Sunday, October 21, 2012

RIP George McGovern

From Fox News: George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee, has died after a short stay in a South Dakota hospice, after what his family termed a “combination of medical conditions.”
He was 90 years old.
A 22-year veteran of the House and Senate from South Dakota, McGovern was one of the most storied American politicians of the 20th century. McGovern was best known for his outspoken opposition to the Vietnam War and advocacy for agricultural and world hunger issues.
McGovern lost the 1972 presidential election to the incumbent President Richard Nixon in one of the biggest landslides in American history, winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia. Nixon later resigned from the presidency in 1974 due to the Watergate scandal.
McGovern, a former World War II bomber pilot, was one of the most prominent “doves” of his time. He flew 35 combat missions over Nazi-occupied Europe and earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for leading an emergency landing of a damaged plane that saved his crew.
He first won election to Congress in 1956. His longtime advocacy on the behalf of farmers and the poor began with his service on the House Agriculture Committee. The panel’s longtime chairman, Rep. Harold Cooley (D-N.C.), said, “I cannot recall a single member of Congress who has fought more vigorously or intelligently for American farmers than Congressman McGovern.”
I don't remember much about him, but the one positive I do remember is that he had integrity, which is missing from so many politicians today.

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