Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005

Subject: Obit: Eugene McCarthy
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 08:20 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Former Minnesota Sen. Eugene J. McCarthy, whose insurgent campaign toppled a sitting president in 1968 and forced the Democratic Party to take seriously his message against the Vietnam War, died Saturday. He was 89. McCarthy died in his sleep at assisted living home in the Georgetown neighborhood where he had lived for the past few years, said his son, Michael.

'Nuff said.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy
From: Peace
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 08:23 PM

I admired that man then and I still admire him. I think his election to the Presidency would have changed the course of world affairs for the good.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy
From: Sorcha
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 08:34 PM

Damn. Would like to have seen what he could have done in the White House....

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy
From: number 6
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 08:53 PM

Very sad news .... he was a very admirable human being.

sIx

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy
From: Deckman
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 09:25 PM

I find it disgusting that Richard Pryor's death took first place over Eugene McCarthy's. Bob

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Joe Offer
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 09:46 PM

He was the last, best hope for many of us.
May he rest in peace.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: SINSULL
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 10:56 PM

And he had the tiniest ever campaign button. Said only "Gene". Said it all. RIP.

Subject: Obit: Eugene McCarthy December 10, 2005
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 11:36 PM

A man I admired intensely.

"Eugene McCarthy challenged President Lyndon B. Johnson for the 1968 Democratic nomination during growing debate over the Vietnam War. The challenge led to Johnson's withdrawal from the race.

"The former college professor, who ran for president five times in all, was in some ways an atypical politician, a man with a witty, erudite speaking style who wrote poetry in his spare time and was the author of several books.

"He was thoughtful and he was principled and he was compassionate and he had a good sense of humor," his son said.

"When Eugene McCarthy ran for president in 1992, he explained his decision to leave the seclusion of his home in rural Woodville, Va., for the campaign trail by quoting Plutarch, the ancient Greek historian: "They are wrong who think that politics is like an ocean voyage or military campaign, something to be done with some particular end in view."
And Now He is Gone

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Two threads combined.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 Dec 05 - 11:47 PM

I'm another who admired him. Kind of the way I felt about Adlai Stevenson. Sometimes there *are* people who should have beome president.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy December 10, 2005
From: GUEST,Marks
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 12:25 AM

Well
I did vote for him in '72 for all the good it did. Gotta wonder what the world would be like today if Nixon had not been elected.
Mark

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: GUEST,Art Thieme
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 03:06 PM

In Newport, Oregon---during that state's primary in '67, I wore one of those Gene McCarthy buttons to a Robert Kennedy rally. I was confronted by a Kennedy worker who told me: "No way can McCarthy win. Only Kennedy can win. You are throwing away your vote!"

The next week, I voted for McCarthy because he had been there when we needed him --- a real and viable man to challenge Lyndon Johnson.

Eugene McCarthy WON the Oregon primary...

...and a week later, Robert Kennedy won in California -- where he was killed -- that same day.

The more things change, the more they get different.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Greg F.
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 06:31 PM

That was back in the days when some members of the Democrat Party still had balls- and remembered what the Party stood for. Unlike the vast majority of silent ass-kissers that make up the party today.

He's been missed, and he will be missed.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Ron Davies
Date: 11 Dec 05 - 10:24 PM

He was 89?

Seems like yesterday.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: saulgoldie
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 05:31 PM

Yeah, I keep looking in vain in the Democratic party for signs of some of the fire and committment that he embodied.

RIP, Gene.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 05:42 PM

Heck, I weren't into that "Clean fir Gene" 'cause I had me a nice long pony tail and beard so I worked for Kennedy... He'd take anyone and like McCarthy was against the war, as well...

Still have my Kennedy bumpers stickers and buttons...

... and still bummed out that he was assasinated 'cause he would have made a big difference in the direction this country would later follow... Big, big difference!!!...

Bobert

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Peace
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 06:46 PM

I was never that much in love with my hair.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: voyager
Date: 12 Dec 05 - 06:58 PM

Thank you Mr. McCarthy for raising our hopes and expectations.

You promoted dignity, literary craft, and ethics to an office that
defies all these traits.

I always liked the Gertude Stein quote myself -
"Better to lose (and win)
   Than to win (and be defeated).

God Bless Clean Gene.
voyager

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Ron Davies
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:34 PM

However, he did endorse Reagan in 1980--what was that all about?

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Ron Davies
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:41 PM

"De mortuis..." but I am in fact curious--does anybody have any theories as to why McCarthy would have done that?

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Peace
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 02:46 PM

It was prompted, I think, by his extreme dislike of Carter.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Greg F.
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 05:04 PM

Everyone's entitled to a dissociative episode now and then.

I think you'll find that his analysis of the Reagan Presidency after the fact was err....less than favorable, shall we say?

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Ron Davies
Date: 13 Dec 05 - 05:37 PM

What did he have against Carter? They were both intellectual and analytical. Did he think he could have handled the Iranian crisis any better?

Also, it seems reasonable to think that if he had come out for Humphrey, there would have been no Nixon presidency--it was a very close election. Is it better the way it turned out?

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: GUEST,tommiethecommmie
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 09:31 PM

I was disappointed that Senator McCarthy's death was virtually ignored by the Democrats and especially those on the far left. It was disgraceful. He was an inspiration to young people and led the fight against the Viet Nam Conflict.

Subject: RE: Obit: Eugene McCarthy - 10 Dec 2005
From: Peace
Date: 14 Dec 05 - 09:38 PM

The papers and the radio they lied to us today,
We need you with your honesty, you know we've been betrayed,
The country needs a statesman, without one it can't stand,
The country needs a President, McCarthy you're the man.

That's the first stanza of a song I wrote for his campaign back in the late 1960s. (Had a catchy melody to go with it.) For what it's worth. I will post the rest of the lyrics when a buddy from California sends me a tape he has with the song on it. I worked for Senator McCarthy for most of the campaign. He had integrity--something that seems to be missing in politics today--and I can only echo what tommiethecommie said.