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election
The 1968 Presidential election
On March 30, 1968 a week before the Wisconsin primary, where the polls predicted
a loss, President Johnson withdrew from his race for a second term, and Humphrey
announced his candidacy in late April. Humphrey was challenged by New York
Senator Robert Kennedy and Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy. After his victory
in the California primary, it appeared that Kennedy would possibly beat Humphrey
for the nomination. However, the night of the California primary Senator Kennedy
was assassinated. With the support of Mayor Richard J. Daley, Humphrey went on
to win the Democratic nomination at the party's convention in Chicago. Outside
the convention hall, there were riots and protests by antiwar demonstrators,
some of whom favored Eugene McCarthy, George McGovern, or other anti-war
candidates.
Humphrey lost the 1968 election to Richard M. Nixon. His campaign was hurt in
part because Humphrey had secured the presidential nomination without entering a
single primary. (In later years, changes in party rules made such an outcome
virtually impossible.) During his underfunded campaign Humphrey grew on voters,
who saw a kind of transparent decency as well as a mind that quickly grasped
complicated issues. Starting out substantially behind Richard Nixon in the
polls, he had almost closed the gap by election day. He lost the election by 0.7
% of the vote: 43.4% (31,783,783 votes) for Nixon to 42.7% (31,271,839 votes)
for Humphrey, with 13.5% (9,901,118 votes) for George Wallace of Alabama.
Humphrey's later resurgence in the polls may be attributed to a half-hour
documentary film that was aired repeatedly in the weeks leading up to election
eve, titled What Manner of Man; The film was designed to sell Humphrey as both a
man of the people and a leader. It was instrumental in the election and has been
called "one of the two or three best political films ever made." A documentary
producer named Robert Richter today claims that he produced and directed the
film, though evidence exists that the film was actually written, produced, and
directed by Shelby Storck with his company out of St. Louis.
There were no debates between Humphrey and Nixon, despite a later recollection
by Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger that it was during such a debate
that Schwarzenegger determined his allegiance to the Republican party.
While he was Vice President, Hubert Humphrey was the subject of a satirical song
by songwriter/musician Tom Lehrer entitled "Whatever Became of Hubert?" ("I
wonder how many people here tonight remember Hubert Humphrey. He used to be a
senator..."). The song addressed how some liberals and progressives felt let
down by Humphrey, who had become a much more mute figure as Vice President than
he had been as a senator. The song goes "Whatever became of Hubert? Has anyone
heard a thing? Once he shone on his own, now he sits home alone and waits for
the phone to ring. Once a fiery liberal spirit, ah, but now when he speaks he
must clear it. ..."
Immensely admired by associates and members of his staff, Humphrey could not
break loose from the domination of Lyndon Johnson. The combination of the
unpopularity of Johnson, the Chicago riots, and the discouragement of liberals
and African-Americans when both Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr.
were assassinated during the election year caused him to lose to a candidate
many thought less qualified to be president. Humphrey may also have been hurt by
the presence of former Alabama Governor George Wallace as an independent
candidate. He won many traditionally Democratic southern states and attracted
northern whites who had previously been loyal Democratic voters. But some
believe Wallace's third party candidacy hurt Nixon more than Humphrey,
especially in the south. Thus, it is unknown whether Wallace cost Humphrey the
election or not. The war that Humphrey was saddled with in the Johnson
administration continued until the mid-1970s.
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