McGovern '72

Via Buzzflash.com today is an interview with former Senator and Presidential candidate George McGovern. I met Mr. McGovern once. I was thirteen years old, and had volunteered for his campaign, spending hours after school stuffing envelopes. The LA headquarters office was invited to attend one of those couple of hundred a dollar a plate fundraisers for the cost of the food. It was at one of the older, classier LA Hotels like the Biltmore, and a good portion of Hollywood had turned out. I was certainly starstruck to be rubbing elbows with many movie and TV stars. I remember seeing Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, and Dennis Weaver, among others. Being 13 I was just as impressed to see the guy who played McCloud as I was to see Warren Beatty.

Towards the end of the evening a line formed to shake hands with the candidate, and the campaign office manager pushed me to join the queue. When it was my turn, I was pretty well speechless at meeting the candidates, but he smiled down at me and shook my young hand.

George McGovern did not win that year, but he was right about Vietnam and would have saved the country the shame of Watergate. He was a good man and a thinker who continues to express himself intelligently on issues of war and peace.

Read the interview here.