As a college student (Chico State in California) I was a McCarthy supporter--my first presidential candidate. A carload of us went to Chico airport to see McCarthy's first appearance after winning in Oregon.

McCarthy, the independent thinker, encouraged his supporters to think for themselves. He had great wit. He satirized the "establishment". He will be missed.

I was thirteen when Robert Kennedy visited my little Oregon town and spoke on the courthouse steps in May 1968. A bunch of us kids carried RFK signs and my parents were mortified, as they were McCarthy supporters.

Just a few days later, he was gone. I'll always remember my mom waking me up and telling me.

I handed out a lot of Wayne Morse buttons and stickers that summer. Then, along came Nixon. And Packwood. And bad times.

He was the iconclastic poet/Senator from Minnesota, trying heroically to end a tragic war. I was an eight-year old kid (son of a very active D mother), selling bumper stickers and buttons from my front lawn. To those who think I was insane to challenge a sitting Congresswoman two years ago (and are still mad at me for it), you can partially blame Eugene J. McCarthy. If you read McCarthy's speech challenging RFK's thinking (referenced in this post), maybe you'll understand why I challenged Hooley over Iraq. And maybe (eventually) we'll end this war too...

Eugene McCarthy was a heor of mine as a high school junior when I and a couple of my classmates volunteered for his portland office during the may primary. My most vidid memory was being at the Benson hotel hoping to get a chance to see him personally the night of the election. My classmate(and now business partner) Pat Donaldson and I were standing by the elevator when it opened and there was McCarthy. I fumbled a goly gee whiz "hello" and then scrambled for a campaign newspaper flyer of McCarthy I had been carrying around in my pocket. I asked him for an autograph which he politely obliged. I still have that flyer, boldly signed in blue ink. McCarthy had an enormous impact on politics because of his challenge of Johnson. Had it not been for the tragedy in Los Angeles a week later, McCarthy likely would be remembered today as the man who helped make Robert Kennedy President.

Boomers on the liberal side have had a sucicidal tendency ever since. Thank you Pat for showing why I don't trust people who use the word "liberal".

In ways I don't remember in detail any more (like remembering the melody but not the words), Mort Sahl used to skewer "liberals" as the people who would go to fundraising dinners in big hotels and treat the wait staff as if they were not real people.

The carload of people who I went to the Chico airport with to see McCarthy in 1968 were not of that variety. They were fairly ordinary college students.

Please don't confuse the McCarthy of 1968 with Ramsey Clark and Ralph Nader. Some of the people who got involved in 1968 went on to become the poltical activists of their generation, incl. being pct. people, campaign volunteers, paid staffers, later national convention delegates, and in some cases volunteers for Clinton because the "refighting of Vietnam" which GHWBush and Quayle did in 1992 brought back memories of 1968.

Whatever you may think of Maxine Waters (and why mention her but not Ron Dellums?), she represents a constituency which elected her to Congress. You may not like her, but some people in her California district do or she wouldn't have been elected to Congress.

Pat, if you think "the blue collar voters" all think alike, I suggest you study the politics of Macomb County, MI. Those were the most geographically identifiable of the famous Reagan Democrats. As I recall, they voted for Clinton.

When I was a member of the Dem. State Central Comm. here in Oregon, I spent a lot of time with down to earth union people. At one time, the state chair of the Democratic Party of Oregon was someone from the United Steelworkers.

I didn't go to Woodstock either. In 1968 my family moved from California to Oregon, and I went to a college week retreat for kids of my denomination at a summer camp. In 1969 I worked at a cannery to earn money to attend a national church convention.

I find stereotyping to be repulsive whoever does it. Let me give you an example of why it is a political mistake. A friend of mine lived near a winery and often was a server for some of their social events (wedding receptions, political fundraisers,etc.). She also worked as a receptionist. Her family owned a business and belonged to Chamber of Commerce. She once invited me to a Chamber event in the State Capitol one evening early in whichever legislative session that was (1990s sometime). She said that regardless of what issues a campaign talked about, if she was a server at a fundraiser for the campaign her experience as a server determined her vote.

If the candidate came over and talked to her as a potential voter, they had a chance of earning her vote. If, however, the candidate treated her like "the help", all bets were off. She told her friends how various candidates treated her when she was a server. The campaign people probably didn't realize that the person serving the wine wasn't just a wine server but was also involved in Chamber of Commerce and thus had lots of friends.

I was never a fan of Ralph Nader (except for his efforts to get unsafe cars off the road). I have no idea who "Roland the Headless Thomson Gunner" is. But it is possible that in the time I have spent as a political volunteer and working in retail (not exactly "blue collar" but hard working people none the less often ignored by political campaigns)I have learned more about the political opinions of ordinary working folk than people who complain like Pat does--even if I am proud to this day to have been a McCarthy supporter in 1968. Because of my work in retail I have not been as surprised at some of the election results because of conversations I heard in the break room while eating lunch, etc. One of my high school friends was a Vietnam casualty that year 1968. Pat, are you saying I should have supported someone else for president in 1968? Who?