WMD to Rumsfeld was also feeding him Chalabi's stuff on the prospects for postwar Iraq," said a leading US government expert on the Middle East. Says a former US ambassador with strong links to the CIA: "There was certainly information coming from the Iraqi exile community, including Chalabi--who was detested by the CIA and by the State Department--saying, 'They will welcome you with open arms.'"