Thank you, GfS, that was kind of you to say.

One point I wish to make with both you and Bobert is this: HHH deserved not to be elected because he had shilled for Johnson, and that just wasn't right. However, until then he had been an exemplary member of Congress and a man even his enemies were proud to know. I do not know what caused the change in him and I suppose that will be one of this life's little mysteries for me.

"The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in shadows of life, the sick, the needy, and the handicapped."

Indeed, his early life was hard, and the 1920s and 1930s were unkind to his family. From that era he developed a real compassion for people, a compassion I feel he never left behind. One has but to read his work on behalf of education, civil rights and labour to know that he was a giant in his time, perhaps too much of one.

"Compassion is not weakness, and concern for the unfortunate is not socialism."

That statement alone should be enough to marginalize the Bachmanns and Palins of this world.

I would recommend the Wikipedia article about HHH in lieu of reading more deeply about him. I admire him very much for his courage and so many great ideas he pushed forth in Washington. The following from the Wikipedia article speaks more eloquently about his integrity than a million platitudes.

"In 1934 Hubert began dating Muriel Buck; she was a bookkeeper and graduate of local Huron College. They were married in 1936 and remained married until Humphrey's death nearly 42 years later. They had four children: Hubert Humphrey III, Nancy, Robert, and Douglas. Unlike many prominent politicians Humphrey never became wealthy, and through most of his years as a U.S. Senator and Vice President, he lived in a modest middle-class housing development in Chevy Chase, Maryland. In 1958, Hubert and Muriel used their savings to build a lakefront home in Waverly, Minnesota, about forty miles west of Minneapolis."

I think it is easy to forget the good people have done, and he did more good than most, imo. I wish we had more people like him in government today.