November 7, 1972: President Richard Nixon is re-elected in one of the biggest landslides ever. He wins 60.7 percent of the vote to the 37.5, a record low for Democratic nominees in 2-horse races, of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota. Nixon wins 49 States for 520 Electoral Votes, McGovern just 17, winning only Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.
If McGovern had taken every State in which he had at least 47 percent, he still would have lost 520-17. Counting every State where he won at least 45 percent would add only Rhode Island, Minnesota and South Dakota, making it 502-35.
McGovern ran a great campaign in the primaries, but was a disaster in the general election, making all kinds of mistakes. When Nixon's campaign announced a peace deal in Vietnam 3 weeks before the election, it removed the biggest argument in McGovern's favor. Watergate? The Washington Post was investigating it, but most people didn't yet realize how big that would become.
On August 9, 1974, just 21 months later, Nixon resigned due to his role in Watergate. Someone took a poll, asking how people would have voted in 1972, had they known then what they know now. McGovern got 56 percent in that poll. Begging the question, What were the other 44 percent waiting for?
And didn't they already suspect? How could McGovern have gone, as a 1992 episode of The Wonder Years that focused on this election (with McGovern contributing a voiceover while an actor played him, seen only from behind) put it, "from landslide to mudslide"?
Top 5 Reasons You Can’t Blame George McGovern for Losing 49 States in the 1972 Presidential Election
5. Old-Line Democrats. The activists and hippies showed terrible disdain for the union leaders and big-city bosses, such as AFL-CIO President George Meany and Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley. They should have showed that they were "the adults in the room."
Instead, Meany and Daley were every bit as immature as the "kids," and didn't support McGovern. As a result, neither did their respective supporters, the major labor unions and the other big-city bosses.
Instead, Meany and Daley were every bit as immature as the "kids," and didn't support McGovern. As a result, neither did their respective supporters, the major labor unions and the other big-city bosses.
4. Thomas Eagleton. The Senator from Missouri should have told McGovern about his psychiatric treatment when he was first told he was being considered for the Vice Presidential nomination. He didn't. Once it got out, he had to go.
3. McGovern's Supporters -- the aforementioned "kids." As with the crazies on the right supporting Barry Goldwater in 1964, George H.W. Bush in 1992, John McCain in 2008 and Donald Trump in 2016, McGovern's activists made their man look further from the political center than he actually was.
They favored legalization of marijuana, abortion, and amnesty for draft evaders, but he didn't support any of those things. (The Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling came just 11 weeks later, and he was then pro-choice for the rest of his career). They, not he, were the people of, as the other side put it, "Acid, Abortion and Amnesty" -- or "Grass, Ass and Amnesty."
They favored legalization of marijuana, abortion, and amnesty for draft evaders, but he didn't support any of those things. (The Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling came just 11 weeks later, and he was then pro-choice for the rest of his career). They, not he, were the people of, as the other side put it, "Acid, Abortion and Amnesty" -- or "Grass, Ass and Amnesty."
2. The Supposedly Liberal Media. There was plenty they could have said about Nixon, from his hideous career in Congress in the late 1940s and early 1950s to the way he conducted the Presidency from January 1969 onward.
They let him off the hook for the war still going, nearly 4 years after he ran saying he would end it. They let him off the hook for the Cambodian Incursion. They let him off the hook for the Kent State Massacre. They let him off the hook for the ITT-Vesco Scandal. And, so far, they had let him off the hook for Watergate. That didn't change until March 1973, early in his 2nd term.
They let him off the hook for the war still going, nearly 4 years after he ran saying he would end it. They let him off the hook for the Cambodian Incursion. They let him off the hook for the Kent State Massacre. They let him off the hook for the ITT-Vesco Scandal. And, so far, they had let him off the hook for Watergate. That didn't change until March 1973, early in his 2nd term.
1. Richard Nixon. To his credit, he ran a great campaign, one in which he could run as a unifying figure who understood both the country and the world, and be seen as someone who deserved a 2nd term on that basis. Indeed, he hardly had to mention his opponent. Which probably drove him nuts, because he loved to slam his opponents.
VERDICT: Not Guilty. McGovern was doomed pretty much from the moment Nixon stepped onto the tarmac in Peking in February.
And it enabled him to do all the things he did from November 8, 1972 to August 8, 1974, on top of what he'd already done.
And yet, for all he put America through, Nixon "got away with it," because President Gerald Ford pardoned him. That angered so many people. But was it the right thing to do?
Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Gerald Ford for Pardoning Richard Nixon
5. The Constitution. It gives the President the power, and the right, to pardon people for violating federal law. The President can do it for any reason. Or for no reason. And if he has a reason, he doesn't have to publicly reveal it. But Ford did have a reason, and it was a justifiable one:
4. Friendship. Ford and Nixon had served together in the House of Representatives in 1949 and 1950. Ford had been House Minority Leader from 1965 to 1973, when Nixon rewarded his loyalty by appointing him Vice President, and they remained allies until August 9, 1974. They had helped each other. Their families were friends. Ford didn't want to see his friend suffer any further.
3. The Nixon Family. Whatever Tricky Dick did, there was no reason to make his wife Pat, their daughters Tricia and Julie, and the rest suffer through a criminal trial.
2. Our Long National Nightmare. Ford knew that extending the Watergate story would place an even greater strain on the country. He wanted it over. Which is totally understandable.
1. Confirmation of Guilt. Nixon could have refused the pardon, thus maintaining his stance that he was innocent of any legal wrongdoing, and taken his chance as a private citizen with the criminal justice system. Instead, he accepted it. By doing so, Nixon essentially pled guilty.
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He never served a minute in prison. But, through November 2, 2020, he is the only President ever officially remembered as a criminal. Not a "crook," the word he used to defend himself on November 17, 1973. (His 1st Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was a crook.) As an actual criminal.
1. Confirmation of Guilt. Nixon could have refused the pardon, thus maintaining his stance that he was innocent of any legal wrongdoing, and taken his chance as a private citizen with the criminal justice system. Instead, he accepted it. By doing so, Nixon essentially pled guilty.
Whether that remains true after January 20, 2021 remains to be seen.