Which was the nastiest primary season ever?

[fujiyama]

I'm pretty young and this is the first real democratic primary I've been able to follow along completely. I followed the primaries in '00 (both dem. and repub.) and realized then which party I belonged to. Those republican primary debates were creepy as hell with freaks like Alanm Keyes and Garry Bauer...Hell I remember watching when Dan Quale and Elizabeth Dole was running...I also remember thinking to myself - Wow this Bush son is dumber than Quale. Either way, I never doubted Bush would win the nomination because he had STRONG establishment support.

I also paid attention the democratic peimaries and really liked Bradley because he seemed like an overall decent guy, but I thought he had absolutely no chance running against the incumbent VP. For a while Bradley actually beat Gore in some polls, but Gore was able to turn it around and was able to win all of the primaries. Either way, it wasn't all that exciting. The outcome really was never in doubt.

How nasty did the '92 campaign get? I remembre hearing it was pretty bad at times and that it was Jerry Brown (that SOB Arnold ass kisser) that dug up the dirt on Jennifer Flowers. BTW what kind of tactics did Clinton use? I saw Primary Colors, but I doubt that was really represenative of anything.

I know an obvious choice might be '68, with the riots and everything...but I was hoping for some insight. Thanks!

[Sam Lowry]

1. The worst by far

was in '72, especially when it was leaked to the press by the McGovern people in California that Hubert Humphrey had two penises that fought with each other while he was asleep. Man, that was rough.

[copithorne]

2. I don't know

George Bush coldcocked John McCain in 2000. That's about as dirty as I've seen.

But you're really asking about Democrats.

I adore Bill Clinton. But honestly he smeared Paul Tsongas as the race got tight by running ads saying that Paul Tsongas was going to harm social security. He used some "sharp elbows" smears, really, -- probably to a similar extent that you see Kerry doing it today. It wasn't to his credit, but it's good that he did it in the end. Tsongas was diagnosed with cancer shortly after and he wouldn't have beaten Bush.

In my experience it's pretty clean. Everybody plays with some hard fouls, but not true corruption.

[Maddy McCall]

3. The Gary Hart "Monkey Business" scandal was pretty rough for Hart

supporters. That's one of the worst "scandals" I remember.

[Sam Lowry]

4. "Scandals?"

When you dare the press to catch you cheating on your wife and they do... What was that Biblical saying? "Pride goeth before a fall?" Or maybe it was "don't cheat on your wife and then dare the press to catch you and then bang Donna Rice?" Yeah, that was it.

[Gore1FL]

5. Well Lets see....

Carter vs Kennedy in 80 was nasy.

Hart vs Mondale was pretty ugly

Brown gave Clinton fits in 92.



I think of those 3 the Kennedy Carter feud cost the election in 1980.

[The Traveler]

6. 1968

The nation was divided over Vietnam, civil rights, and the war on poverty. Rhetoric was fever pitched. And the best Democratic candidate (Robert Kennedy) was shot and killed. Hubert Humphrey won the nomination due to some really messy smoke filled room work. Activists protested in the streets of Chicago and were tear gassed and beaten with clubs. And, finally, Nixon won the general election. It is hard to imagine a worse primary season that that.

[WyLoochka]

7. Agree, 1968 was the ugliest ever

Culminating in the ugliest convention ever. I have long thought the over the top, hostile hysterics between various Dem camps that took place inside the convention hall, televised for all to see, were devastating to the Democratic Party. It was a total disgrace that produced permanent vivid images and rhetoric of "librul" lunacy run amok, fair or not. We are still paying for it dearly.

'68 was a watershed year when the Democratic Party handed the GOP the bashing tools against "libruls," on a silver platter, that the Repukes have been successfully battering us with ever since, to achieve their goal of moving the entire electorate waaaay to the right.

Here we are in 2004, with the finest field of candidates we have ever had, compulsively shredding them one by one - creating bitterness and hostility among various supporter groups and handing the Repukes more than enough ammunition to keep on doing what they have been doing since 1968.

For intelligent, supposedly compassionate and rational people we Dems are likely coming off as stupid, mean and flat out crazy to the less tuned in voters we will need with us in November.

[Awsi Dooger]

8. '68, although I was very young

I remember my elementary school teachers arguing about the candidates while walking us to the cafeteria. My dad yanked us from a restaurant when he got into a political feud with people in the adjacent table. My introduction to politics and I'd have to say it was the most heated year, with pictures from Vietnam and body counts featured on Cronkite every night.

Fuzzy stuff from age 8, someone correct me if I err: Johnson pulled out when McGovern nearly won New Hampshire. Bobby Kennedy became the first losing Kennedy, to McGovern in Oregon. His summation: "If not for the honor, I'd just as soon pass." Humphrey finally bolted from his pro-Vietnam ties to Johnson and got into the race late. Remember, the primary calendar then was MUCH later into the year. RFK was shot in early June after winning California and there were still primaries to follow.

The Chicago convention has been documented above. Wallace was running as third-party candidate of the American Independent Party, as I recall. My family traveled thru Alabama late that summer, and STATE TROOPERS WERE PUTTING PRO-WALLACE BUMPER STICKERS ON EVERY CAR AT A ROADBLOCK. I thought they were going to shoot us when my dad emphatically declined.

Nixon came out with his phony secret plan to end the war. Humphrey was gaining by the day and probably only needed another week, or less...

[theboss]

9. Not quite

Eugene McCarthy did well in New Hampshire. But it was still a shock when Johnson pulled out. Johnson's late announcement sent everyone scrambling. Bobby Kennedy basically walked in and said to McCarthy, "Thank you, I'll take those" about his supporters. Humphrey entered as the champion of the Old Guard (the Daleys, the unions, etc). Kennedy is murdered after winning CA. The convention goes to Chicago. The protestors arrive. Daley orders his Police Dept to beat the ever-living shit out of any protestor or reporter who looks "dangerous." The Convention devolves into chaos. Daley cuts off microphones and calls people "Jew bastards." Dan Rather gets beat up on the floor. Somehow, Humphrey emerges as the candidate.

Now you have to remember something. aside from eight years of Eisenhower (who barely qualified as a Republican), no Republican had won a national election since 1928. Johnson had just won the biggest landslide in history four years earlier. The Democrats easily controlled both Houses of Congress, most governorships, and the major city machines. And Nixon was a prick who had lost his two last elections in embarrassing fashion. The fact that he was able to usher in an era where Republicans won 5 of the next 6 elections (usually by landslides) shows how awful '68 was to the Democrats.

It was the beginning of the end of the Solid South. It was the end of the big machines. It was the end of the New Deal era essentially. Granted, some of these changes are better for "democracy." But we haven't really been the dominant party since.

[no name no slogan]

10. That pretty well sums it up

And about the "Jew bastard" quote from Daley:

Rep. Abe Ribicoff, an ordained rabbi, was at the podium denouncing the "Gestapo-like" tactics of the Chicago Police, who were beating and tear-gassing protesters outside the convention hall. The room roared with applause, and then the cameras covering the convention cut do Richard Daley in the front row.

It looks like Daley said "get off my stage you f*cking Jew bastard", and repeated the "f*cker" word a few times. Daley's team said that he was reportedly calling Ribicoff (a Holocaust survivor) a "faker", and that everyone misread what he was saying.

And no, nobody actually believed the Daley explanation.

I had a prof in college who was a McCarthy delegate at the convention, and he vividly remembered all of it until his death a few years ago. He remembers the smell of tear gas wafting into the hotel near the hall, the overbearing police presence, the turmoil on the floor. Very scary time in America.

[theboss]

11. Read "Boss" by Mike Royko

Daley is one of the most fascinating men in American history and Royko knew him as well as anyone. The book is very short but covers everything. It gives an interesting view on '68 and sees it as the summation of everything Daley stood for - loyalty, ward politics, civic pride, and irrational fear of anything outside the norm. Daley truly believed he was manning the barricades against the barbarians.

There is also some great stuff about his showdowns with Martin Luther King.

[Uzybone]

13. wow. this puts a lot into perspective

n/t

[jsw_81]

14. Great post

[newyawker99]

12. Hi robg!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[On the Road]

15. The Best Writing on a Nasty Primary Season

was "Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail: 1972" by Hunter Thompson.

I have never seen politics described in such lurid and hallucinatory terms -- of greed, revenge, gloating, panic, and disaster. As one reviewer said, it is the least factual but most accurate account of what it's like to be inside a campaign. Shot through with a surprisingly idealistic streak:

“The tragedy of all this is that George McGovern, for all his ...is one of the few men who’ve run for president of the United States in this century who really understands what a fantastic monument to all the best instincts of the human race this country might have been, if we could have kept it out of the hands of greedy little hustlers like Richard Nixon."

“McGovern made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Richard Nixon does every day of his life, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything he stands for. Jesus! Where will it all end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?”

[no name no slogan]

16. Great book-- a MUST for understanding this year's race, IMHO

I'm rereading it for about the millionth time right now. Thompson captures the ambience very well, and his gonzo humour makes it a very entertaining read.

I especially like the part about how Big Ed Muskie was an Ibogaine addict, and Thompson's role in spreading the story. Thompson's comeback about the rumour is priceless. To summarize:

"I did not say that Muskie was taking Ibogaine. I simply stated there was a rumour to that affect spreading around the campaigns. Of course I was the one who started the rumour..."

:D

[theboss]

17. Great book that is haunted by '68

The '72 Primary was not quite as nasty as Thompson made it out to be. Muskie imploded pretty quickly. Humphrey hung around for a while. And Wallace was . . there, being crazy and getting shot and shit like that. But McGovern surged and never really looked back. I think a lot of the backroom negotiations were just Thompson's paranoia after '68. The change in the Party was irreversible by '72.

[IowaBiker]

18. 72 #2 and similar to this year's primary.

Then incumbant, Richard Nixon's "dirty tricks" squad ( part of C.R.E.E.P. -- Commitee to Re-Elect the President) wanted to go head-to-head with Howard Dean clone-stock, George McGovern so they could mop on in the GE, they broke into the Watergate Hotel and also trashed Edmond Muskie.

--Brian