Was 1972 the craziest presidential election...ever? A couple

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>settle on Ed Muskie
>Muskie wins the Iowa primary by a thin margin over outsider George Mcgovern
>Muskie doing well leading up to New Hampshire primary
>all of a sudden a NH newspaper gets a hold of a letter that alleged that Muskie made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians
>same NH newspaper goes on the offensive, claiming Muskie's wife drinks and uses "off-color language" while on the campaign trail
>Muskie tries to defend his wife's honor on the steps of the newspaper's headquarters in the snowstorm
>Instead of coming off as a brave and loving husband, reporters from across the country mistake the melting snow on his face for tears, and the narrative becomes he is a weak man incapable of leading the country
>Muskie's campaign loses all momentum, Mcgovern and George Wallace from Alabama now leading candidates
>years later the FBI would reveal that the letter in question that the NH newspaper revealed was a forgery, committed by people working for the incumbent Nixon

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>George Wallace was an avowed segregationist. In addition to dominating the southern primaries early on he sometimes found himself leading and winning some northern states
>During an appearance while campaigning in Maryland Wallace was shot by some fucking loser who just wanted to be famous, effectively ending his campaign
>Wallace would be paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of his life. When asked to look back upon the incident 20 years later, Wallace said "I've had 20 years of pain."

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>A few years ago George McGovern led the charge to take the power of nominating a candidate out of the hands of the democratic establishment and give more authority to the caucuses and primaries themselves
>McGovern was extraordinarily progressive and anti-war in addition to being in favor of a number of long held progressive ideas
>The democratic establishment, fearing that such an outsider and a radical would be unelectable, repeatedly tried to hamper his campaign, throwing their support behind Hubert Humphrey a career politician from a modest background
>During the campaign one democratic senator was quoted as saying " "The people don't know McGovern is for amnesty, abortion, and legalization of pot. Once middle America – Catholic middle America, in particular – finds this out, he's dead." The label stuck and McGovern became known as the candidate of "amnesty, abortion, and acid." It became Humphrey's battle cry to stop McGovern — especially in the Nebraska primary.
>Despite recieving little support from the establishment McGovern's grass roots campaigns won him the vital states of New York, Texas, and especially California, and got him the nomination
>After winning the nomination, now he had to wait for the establishment to pick a running mate for him. They settled on Thomas Eagleton

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>Just after McGovern accepted Eagleton as his vice president, it was revealed Ealgeton underwent shock therapy when he was younger in order to treat his depression
>McGovern initally claimed that this new knowledge would not have prevented him from accepting Eagleton as his running mate., and most of the American public agreed, saying it would not affect their vote.
>McGovern would go on to claim that he supported Eagleton "1000%". Three days later McGovern would ask Eagleton to withdraw from the Vice Presidency so that he could choose a new VP
>Years after the fact the anonymous democratic senator who called McGovern the candidate of "amnesty, abortion and legalization of pot" was revealed to be Thomas Eagleton

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>Eagleton's departure would be devastating to an already faltering campaign as McGovern struggled to find a VP
>McGovern later approached six different prominent Democrats to run for vice-president: Ted Kennedy, Edmund Muskie, Hubert Humphrey, Abraham Ribicoff, Larry O'Brien and Reubin Askew. All six declined.
>Sargent Shriver, brother-in-law to John, Robert, and Ted Kennedy, former Ambassador to France and former Director of the Peace Corps, later accepted. By the time McGovern had settled on Shriver, the democratic nominee's poll ratings had plunged from 41 to 24 percent.

>>553441
Wallace had a lot of support in working-class suburbs for his opposition to school busing. McGovern while he was in Detroit campaigning was once mobbed by blue-collar Wallace supporters who basically called him a cuck.

It's definitely an interesting campaign but either way I have no doubt Nixon would have won re-election in a landslide. Which makes the whole Watergate fiasco so much more tragic, since it was totally unnecessary. Nixon was undone by his own paranoia.

>>553407
>that map
Christ, what were they thinking using all of those similar colors

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>Richard Nixon ran virtually unopposed, fending off some resistance but never seriously in danger of losing the nomination
>Nixon wanted certainly though, and in addition to the canuck letter broke into the Watergate hotel to steal private information of the democratic party
>Nixon would go on to win every state but Massachusetts and Washington DC, and would win the election by the largest margin of victory by number of votes in US history
>A year and a half later, he would step down from the presidency, his legacy forever tainted by his own paranoia

>>553683
Nixon is a tragic figure in the classic Greek tradition. He's definitely the most interesting President of the 20th century.

McGovern is an interesting guy and had a PhD in history (his thesis was on the Colorado coal mine wars IIRC). Too bad he was totally ineffectual as a presidential candidate.

>>553683
>and would win the election by the largest margin of victory by number of votes in US history

Wasn't Washington elected unanimously? Sure, it wasn't a national election, but it was still an election.

>>554087
if it wasn't clear by number of votes I mean number of votes cast by the public, not delegates. With this in mind
Very few people could vote in 1788. Not surprisingly Washington ran unopposed that year, and received about 43,000 votes. Let me say that again: He ran against no one. All the electors were deciding that year was who would be his Vice President.

>>553737
his rise to power, backing by the gop establishment, courtship by the dulles brothers etc is really, really great reading

one of the opt 5 presidents ever desu senpai

>>553407
>1968 someone kills a Kennedy preventing his nomination.
>1972, a Kennedy kill someone, preventing his nomination
It's like pottery.

>>553683
>Nixon had the election cinched either way
>Broke into the Dem HQ anyway
why
imagine how much greater of a country the U.S would be without watergate and the huge government mistrust that followed it, on top of the loss of prestige abroad

>>554505
Double agents within his administration deliberately sabotaged Nixon and he was largely kept in the dark about what was going on.

Also the newspaper and Muskie had a history, and it would often refer to him as Moscow Muskie, even before he was the frontrunner

>>554505
>huge government mistrust
>ever a bad thing