"In early 1969, Sen. Eugene McCarthy narrowly lost the New Hampshire Democratic primary to President Lyndon Johnson, leading the already embattled president to abandon his re-election bid 19 days later" (Peter Savodnik, The Daily Progress, September 8, 2000).

"By running in that New Hampshire primary, the then-Senator McCarthy [D-Minnesota] had taken on a task that no other Democrat seemed to want. No one, including bobby Kennedy, was willing to challenge a president who, in the polls, still looked unbeatable.

But McCarthy was deeply opposed to the war. And he was willing to sacrifice his own career, if necessary, in challenging the war president. It turned out, of course, the Minnesota senator had grabbed hold of an issue with wide and growing appeal.

Above all, during the primary period, McCarthy presented himself and his ideas in such a literate, persuasive way that he won support from millions of voters, all across the nation and from both parties" (Godfrey Sperling, The Christian Science Monitor, September 5, 2000).

"McCarthy, a vociferous anti-war critic, had permanently altered history without winning anything -- he had, in effect, transformed the very heart of the presidential tug-of-war from the distant (and politically unpalatable) margins.

On Thursday, McCarthy [also an independent candidate for the presidency in 1976] showed up at the University of Virginia's Miller Center to slam the establishment yet again, taking aim at everyone from former president George Bush to Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham to Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

But the real problem, McCarthy said, goes way beyond individual power brokers or media moguls to a political-corporate-media complex that can control what people hear and think and feel about democracy, the popular culture and foreign affairs" (Peter Savodnik, The Daily Progress, September 8, 2000).

"'The networks are going to decide who's to be heard and who's not to be heard,' he said. 'I don't know what to do about it'" (Peter Savodnik, The Daily Progress, September 8, 2000).

"'The political process is controlled by the television,' the 84-year-old McCarthy told a crowd of 100 or so, 'and the television people are afraid of the Republicans and Democrats because they control their licenses'" (Peter Savodnik, The Daily Progress, September 8, 2000).

Elsewhere, Eugene McCarthy has written humorously about politics and politicians themselves. He was a lunch guest of the Christian Science Monitor "right after his new book, 'An American Bestiary' (Lone Oak Press) was published last spring. And the journalists in attendance were laughing at the 'political animals' Mr. McCarthy (and his illustrator, Christopher Millis) had found lurking in their imaginations.

There were, for example, 'Inflation.' 'Knowledgeable observers, 'writes McCarthy in this treasure of a book, 'have positively identified only a few species of this unloved but indestructible creature. Two are 'Creeping Inflation' and 'Galloping Inflation.' Nothing has been found in-between.' Here 'Inflation' is portrayed by Mr. Millis as a big, goat-like creature running at full speed past the Capitol.

One of McCarthy's most prized 'captures' is 'The Gathering Momentum.'

'Until it is gathered,' writes this political sage, 'A 'momentum' is hard to identify.'

Some of the other rare creatures portrayed in the book are 'The Viable Alternative,' 'The Bloated Bureaucracy,' 'The Economic Indicator,' 'The Mandate,' and 'The Mounting Crisis'" (Godfrey Sperling, The Christian Science Monitor, September 5, 2000).

Back at the Miller Center, McCarthy "half-joked that the national press corps mistakenly believes that anti-Semitism is the number-one challenge facing Sen. Joseph Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president and an Orthodox Jew.

'The real problem is his name's Joe,' McCarthy said, pointing out that 'we've never had a vice president named Joe. There are a lot of frustrated Joes in the country ... We have to prove that there's no discrimination.'

Even though McCarthy is considered by many in his own party far left of the political mainstream, he sounded, at moments, a smidgen right-of-center, railing against spendthrift politicians and campaign-reform efforts that would limit individual contributions.

And even though McCarthy said he'll probably vote for Vice President Al Gore come Novemnber, he aslo said vice presidents -- notably, Richard Nixon -- make the worst presidents.

'It puts people in the position to run for the presidency who shouldn't do it,' he said" (Peter Savodnik, The Daily Progress, September 8, 2000).

For more by Eugene McCarthy, see The Singular Piety of Politics.

If you were involved in either McCarthy campaign and have comments, please send them to george@loper.org and the most representative will be posted with full attribution.

To date, responses have been received from John Loper.