Family: Ex-Sen. McGovern 'no longer responsive' **RIP**

http://www.centurylink.net/news/read.php?id=19111924&ps=1011&cat=&cps=0&lang=en

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — The family of ex-U.S. Sen. George McGovern says the 90-year-old is "no longer responsive" in hospice care............

His daughter, Ann McGovern, earlier told The Associated Press that her father is "nearing the end" and appears restful and peaceful.


Short article....

George McGovern dies; lost 1972 presidential bid

By KRISTI EATON and WALTER R. MEARS, AP
55 minutes ago

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — George McGovern once joked that he had wanted to run for president in the worst way — and that he had done so.

It was a campaign in 1972 dishonored by Watergate, a scandal that fully unfurled too late to knock Republican President Richard M. Nixon from his place as a commanding favorite for re-election. The South Dakota senator tried to make an issue out of the bungled attempt to wiretap the offices of the Democratic National Committee, calling Nixon the most corrupt president in history.

A proud liberal who had argued fervently against Vietnam War as a Democratic senator from South Dakota and three-time candidate for president, McGovern died at 5:15 a.m. local time Sunday at a Sioux Falls hospice, surrounded by family and lifelong friends, family spokesman Steve Hildebrand told The Associated Press. McGovern was 90...

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20121021/US.Obit.McGovern/

George McGovern Dead at 90 (rollingstone.com)
Anti-War Democrat ran against Richard Nixon in 1972

George McGovern, the longtime anti-war congressman from South Dakota who notoriously suffered a devastating loss to Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential campaign, died early Sunday morning at the age of 90.
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With his focus on peace and world hunger, McGovern was one of the leading liberal voices of his era – and the repercussions of his unsuccessful campaign for the White House were felt for decades to come.

Although he had been a Senator and Representative in his home state and had worked for John F. Kennedy's administration, McGovern was largely unknown by the time of the Democratic primaries in early 1972, Described by the New York Times as "a baldish former minister and rural radical," McGovern was a modest, low-key and reflective man, the antithesis of the savvy politician. "Above everything else," he said at one early campaign stop, "the citizens of this land are concerned about a restoration of credibility in the political life of their country."
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more at the link

Ah. A little part of our youth, of course, dies every day as we grow older. A large chunk of mine died with Senator George McGovern early this Sunday morning.

I remember a time when congressional Democrats and Republicans could wage war against one another - then meet in chambers to hammer out compromise and keep our country going, when two co-sponsors of the Food Stamp program could be men as ideologically opposed as Senator Bob Dole and Senator George McGovern.

The bill fed the hungry - and also helped the farmers; both Dole and McGovern were from farm states, Kansas and South Dakota. Compromise is not surrender. It is democracy.

I was active (for Senatory Eugene McCarthy) in 1968, my first year as a young politico. But I had a vote in 1972.

Who else but for Senator George McGovern would it seem a badge of honor to pass out campaign literature door to door, and then happen to be chased off one old lady's front porch by the old lady herself, wielding a broom, and shouting about "that communist" McGovern?

For no one else but for this good and decent man would that have seemed anything but a sheer fiasco, lol. (And when I was having the broom swung at me, it certainly had its moments of high energy farce.)

Rest in peace, Senator. I leave you with the song my English teacher played us in class the cloudy November day after that failed election bid in the fall of 1972:
[video=youtube;jd5UkWHnQhA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd5UkWHnQhA[/video]

George McGovern dies; lost 1972 presidential bid

By KRISTI EATON and WALTER R. MEARS, AP
1 hour ago

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — George McGovern once joked that he had wanted to run for president in the worst way — and that he had done so.

It was a campaign in 1972 dishonored by Watergate, a scandal that fully unfurled too late to knock Republican President Richard M. Nixon from his place as a commanding favorite for re-election. The South Dakota senator tried to make an issue out of the bungled attempt to wiretap the offices of the Democratic National Committee, calling Nixon the most corrupt president in history.

A proud liberal who had argued fervently against Vietnam War as a Democratic senator from South Dakota and three-time candidate for president, McGovern died at 5:15 a.m. local time Sunday at a Sioux Falls hospice, surrounded by family and lifelong friends, family spokesman Steve Hildebrand told The Associated Press. McGovern was 90...

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20121021/US.Obit.McGovern/

McGovern an unwavering, often unrequited, liberal

http://www.centurylink.net/news/rea...ass&action=2&lang=en&_LT=UNLC_USNWU00L2_UNEWS

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (AP) — George McGovern was an unwavering, often unrequited advocate for liberal Democratic causes. He pursued those goals in plainspoken, usually understated, Midwestern style. He was a dedicated, decent man, a devoted Democrat even when the party establishment turned away from him in defeat..............

In his 2011 book, "What It Means to Be a Democrat," he summed up his credo:

"Above all, being a Democrat means having compassion for others. ... It means standing up for people who have been kept down ..."...............

As a candidate, McGovern had to fend off conservative claims that he was weak on national defense, a naive peacenik — that he had, according to the far right, shirked combat, which was a lie. He was a decorated World War II pilot with 35 combat missions in B-24 bombers.

It could have been a campaign asset, but he talked little about it. He did in a Labor Day speech: "I still remember the day when we were hit so hard over Germany that we were all ready to bail out. So I gave this order to the crew: `Resume your stations. We're going to bring this plane home.' I say to you and to people everywhere who share our cause: `Resume your stations. We're going to bring America home.'"

That last line became the standard closing of his campaign speech. But he didn't repeat the details of the mission that won him the Distinguished Flying Cross for safely landing his crippled B-24. Perhaps he should have said more about his service, he said later, "but I always felt kind of foolish talking about my war record — what a hero I was."

That he did not was typical George McGovern.


Rest in peace, Sen. McGovern....you were a true American.....if only the country had listened to you....

wfgodot said:

George McGovern Dead at 90 (rollingstone.com)
Anti-War Democrat ran against Richard Nixon in 1972

more at the link

Ah. A little part of our youth, of course, dies every day as we grow older. A large chunk of mine died with Senator George McGovern early this Sunday morning.

I remember a time when congressional Democrats and Republicans could wage war against one another - then meet in chambers to hammer out compromise and keep our country going, when two co-sponsors of the Food Stamp program could be men as ideologically opposed as Senator Bob Dole and Senator George McGovern.

The bill fed the hungry - and also helped the farmers; both Dole and McGovern were from farm states, Kansas and South Dakota. Compromise is not surrender. It is democracy.

I was active (for Senatory Eugene McCarthy) in 1968, my first year as a young politico. But I had a vote in 1972.

Who else but for Senator George McGovern would it seem a badge of honor to pass out campaign literature door to door, and then happen to be chased off one old lady's front porch by the old lady herself, wielding a broom, and shouting about "that communist" McGovern?

For no one else but for this good and decent man would that have seemed anything but a sheer fiasco, lol. (And when I was having the broom swung at me, it certainly had its moments of high energy farce.)

Rest in peace, Senator. I leave you with the song my English teacher played us in class the cloudy November day after that failed election bid in the fall of 1972:
Bob Dylan - It's All Over Now, Baby Blue (1965) - YouTube

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What a fantastic post.

RIP Sen. McGovern

A very good assessment of the man and the career, from The New Yorker:

WATCHING GEORGE MCGOVERN RUN

Senator George McGovern died this morning, aged ninety, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. It’s probably inevitable that he’ll be remembered for losing to Richard Nixon, in 1972. But he’ll also be remembered for his personality, which was unusual for a politician. McGovern embodied two qualities that rarely exist in combination: passion and circumspection. Many Americans, including his constituents in South Dakota, found his politics too liberal. But they admired his personality, and voted for him anyway.
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much more at the link

R.I.P. dear Sir.

Hendrik Hertzberg in The New Yorker, very readable on the Senator. Recommended.

WHAT MCGOVERN WON

George McGovern, who died Saturday at the age of ninety, was a combat hero of the Second World War. As the twenty-two-year-old pilot of a B-24 Liberator, Lieutenant McGovern flew thirty-four missions over Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe, guiding his plane—which he had named the Dakota Queen, in honor of his brand-new bride, Eleanor—through lethal bursts of flak. The B-24 was not just the American fleet’s biggest bomber, it was the hardest and most dangerous to fly. The young pilot’s courage and skill earned him two of military aviation’s highest decorations, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal. (Also, he learned to fly at a Kansas training base called—true fact—Liberal Army Airfield.)

That vast numbers of McGovern’s fervent supporters in his 1972 Presidential campaign were unaware of most or all of this—and that ordinary voters, on the whole, knew nothing of any of it—says a lot about the naïveté and the nobility of the man and his campaign.
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the rest at the link

S. Dakota bids farewell to former Sen. McGovern (independent.com/AP)

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The view of McGovern as a public servant with broader appeal prevailed as South Dakota prepared for a final send-off Friday of the man many knew simply as George. A large memorial service was to follow a more intimate prayer service held Thursday night and attended by the state's luminaries and Vice President Joe Biden.

In Biden's 25-minute reflection on his former Senate colleague, the vice president hailed McGovern as "the father of the modern Democratic Party." Without his resolve, Biden said, the country would have remained mired in the Vietnam War for longer and "so much more blood and so much more treasure would have been wasted."

"The war would never have ended when it did. It would never have ended when it did," Biden said, his voice rising as he turned his body toward McGovern's daughters. "Your father gave courage to people who didn't have the courage to speak up to finally stand up. Your father stood there and took all of that beating."
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much more at the link; good AP article

Biden: McGovern 'modern Democratic Party' father

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/ap/ap/...braces-for-crowds-at-mcgovern-services/nSnHP/

In a stirring tribute Thursday to former Sen. George McGovern, Vice President Joe Biden hailed the one-time presidential nominee as the "father of the modern Democratic Party" for his forceful stand against the Vietnam War and for helping open the party to more women, young people and minorities.........

Despite the loss, Biden said McGovern summoned public restlessness with the war and helped bring about its end before "so much more blood and so much more treasure would have been wasted."

"The war would never have ended when it did. It would never have ended how it did," Biden said, his voice rising as he turned his body toward McGovern's daughters. "Your father gave courage to people who didn't have the courage to speak up to finally stand up. Your father stood there and took all of that beating."........

The two days of remembrance for the liberal lion will include some of South Dakota's highest ranking officials from both sides of the political spectrum. Sen. John Thune, Rep. Kristi Noem and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, all Republicans, have confirmed they plan to attend. Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson was scheduled to speak at the Thursday evening prayer service that Biden was attending.

A larger memorial service was set for Friday, also in Sioux Falls. McGovern is to be buried at a later date at Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington.

More at link......


[Note: Although there are 2 threads for Sen. McGovern I don't think that is a bad thing....he deserves it!]