A Two-for-One Campaign

by George McGovern | New York Times | 5/13/08

The competition for the Democratic presidential nomination between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has been long and intense. The news media have given it round-the-clock coverage, including seemingly round-the-clock debates between the two candidates. The campaign has been good not only for the Democratic Party but also for America. It has made millions of voters excited about selecting our next president.

We are witnessing two of the most talented candidates for high office this country has ever produced. Hillary Clinton is one of the great women of our age. Her husband, Bill Clinton, may be the most admired political leader in the world today. Together, they demonstrated a remarkable mastery of the American political system in 1992 and showed that Democrats could get back to the White House — not once but twice.

And in Barack Obama, Illinois has given us a candidate with some very impressive qualities. During this campaign, Senator Obama has exhibited great character and intellect. (Disclosure: I endorsed Senator Obama last week and am now working for his campaign.)

The length of this campaign should not be worrisome for Democrats, as long as it ends peacefully. Senator Obama appears to have an insurmountable lead for the nomination, but Senator Clinton, as she has the perfect right to do, has said that she will remain a candidate through the remaining primaries, which conclude on June 3 in Montana and my home state, South Dakota.

Yet lately, I have been troubled by certain memories from my experiences as a presidential candidate. In 1968, we Democrats tipped the election to the Republicans and defeated our able nominee, Hubert Humphrey, by splitting our party wide open over the war in Vietnam.

That year, after Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, his staff talked me into running for the nomination and taking over his delegates. At the convention in Chicago, after Vice President Humphrey won the nomination, one of my fellow candidates, Eugene McCarthy, perhaps understandably, refused even to stand next to him on the convention stage in a show of unity. I believe that our party’s divisions cost us our chance to prevent Richard Nixon, who at that time had been out of office for eight years, from ever becoming president.

Four years later, in 1972, President Nixon was re-elected and I was defeated as the Democratic nominee because our party was again divided. After winning the California primary in June, I thought I had the nomination in hand. But a desperate slash-and-burn effort was pressed against me by the candidates I had defeated. California’s delegates that year were allocated under a winner-take-all system, but my opponents — led by Senator Hubert Humphrey, my lifelong friend — began clamoring to change the rules and to assign the state’s delegates proportionally.

They carried the battle all the way to the convention floor. Instead of receiving a much-needed breather between the final primary and the national convention, I had to work nonstop to save our California delegates. I was on the telephone night and day, calling delegates and asking them not to change the rules after the votes were in. My campaign staff and I staggered into the convention exhausted. We had spent almost no time preparing the convention agenda or selecting and vetting a running mate.

To reduce the risk of creating the kind of divisions that afflicted Democrats during my campaigns, here is a proposal that I hope Senators Clinton and Obama and our party will consider.

After today’s vote in West Virginia, the two candidates should agree to make joint visits to the sites of the five remaining primaries (in Kentucky, Oregon, Puerto Rico, Montana and South Dakota).

During these visits, Senators Clinton and Obama should agree not to criticize each other. They would simply state what each would do if elected president. They would also point out why President Bush’s policies have failed and why they would continue to fail under John McCain.

After each candidate speaks for 15 minutes or so, they would then be taken to a reception where citizens paying $50 a ticket would mingle with the two candidates. The money raised would go to the state Democratic Party to assist local and state candidates in the fall elections.

The two candidates should also visit the two disputed states, Michigan and Florida. No matter what happens to the delegations from those states, their voters are entitled to see and to hear these two historic candidates.

This is an agenda that could unite our party and prepare us for a successful convention with a big victory in November. It would also be a refreshing and welcome change for American presidential politics.

George McGovern, a former senator from South Dakota, was the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee.