Reply #23: Time for the Big Picture [View All]

[maha]

The fact is that Clark had to choose between campaigning in Iowa or New Hampshire, and New Hampshire is a real primary. For practical reasons he couldn't campaign effectively in both places.

I am reminded of Nixon-McGovern 1972. I was a student at the University of Missouri at the time. McGovern chose a Missouri politician, Tom Eagleton, as his running mate and then "unchose" him. (The official reason was that Eagleton had a history as a mental patient. The real reason was that Eagleton had a future as a mental patient. But let's go on ...)

Lots of McGovern supporters ripped the McGovern buttons off their army fatique jackets (the "in" garment at the time) and proclaimed they wouldn't vote for McGovern. But ... hello? ... the alternative was Nixon.

That election wasn't about Tom Eagleton, and the election to come isn't about the Iowa Caucuses.