The 1920’s brought serious changes to the society and the world and this included the US Primary system. In the 3 elections of the decade the old, boss-run system produced, for the GOP, candidates, Warren G Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover. For the Dems in was Ohio Gov James Cox, WV millionaire John W Davis and NY Gov Al Smith. Here’s how it all happened …

The ailing and frustrated WW was not a fit candidate for another run although he considered going for a third term. His health was poor, his League of Nations Dream largely shattered(US didn’t join) and his idealism going out of style(WW, incidentally is often denounced as a racist today–I feel this is unfair for while his views then certainly would qualify as racism now, he was, after all, a white southerner who could remember the Civil War—Virginian by birth, NJ came later– and in making judgements I think you need to consider the whole man or woman and the whole career)

Instead of WW or several other candidates, and after a number of primaries showing a divided and maybe disillusioned party, the Democrats nominated Gov James Cox, a more or less routine OH politician who no one expected much of except that he win and keep the White House for the Dems. His running mate, by the way, was a wealthy New Yorker, FDR, who was handsome, charming, a former Ast Secretary of the Navy and most of all, bore that magic name, “Roosevelt.” The Republicans had many choices, one of which might have been TR, but Teddy died in 1919 and this likely changed history. He was still the most popular and beloved man in the US and had he lived and been in good health he would very likely have gotten the nomination. He would almost certainly have beaten Cox(after all Cox lost to Harding)and a third, perhaps a fourth TR term might have made all the difference. He would likely have intervened in the orgy of display and over spending that characterized American business during the decade and what if he had been successful?

Well, so goes speculation–perhaps another time. The Republicans had several serious though hardly over qualified candidates and reaching a compromise among them proved impossible. After an interview in(maybe)a smoke-filled room, OH Sen Warren G Harding became the nominee. He was, I think, a better man and a slightly better President than he has usually gotten credit for, but he was surely no prize. His main trouble seems to have been that he trusted people and he found it difficult to refuse anyone anything, particularly people he at least vaguely liked. He eventually came to realize that his friends were ruining him but but was too late to do much good. Although personally honest, he ran a crooked administration in which he allowed all kinds of corruption, the most notable example of this being Teapot Dome. Cox might have been a little better. He likely would not have been great. Ohioans were said to be cynical about these two running against each other, figuring that whoever won would be unqualified. The whole election seems to be an argument for the primaries and more power for the average voter.

Harding died in 1923, still beloved and most of his Administration’s corruption still unknown to the public. They found out soon enough. “Silent Cal” is actually best known for a couple of things he did say. “The Man who builds a factory builds a temple.” was one of them. And “The business of America is business.” Personally honest, he was not inclined to use his power to do much of anything for those in need and for about 5 1/2 years he ran a frugal, business friendly, and mostly do-nothing government.

Of course, in 1924 Coolidge had to run for the Presidency himself. No one was seriously interested in challenging him within the party, however, except for a few out-in-left-field progressives. The Democrats were something else again. They were divided with several candidates running in primaries and with Wm McAdoo, WW’s son-in-law and Gov Al Smith of NY emerging as the leading candidates. McAdoo more or less represented the conservative wing of the party. He did not endorse the KKK but he refused to renounce its public support. Smith unashamedly led the northern, urban and largely Roman Catholic wing, But there were other candidates, some serious, some not. The big early controversy at the convention was over the platform and a plank the northerners wanted condemning the Klan by name. After days of shouting, sweating in the NY summer heat and insulting each other, the delegates defeated this plank by approximately 1 vote.(Approximately? The Dems had a practice that at least some delegates could cast portions of a vote rather than the whole thing. Don’t ask why, if I could figure it out I would).

They then went on to become the longest convention in American political history, about two weeks. They ran through 102 roll call ballots without anyone getting the necessary 2/3 and finally nominated John W Davis of WV. Davis was a distinguished man, a former Ambassador and a very successful and influential attorney. He appears to have had little familiarity, however, with the give and take of national politics. And, for the record, he was NOT an announced candidate for the nomination at the beginning of the convention. He apparently appeared to be qualified and not to have enough of a public record to have offended anyone very much. My guess is he would have made a better President than Coolidge who beat him in a landslide. Running after a divided convention with a viciously divided party sort of behind you is not the way to win.

In 1928 the situation was different. Al Smith won victory after victory in the primaries and was clearly the choice of the more northern, urban wing of the party which was likely a bit larger than the other. He was, of course, bitterly opposed by the somewhat fading but still strong KKK, but the liberals for the moment held the upper hand and Smith got the nomination, the first Roman Catholic to be the nominee of one of our leading parties.

The Republicans, faced with a variety of choices, settled on Herbert Hoover, who hade won a large plurality but not quite a majority of the votes cast in the primaries. He was a self-made millionaire and mining engineer and a non-military hero of WWI, for organizing the food supply effort that saved millions of Europeans from(often literal)starvation. He represented a business oriented conservatism within the party, but not the extreme right.

In the end about the only real issues were prohibition, which Hoover cautiously, sort of supported and Smith cautiously, sort of opposed, and Smith’s Catholicism which was rarely spoken of in campaigning but was well known to be a factor. The KKK strongly opposed Smith but Southerners were often in a very difficult position.. One candidate was a Roman Catholic, the other a Republican–what’s a southern Dem to do?

As a campaigner Smith had a quick, feisty entertaining quality about him which solidified his standing among the urban dwellers. He did not play as well in rural and small town America, however, while Hoover’s less expansive conservatism did. At least outside the South Hoover was what a lot of middle class Americans wanted and some of the southerners did too. HH won in a landslide although Smith ran up impressive popular vote totals in many big cities.

Very few things “change everything” but the Great Depression came about as close as one public event could. In 1932 the world and the US were way different from 1928. The Depression, more or less, started with the US Market Crash of October, 1929. Depression was not necessarily inevitable after this, but the economic circumstances throughout the industrialized world were much changed and the seeds of trouble were there. A series of selfish and basically stupid actions by several economic powers, the US included, made things worse and by 1931 it was clear there was a real depression.

US unemployment was likely around 25% and has been estimated as high as 1/3 of the workforce. Many others were underemployed, their take-home pay much reduced, and millions thought, sometimes correctly, that their jobs were insecure. This was the situation confronting the US as the next Presidential election loomed. The period of 1932-1940 is fairly easy to explain. IN 1932 the Dems had at least 8 candidates for the nomination including the now more or less perennial Al Smith and former VA Gov Harry Byrd who was the current leader of the state’s Byrd Dynasty . After a brokered convention, a lot of boss influence, and a boost from William Randolph Hearst(Hello, Citizen Kane-uh, I mean Hearst)Franklin D Roosevelt, distant cousin of TR and Governor of NY got the Democratic nomination. The Republicans felt they had no choice but to “Press on with Hoover” which was the campaign’s slogan. FDR’s campaign song, “Happy Days Are Here Again” sounded a lot better to the voters even though those happy days were not yet evident or obviously on the way. FDR won in a landslide.. He would go on to be considered by nearly all Presidential scholars, one of the three “Great” Presidents.

IN 1936 the Depression was still there and many people not doing well, but the unemplopyment rate had dropped to around 14 or 15% and clearly things were better. And now, there was hope. So no one was going to oppose FDR(now that Huey Long was gone)for the nomination. The Republicans had been blamed, (more or less fairly, I’d say) for the Depression and needed to bounce back. It didn’t happen. They had two main possibilities, Sen Borah, the Idaho old progressive and current isolationist, and Alf Landon, the fairly dynamic Governor of Kansas. Borah did much better than Landon in the primaries, but the party leadership may have been distrustful of his one-time progressivism and perhaps doubtful about his personality. Landon seemed a good man and was given the nomination. It is difficult to judge what kind of a President he would have made. I’d say not bad, but no FDR. In any event, he lost in a historic landslide, carrying only Maine and Vermont. FDR got about 61% of the popular vote, a near record, even today. (I remember seeing Landon interviewed on TV as an old man in the 1960’s. He was one of the most intelligent and reasonable Republicans I can remember–too bad the US has often had two really good men in a race someone has to lose and other times 2 other types in a race one of them has to win).

The 1940 situation was more complicated for both parties. WWII had broken out in Europe and almost every politician in America had declared himself neutral and promised not to support American involvement. Also, the Democrats had an anomaly of their own in their very popular President who decided to break precedent and seek a third term. A lot of people, including quite a few Democrats were unhappy with this non-traditional choice, but FDR, maintaining he needed to be there because of the war, stuck to his decision and the party, for the most part accepted him for a third run.

The Republicans, maybe smelling a chance for victory in exploiting the third term issue, had 3 leading candidates. Leading the conservatives was Sen Robert A Taft of OH, very conservative and not very charismatic, but known for personal integrity. Leading the Eastern/Midwestern- urban/suburban moderate wing was Manhattan DA Tom Dewey who seemed charismatic and handsome and had put in jail some big time criminals including the notorious Lucky Luciano.(Forty years later another New Yorker would ride the same crime-busting horse to fame–until he finally fell off)

Sen Arthur Vandenberg of MI was considered a “favorite son” of that state(Usually being a favorite son meant a candidate had pretty much no chance of getting nominated)but a lot of people admired his intelligence and integrity and he seemed a possible compromise choice. Dewey did best in the primaries but as the convention loomed no one had anything approaching a majority of delegates. Enter, stage left, Wendell Willkie of IN, a wealthy businessman who had been a Democrat until he became disturbed by what he apparently regarded as the excesses of FDR’s New Deal. He was a talented public speaker with a pleasing personality and was soon being considered a real possibility. When the convention met in Philadelphia his people managed to get a huge number of his supporters seated in the gallery where they screamed, shouted and tried their best to intimidate delegates. Apparently they succeeded, Willkie got the nomination. The bosses may have mistrusted him but they seem to have seen in him something they’d long wanted-a candidate who just might beat FDR.(Adlai Stevenson’s people would try the same gallery tactic in Los Angeles 20 years later–it was a noisy failure)

FDR apparently thought Willkie looked like trouble. He ditched his rather crotchety VP, John Nance Garner for the very liberal(or at least very leftist) Henry Wallace and took the GOP challenge seriously. It paid off. Willkie ran the best race a Republican Presidential candidate ever had against FDR, but came nowhere near winning..

In 1944 the war was nearing its end although this was not too obvious to the public. Republican primary votes were split all over the place and the party went for the now Governor of NY, Tom Dewey. The Dems re-nominated FDR but (because of the President’s health)took serious care in choosing his running mate. They dumped incumbent Henry Wallace and chose Harry S Truman to replace him. Truman was a moderately well-known Missouri Sen who had investigated government waste during the war and who seemed to be able to waltz with some unsavory Democratic bosses without getting engaged to them. Dewey lost the election(of course)but not the desire to be President.

In 1948 the war was over, FDR was gone and Harry Truman was President. The US, and of course each political party, faced the new national and international situations with some uncertainty. Both of them tried to recruit Gen Dwight Eisenhower, commander of allied forces in Europe during the war, as their candidate. But Eisenhower was not ready to enter politics and actually, neither side knew which party he favored. Truman had presided over a fairly smooth transition from war to peacetime economics. There had been a largely predictable outburst of unemployment 1945-’46 as millions of servicemen were demobilized and dumped on the job market, but this proved temporary and prosperity soon returned. Truman was rewarded by the bosses and genuine reformers agreeing that he deserved a full term of his own and he was renominated at the convention. There was division in the party, however, with former Vice-President Henry Wallace leading a rebellion on the left while SC Sen Strom Thurmond led one on the right. Both would challenge Truman by running races of their own, meaning the voters had three different “Democrats” to choose from

The Republicans had several possibilities but it all came down to Tom Dewey, the previous election’s candidate and still the dominant Eastern Republican, and Harold Stassen, the Gov of Minnesota. Stassen would run almost every election for decades and eventually become a national political joke. But in 1948 he was a serious candidate and one of the non-Eastern leaders of Republican moderates. This is the last time the GOP choice would be between two candidates, neither of whom was very popular with the right wing.. The primaries were very even and finally went Dewey’s way when he had a radio debate with Stassen before the important Oregon primary. Dewey was perceived by most to have won the debate and he was the victor in Oregon. After that he was not stoppable. He and running mate, Gov Earl Warren of California formed one of the least conservative Republican tickets in history.

Dewey was the odds on favorite since Truman’s party was split three ways, and many people seemed ready for a change. But Dewey’s overconfidence and seeming complacency eventually ruined his chances and HST won one of the biggest upset victories in Presidential History.

1952 led to one big surprise. Nearly everyone expected Truman to go after a second term for himself. He chose not to do so. Primaries did not in the long run play a large role here. The leading candidate, with HST on the sidelines, was Estes Kefauver, a TN Senator but not a typical southern Democrat. Flexible on racial issues, he had made his name attacking big time hoodlums in politics and this led to exposing some questionable relations between big city Dems and the mob(s). Kefauver won most of the primaries and led in the polls. He was obviously the choice of the national rank and file.

But the bosses, north and south hated him. His flexibility on race made him unacceptable to the southern bosses and his anti-gangster investigations had done the same thing with the big city northerners. Despite a decline in their power the bosses still could exercise great power if they stuck together, and they had enough power here to get their way. The power was negative, stopping something, rather than positive, causing something, but it worked. They managed to block Kefauver as a convention choice. The nomination went to Gov Adlai Stevenson of IL who had not competed in primaries. Hardly the typical big city candidate, he was brilliant, witty and a good speaker. He had an admirable record as governor and the bosses were willing to accept him.

The Republicans had several candidates, but really it came down to two. Sen Taft, the OH conservative was still the ideal of the Republican right and Dwight Eisenhower, who now emerged as a Republican, represented the mostly Eastern-Great Lakes area moderates. The race was complicated slightly by the fact that Warren, Dewey and Gen Douglas MacArthur were all interested, but it was largely a two man race. The primaries were very close and Taft held a small lead but not a majority of pledged delegates, as the convention approached.

The Republicans, heretofore know for sedate conventions, at least compared to Democrats, held one of their wilder ones in Chicago(which must have made a lot of money by hosting both parties’ conventions).The clever Eisenhower team managed to challenge the Taft delegates from three states and through the credentials committee won more Eisenhower delegates. The two sides were angry with each other and among the bad feelings a two man fist fight broke out of the floor. Finally the roll call began and Eisenhower led but without a majority when it ended. Then states(one of them the Stassen-led Minnesota)began changing their votes and Eisenhower(“Ike” to many now)e merged with a first ballot victory. He sought to soothe the feelings of the vanquished conservatives by his choice of running mate, and he changed the future history of the nation and the world with his choice–Richard Nixon.

Though not as witty or well educated as Stevenson, who won the intellectual vote, Eisenhower made a likeable candidate and many were ready for a change. There was a bump in the road with some allegations about Nixon’s money raising activities, but Ike stayed back and let Nixon handle it, which he did with one of the best known–and maybe the most despised–of American political speeches, the Checkers speech. This was an early indication of the talents of a rather private type candidate who might one day become a clever TV candidate. Eisenhower won in a popular landslide and pulled in three of the eleven states of the Confederacy, thus beginning the real part of the GOP rise to southern power. He also pulled in a short-lived Republican majority in both the House and the Senate. The Democrats would win back Congress two years later.

In 1956 Eisenhower had no serious oppostion for the nomination. He had encountered serious health issues, but seeemed to have overcome them and to be on the mend by the election campaign. There was no real doubt among most Republicans that he should be nominated again, although a small core of convinced conservatives may have thought he was too willing to accept too much of the America the New Deal had created.

The Democrats were faced with pretty much a two man race between the old antagonists, Stevenson and Kefauver. The latter looked like a winner in the first months as he won most of the primary popular vote and most of the delegates. But the Stevenson people, having experience now, pulled themselves together and helped him to win some late primaries. This, plus the prestige of being a former candidate, albeit a losing one, was enough the get him the nomination again, although it took three ballots(The last time–to date–a nominating convention took more than 1 ballot to choose a candidate). Stevenson made no choice for VP, instead encouraging the convention to make the choice. Sen John Kennedy of MA put up a spirited fight for the VP nomination, but it went to Kefauver. Finally, he and Adlai were a team. Predictably they lost in another Eisenhower landslide, helped along, likely, by the Suez crisis in the Mideast and the Hungarian Revolt against the USSR, both of which gave the President a chance to emphasize his foreign policy experience & talents.

In 1960 there was a new decade and a new approach to politics. though not yet the big one my hypothesis suggests for the 1970’s. The media were more active now–in 1963 ABC, CBS and NBC–hello, Huntley-Brinkley–would go from 15 minutes to a full half hour of national news every weekday evening.(Rather difficult to imagine now) The 1960 election race would be between two non-presidents as Ike was forbidden by age and health, and for sure by the 22nd Amendment from seeking a third term.

On the Republican side there was not much of a contest. The obvious candidate was Vice-President Richard M Nixon, a one-time Red Hunter from the now gone McCarthy era, but one who had usually stopped a bit short of full McCarthyism. He was now an 8-year veteran of the Eisenhower Administration and had developed a reputation as “Tricky Dick” but also as a willing deal maker and perhaps a moderate. This last one irritated some conservatives and a few of them began to talk publicly about Barry Goldwater, the very conservative Senator from AZ. Goldwater, however, while welcoming the upsurge of Republicans who wanted to repeal most of the New Deal, made no overt attempt for the nomination.

Gov Nelson Rockefeller of NY represented the Eastern, internationalist and moderate(some conservatives might have said “liberal”)wing of the party, once dominant and still rich but fading somewhat in influence. He had more charisma than Nixon and considerable stature in the East(and, of course loads of money), but Nixon won the hearts and minds of the the mid west, the West and the increasingly important Republicans in the South. He also had a lot of political debts he could now call in and a natural affinity for politics. Despite Rockefeller’s good looks, charisma and huge fortune he never really had a chance. It was clearly Nixon from the start with a few platform concessions to Rockefeller and the moderates. There was hardly an exciting primary race at all.

The Democrats situation was far different. After eight years of Eisenhower they were chomping at the bit to win back the White House and there were a lot of them who wanted the job. There were at least four serious candidates and as many or more lesser knowns who hoped to score a breakthrough. Based strictly upon experience and political skill it would appear that Lyndon B Johnson of TX, the Senate Majority Leader had the edge. But although LBJ was a dominant power in the overall Democratic party, many Northern liberals saw him as mainly a Southerner and likely an opponent of civil rights legislation. Johnson was actually a fairly moderate segregationist and was a segregationist only in public because he knew it was the only way to win in TX. But the Northern doubts about him stuck and were perhaps pushed along by the near-hysterical support he got from many frightened Southerners who apparently saw him, rightly or wrongly, as a bulwark against northern liberals, particularly if not exclusively on matters of race.

Early on in this race the polls picked up the fact that it looked like a fairly even contest beteen Johnson and Sen. John F Kennedy of MA. Many pundits gave a slight though cautious edge to JFK. He was a 40ish WWII hero, the scion of a wealthy family, immensely charming and handsome and one of the best speakers in the history of American politics. Erudite, well-informed and self-confident, he would win the the intellectuals as well as Adlai Stevenson did, but also pull support of the uneducated who found him exciting rather than boring. In his second term as a US Senator he was not nearly as politically experienced as LBJ, but his seemingly boundless self-confidence made him a worthy and dangerous competitor to the majority leader. His only disadvantages were his Roman Catholicism which was still a very big deal in much of the US, and the low opinion many had of his aggressive and hugely wealthy father, Joseph, who was thought by many to have amassed a fortune in unscrupulous ways.

In addition to these two there was Hubert Humphrey, the liberal Senator from MN and longtime favorite of the Democratic left. Naturally, he was disliked and mistrusted by the South. Known for talking too much and defining himself too closely on some issues, he had an impressive record of accomplishments and could sometimes be a a very effective campaigner. Also, there was Stuart Symington, Senator from MO. A moderate Democrat with a strong record on national defense and security, he appeared a possibility to rally most northerners without driving away the South. He was sometimes referred to, not entirely derisively, as “everybody’s third choice.”

The primaries were of great importance in making sense of all this and a great help to the party. They were not yet totally dominant–the day of the bosses was not yet gone–but they were important now, perhaps more so than ever before.

In the first really telling contest, WI, JFK defeated HHH in a close race that left them both battered and their people plagued with doubts. JFK had won by running up big majorities in heavily Catholic areas, mostly in and around large cities. This left questions as to his ability to win without a lot of Catholic support. HHH, at the same time, failed, for whatever reason, to win the state which was next door neighbor to his own. WI Dem values were thought to be similar to MN ones and HHH was well-known and presumably well-liked there. If he couldn’t win WI, where could he win?

West Virginia was next and looked like being an answer to some questions. It was. The Kennedy machine spent much time and money in this 90% white Protestant state and HHH was simply outgunned. JFK scored a big victory and put aside one of the big doubts about him. If he could win poor, Appallachin Protestants, then his Catholicism was not a handicap everywhere. HHH’s campaign began to collapse after the WV defeat and ceased to be a large factor in the fight for the nomination.

The primaries were very important here. But LBJ had passed on the primaries and still had the second highest number of delegates pledged to him, ahead of everyone but JFK. He had done this through boss influence, calling in political IOU’s, exercising the famous Johnson personality, etc. But he had not won any primaries or even tried. So the leader as the convention began had a large number of delegates, mostly won in primaries. HIs closest competitor had about half as many delegates, none won in primaries.

When push came to shove at the Los Angles convention, JFK prevailed, just barely getting the nomination on the first ballot. Wyoming, at the end of the alphabetical roll call gave him his victory and provoked several minutes of hysterical and chaotic joy. Due to the time difference most Easterners and Midwesterners would get only a look at the tape on the news the next day, but for those present or tuned in it was quite a moment–the beginning, surely, of a new era. But the question of the primaries was not really answered yet, though they had certainly showed signs of becoming the new power they eventually would. The new era was not to be, however. It crashed to an end 11/22/63 in Dallas, TX. The Democrats, shattered and dismayed, licked their wounds and made plans to recover. Perhaps some Republicans thought they smelled an opportunity. After all, the previous election(JFK over Nixon)had been very close.

In 1964 the Dems had an almost primary less campaign. The new President, LBJ who succeeded from VP upon JFK’s assassination, was a master of politics and maneuvering and was not about to founder on a simple political power issue. His foundering would come later on foreign policy and his inability to communicate with many young Americans and their heroes. But there was never any real doubt about his re nomination in 1964 and no primary race to explain.

The GOP case was far different. A long smouldering intra-party quarrel came to the fore, a quarrel between the Republican moderates, mostly, but not entirely eastern and Great Lakes area people, and the conservatives, mostly but by no means entirely, western and southern.

The conservatives wanted essentially to repeal the New Deal, which was basically, though not quite so brazenly put, Goldwater’s Position. Despite a brief, gallant and hopeless run by William W Scranton, governor of PA, to rally the party behind a moderate to liberal Republican, it quickly came down to a two-man race, Goldwater v Rockefeller The candidates traded insults and victories and defeats until early June and Goldwater seemed to hold a slight, not invulnerable lead. So it all came down to the California primary, 88 winner-take all delegates that both candidates desperately needed.

If Goldwater won, he would just about wrap up the nomination. If Rockefeller won, they could be close to even and he and Barry Goldwater would duel for the heart and soul of the Republican Party at San Francisco. It was close. The vote-counting suspense outlasted the night and by dawn’s early light it was appearing that Goldwater had a small lead that would likely last. It did and the nomination was all but his.

The convention was clearly Goldwater country but with many angry and depressed Rockefeller backers in attendance and willing to make noise, literally and figuratively, about their disappointment. The convention also hearlded the beginning(or maybe it had already started) of a long-standing feud between the Republican right and the media. Eisenhower, in his address to the convention, included a short statement about ignoring “sensation-seeking columnists and commentators.” He apparently felt this strongly but thought it was little more than a throw-away line in his speech, and was surprised when it roused the delegates very strongly. Many screamed and shouted their approval and some shook their fists at the press box.

Goldwater’s victory did show the primaries as extremely important. It had almost all come down to California and those 88 delegates. Most likely, most of the bosses were pleased with the results if not, perhaps, with the way they were achieved. So the bosses and the conservatives celebrated, while the moderates and many “Establishment Republicans” sulked or worse. Goldwater turned out to be an effective campaigner when it came to inspiring conservatives. He was not, however, particularly good at persuading those who opposed him to consider him, to reconsider themselves, and maybe to change their minds. LBJ found Goldwater’s questionable statements and denouncing of popular government programs, fodder for his cannon and he and HHH won an easy victory. Goldwater carried only 5 southern states and AZ. The LBJ landslide pulled in large Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress and the way was open for the President to go ahead with his programs for a Great Society.

Four years later many changes had taken place. The Administration had pushed through Congress much of LBJ’s Great Society legislation and Medicare was now law as were a number of other liberal ideas. But the Democratic Party was badly split by LBJ’s involvement of the US in the Vietnam war and the split appeared to be irreparable, at least for the time. The anti-war Democratic hero was another Minnesotan, Sen Eugene J McCarthy and in the NH primary he surprisingly ran about even with the now beleagured seeming President. Whether this jolt of reality about his invulnerability had anything to do with LBJ’s next move I am not certain, but it might have. In March he made a famous TV speech in which he said he wished to spend every possible moment pursuing peace and had no time for politics as such. Therefore, “I shall not seek and I will not accept the nomination of my party for President.”

The main beneficary of this surprise appeared for awhile to be McCarthy, but he soon had company Shortly after LBJ dropped out, Robert F Kennedy, 1-time US Attorney General and surviving eldest brother of the martyred President announced his entry. This meant two significant American liberals challenging the LBJ foreign policy and particularly the war. It also meant a nasty split within the party, for there still were Dems who respected LBJ and a few left who loved him. His main defender now would be another candidate, Vice-President Humphrey, who like LBJ earlier eschewed the primaries and depended on his influence with the liberal community and his many outstanding IOU’s within the party,

While Hubert and his people worked behind the scences, RFK and Gene M put on an exciting and even thrilling show in trying to snatch delegates in the primaries. While HHH gathered delegates(lots of them) out of the public view, RFK and Gene M ran in several different primaries. They came to largely a draw though it is worth noting that where they directly opposed each other RFK won 3 in a row. But in Oregon, Gene won and it was pretty even approaching California. RFK won in California but after his victory speech he was assassinated, and everything seemed to stop for awhile. The US which had lost his brother to assassination about 5 years before, then MLK to the same thing a couple of months earlier, now went into shocked mourning.

McCarthy would contiue his quest for the nomination, but with just him and his fellow Minnesotan at the fore he had little chance. HHH, through LBJ, controlled those levers of power and the nomination in Chicago was clearly his. Other than that the Chicago convention, one of the most famous in American History now, was a disaster for HHH and the Dems. Contention and bitter quarreling within the hall and riots in the streets outside gave an impression of disorganization and chaos and diminished the reputations of both the Party and the candidate. The bosses had prevailed in the long run, WITHIN THE PARTY, but the fruits of their victory there were disaster and defeat elsewhere.

The Republican race was mostly boring. Nixon was back, now the “new Nixon,” offering himself as the man who could pull together the various parts of the party; There were some primaries and his 2 main adversaries, Rockefeller on the left, and newcomer Ronald Reagan of California on the right won a few votes and some delegates. But there was never much doubt about who would win and Nixon easily grabbed the nomination. The primary voters and the party bosses were likely largely in agreement.

Nixon won a close race in the fall. Questions still remain about LJB, Nixon and the Vietnam War and whether there may have been dishonorable behavior or worse approaching election day. But the case is closed. No one is likely to demand reopening now.

In 1972 Nixon was, in the opinion of most Republicans, a successful President Many other would have agreed, The War in Vietnam went on, but the society at home had quietened. One columnist said, President Nixon and his men may have succeeded in “putting the monster to sleep.” Maybe, but it proved a short nap. Of course there was no serious opposition to Nixon for the nomination. The Dems, however, had one of the messier and more bizarre primary seasons anyone could remember.

At the beginning, the acknowledged leader was Sen Edmund Muskie of ME who had run with HHH the previous election and was considered by many the superior of the two. Wise and(usually)contained with a thoughtful and approach and pleasing personality he seemd to be on his way early. He would encounter, however, bad luck, personal failings and a slew of other issues down to bad weather and personal malice. The other candidates were HHH giving it another try, George McGovern, a liberal SD Senator who had jumped in at the last minute four years earlier, and George Wallace of AL, back in the party after and Independent run for President and still representing the racist leaning southern Democrats and their supporters. There were others, but these were key.

During the campaign Wallace would suffer a crippling assassination attempt and Muskie would be attacked for his personality and presumed personal weaknesses and emotionalism. The most notable Muskie incident came when his outspoken wife, Jane, was accused of public drunken behavior and shooting off her mouth. The Sen leapt to her defense and gave a press conference in which he may have broken down and wept(Yes, I agree- no, big deal if it was true–but some thought that it was). The conference, held in a NH snowstorm was the beginning of the end for Muskie’s campaign. He maintained that those were melted snowflakes, not tears on his face, but the idea of him having an emotional collapse in ;public wouldn’t go away.

“Gonzo” journalist Hunter S Thompson did not help by falsely claiming Muskie was on some kind of drug and was hallucinating during the conference. There have been many assertions that Nixon’s team of dirty tricksters had targeted Muskie as the most difficult to defeat of the Democrats and tried to ruin his chances.

It was not all over yet–McGovern was mounting what looked like a serious campaign this time. HHH and McCarthy were fading along with the outrage about the still continuing war in Vietnam. According to the conspiracy theories the Nixon tricksters pulled the right strings in primary states and other parts of the country and managed to guarantee the victory of McGovern whom the GOP was pretty sure they could beat. The primaries played a role of some importance in that near the end of the race McGovern did increase his chances by winning a number of them. But the whole thing seemed to manage to be confusing, fairly close and boring all at the same time.

At the Miami Beach convention the Dems put on a show that was not as damaging as four years earlier, but still did them little credit and less good. This was the beginning of what is now known as “political correctness” and they went out of their way to see that everyone, even semi-extremists got their say. At the same time, old boss types(for example Chicago’s Mayor, Richard Daley) were shut out. Daley may well have deserved this treatment but it made for bad optics for Dems watching at home to see radicals they’d never heard of and not see old familiar faces.

McGovern got off to a bad start when his original VP choice, Sen Tom Eggleton of MO, admitted he had been treated for depression. While one might argue that this was a rational and reasonable thing for a politician, it ruined his chances and he was dropped from the ticket. His replacement, Kennedy relative R Sargent Shriver, was a pleasant and bright man and a good speaker. It appears to me his main contribution was to make his presumed boss, McGovern, look dull in comparison. To the surprise of just about no one, Nixon won a landslide victory, with McGovern carrying MA and DC, But rumors were circulating about the Republicans and certain happenings at Washington’s Watergate Hotel. Pretty soon the whole country would find out about them. And Nixon did not have solid congressional support. The Dems had kept both Houses.

The following Presidential race of 1976, turned out to be pivotal.. with each party having a serious contest and the primaries once again playing an increassing role. On the Democratic side it began with some chaos, more than a dozen announced candidates, ranging from the well known to the not known. One important change was that Iowa had moved its caucuses to early in the campaign season, before the first primaries. Some supporters of former GA Gov Jimmy Carter suggested he try to break out of the pack by using this new opportunity.

Carter went to IA and ran a real campaign and it paid off–he won the majority of delegates chosen and went from “Jimmy Who?” to his own name. It did not end there of course, but it was an auspicious start for a largely unknown southerner. The campaign took several months to sort things out and a number of candidates won primary victories. Although Carter remained in the lead most of the time, it was close and there still were doubts about a mostly unknown figure. The nomination was not clearly his until June. A late entry into the race by the always unpredictable Gov Jerry Brown of California shuffled the cards a bit, but in the long run had little effect.

Carter, already ahead in both primary votes cast and delegate count, scored a big victory in OH a northern industrial(mostly)state and this largely wrapped it up for him. As a “southern outsider” he tried to balance things as much as possible, by choosing respected MN Sen Walter Mondale as his running mate.

On the Republican side it should have been an easy job for President Gerald Ford(Nixon had resigned in 1974 rather than be impeached for Watergate)to get the nomination. It wasn’t. Ford had been perceived as a likeable but unspectacular and had ruffled feathers early with his pardon of Nixon This was likely the right thing to do, both morally and politically since it may have prevented a national crisis between the parties, but it had a smell of “a deal” about it and some of that stayed. Furthermore, there was trouble within the party. The vicious moderate-conservative battle of Rockefeller-Goldwater memory reappeared, with many conservatives thinking the fairly moderate Ford was too liberal.

Two-term Gov Ronald Reagan of Calif saw an opportunity and pounced. He was likeable, handsome and if not exactly articulate, very good at reading from a script or simply memorizing the lines. He was, after all, a one-time Hollywood star.

Reagan never got close enough to the required number of delegates to look like an immediate threat, but he got enough to be worrisome. It is possible, at least partly, the result of his campaign that Ford ditched his VP, Nelson Rockefeller and replaced him on the ticket with Sen Bob Dole of Kansas.

It is something of an axiom of American politics that a President who gets a serious challenge from within his own party when seeking re nomination is likely in trouble with the electorate. This seemed the case, although it was very close. On election night Jimmy Carter won with about 51% of the popular vote to around 48% for Ford.

If I am correct in my assumption about the primaries and when they became indeed “primary,” then we have reached the end of the second part of our quest. Next we will take up the issue of the primaries in the context of what we may broadly define as “contemporary America,” that is from the Reagan era to us.