Ted Kennedy introduced George McGovern at 1972 Democratic National Convention

[NewYorkExpress]

Fascinating find. Thanks for posting this, Fuzzy.

Imagine if this speech were heard in prime time.  McGovern himself didn't finish up his speech until after 2 am.  Yes, I was up for it; I remember which TV I was watching in my home.

Was this McGovern’s main speech of the convention? If so, why did they have the nominee speak so late?

They went on and on with the VP nominations.

There was Sen. Eagleton, he of electroshock treatment fame, who was McGovern's choice.  Eagleton also had a history of alcohol problems.  McGovern would never have chosen him if he had known then that it was Eagleton who actually coined the "Amnesty, Abortion and Acid" label that haunted McGovern in 1972.

Here were some of the other names placed in nomination:

1.  Former MA Gov. Endicott Peabody, who actually won the NH VICE-Presidential Primary (yes, NH had one in 1972, the only state that did).

2.  Texas State Legislator and failed Gubenatorial candidate Frances (Sissy) Farenthold, who was nominated by Gloria Steinem, and was a favorite of the very visible Feminist Left delegates at the 1972 convention.

3.  Gov. Jimmy Carter of GA, who, after leading the Anybody But McGovern movement (he nominated Scoop Jackson, but he flirted with George Wallace before lining up with Jackson) and stating that he would vote for McGovern but not actively campaign for him, called Scoop Jackson at 4 am and asked Jackson if he would call McGovern and try to get him to select Carter as his running mate.  (This episode, according to Jackson's biographer, Robert Kaufman, gave Jackson a feeling of revulsion toward the man that seconded his nomination and led McGovern to refer to Carter as "the biggest prick in politics".)


4.  Lt. Gov. Roberto Mondragon of NM, the first Hispanic candidate placed into nomination.  Mondragon was too young to be President (he was only 32 years old), hadn't been on the job for even half his term, and ended up being the Green Party's nominee for Governor of NM in 1994.

5.  Newspaper Publisher Hodding Carter III, a liberal pro-Civil Rights Southerner from MS.

6.  Former Gov. Terry Sanford of NC.  Sanford was on HHH's short list in 1968 but wasn't picked.  He had launched a candidacy early in 1972 to attempt to stop George Wallace but was crushed.

7.  Sen. Mike Gravel of AK.  As I was anti-war, he was my favorite.  He was running for exposure; he was the Senator who had read the Pentagon Papers into the Congressional Record and this made him a hero to the anti-war movement.  (Perhaps Gravel did this to atone for defeating Ernest Gruening in the 1968 Senatorial primary; Gruening was 1 of 2 Senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.)

Here was the delegate voting for VP:

Thomas Eagleton – 1,742 (59.07%)
Frances Farenthold – 405 (13.73%)
Mike Gravel – 226 (7.66%)
Endicott Peabody – 108 (3.66%)
Clay Smothers – 74 (2.51%)
Birch Bayh – 62 (2.10%)
Peter W. Rodino – 57 (1.93%)
Jimmy Carter – 30 (1.02%)
Shirley Chisholm – 20 (0.68%)
Moon Landrieu – 19 (0.64%)
Edward T. Breathitt – 18 (0.61%)
Ted Kennedy – 15 (0.51%)
Fred R. Harris – 14 (0.48%)
Richard G. Hatcher – 11 (0.37%)
Harold Hughes – 10 (0.34%)
Joseph Montoya – 9 (0.31%)
William L. Guy – 8 (0.27%)
Adlai Stevenson III – 8 (0.27%)
Robert Bergland – 5 (0.17%)
Hodding Carter – 5 (0.17%)
César Chávez – 5 (0.17%)
Wilbur Mills – 5 (0.17%)
Wendell Anderson – 4 (0.14%)
Stanley Arnold – 4 (0.14%)
Ron Dellums – 4 (0.14%)
John J. Houlihan – 4 (0.14%)
Roberto A. Mondragon – 4 (0.14%)
Reubin O'Donovan Askew – 3 (0.10%)
Herman Badillo – 3 (0.10%)
Eugene McCarthy – 3 (0.10%)
Claiborne Pell – 3 (0.10%)
Terry Sanford – 3 (0.10%)
Ramsey Clark – 2 (0.07%)
Richard J. Daley – 2 (0.07%)
John DeCarlo – 2 (0.07%)
Ernest Gruening – 2 (0.07%)
Roger Mudd – 2 (0.07%)
Edmund Muskie – 2 (0.07%)
Claude Pepper – 2 (0.07%)
Abraham A. Ribicoff – 2 (0.07%)
Hoyt Patrick Taylor, Jr. – 2 (0.07%)
Leonard F. Woodcock – 2 (0.07%)
Bruno Agnoli – 2 (0.07%)
Ernest Albright – 1 (0.03%)
William A. Barrett – 1 (0.03%)
Daniel Berrigan – 1 (0.03%)
Philip Berrigan – 1 (0.03%)
Julian Bond – 1 (0.03%)
Skipper Bowles – 1 (0.03%)
Archibald "Archie" Bunker (fictional character) – 1 (0.03%)
Phillip Burton – 1 (0.03%)
William Chappell – 1 (0.03%)
Lawton Chiles – 1 (0.03%)
Frank Church – 1 (0.03%)
Robert Drinan – 1 (0.03%)
Nick Galifianakis – 1 (0.03%)
John Z. Goodrich – 1 (0.03%)
Michael Griffin – 1 (0.03%)
Martha Griffiths – 1 (0.03%)
Charles Hamilton – 1 (0.03%)
Patricia Harris – 1 (0.03%)
Jim Hunt – 1 (0.03%)
Daniel Inouye – 1 (0.03%)
Henry M. Jackson – 1 (0.03%)
Robert Kariss – 1 (0.03%)
Allard K. Lowenstein – 1 (0.03%)
Mao Zedong – 1 (0.03%)
Eleanor McGovern – 1 (0.03%)
Martha Beall Mitchell – 1 (0.03%)
Ralph Nader – 1 (0.03%)
George Norcross Jr. – 1 (0.03%)
Jerry Rubin – 1 (0.03%)
Fred Seaman – 1 (0.03%)
Joe Smith – 1 (0.03%)
Benjamin Spock – 1 (0.03%)
Patrick Tavolacci – 1 (0.03%)
George Wallace – 1 (0.03%)

This crap is what made it take so long.  This took forever.  This, quite frankly, was the result of a significant number of young, immature, New Left delegates who were NOT vested in the overall welfare of the Democratic Party as a whole being allowed to do stupid things for fear of "disunity".  The cosmetics of the 1972 DNC, which seem tame today, appeared really radical to Middle America in 1972.

Who WASN'T nominated was interesting.

George Wallace wasn't nominated.  The Alabama delegation that night were, believe it or not, the adults in the room.  The leader of the delegation, while announcing that Alabama was opposed to the liberal platform approved by the McGovernite delegates, recognized that if Gov. Wallace had been the nominee he would have wanted the convention to ratify his choice and the delegation (under the control of Wallace) gave their entire delegation's votes to Eagleton.

Sargent Shriver wasn't placed in nomination.

John Lindsay, NYC Mayor wasn't nominated.  He may have chosen to put his name in as a "representative of big cities" but he was a man pretty much convinced his days in politics were over.

No member of the Cold War Hawkish wing placed their names in nomination.  No Sen. Gale McGee (D-WY).  No Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX).  Perhaps they viewed Jimmy Carter, who nominated Scoop Jackson, as their dog in that particular hunt.

No one seemed to care that they were driving McGovern out of prime time.  McGovern's speech was actually quite good, and MIGHT have caused at least some centrist Democrats to feel better about McGovern, but so few saw it, and the Eagleton pick turned out to be a complete disaster.  Think about it; McGovern's first appointment was a psychiatric case who hid it from McGovern and he would have been a heartbeat from the Presidency.  That's never good.  (One reason Eisenhower stuck with Nixon in 1952 was that he, unlike his cowardly advisers, recognized that he was not likely to win if his first, and most important, appointment was a man who was accepting monies for an illicit slush fund.)

I watched the balloting.  There was lots of enthusiasm for Farenthold, and those who watched the balloting remembered the name "Governor Jimmy Carter".  (Carter's role was noticed by many; Michael Barone stated in the 1974 Almanac of American Politics that Carter would leave office in 1975, but was not destined for anonymity.)  But it was a disaster, letting the convention drag out until after 2 am.  And people casting their votes for Mao Zedong or Archie Bunker gave prime time viewers the impression that the Democrats were not a serious party.

Who were the delegates who nominated Archie Bunker and Mao Zedong?