eugene mccarthy; an early hero of mine

Eugene J. McCarthy, 1916-2005
Gentle Senator, Presidential Hopeful Empowered U.S. Antiwar Movement
By Bart Barnes and Patricia SullivanWashington Post Staff WritersSunday, December 11, 2005; Page A01
Eugene J. McCarthy, 89, the scholarly and erudite Minnesota senator whose pursuit of the presidency in 1968 galvanized popular opposition to the war in Vietnam and helped drive Lyndon B. Johnson from the White House, died yesterday at the Georgetown Retirement Residence in Washington. He had Parkinson's disease.
McCarthy was among the first of the mainstream Democrats to break ranks with the party leadership on the issue of Vietnam, and his challenge to an incumbent president of the same political party changed the course of history.
He entered the race because he saw the Vietnam War escalating and said that the Johnson administration "seems to have set no limit to the price which it is willing to pay for a military victory."
"I am hopeful that this challenge may alleviate this sense of political helplessness and restore to many people a belief in the processes of American politics and of American government," he said at the time.
Backed by a "children's crusade" of young peace activists and college students who shaved off their beards, cut their hair and went "Clean for Gene," McCarthy stunned the political establishment by taking 42 percent of the Democratic vote in the New Hampshire primary. That was just seven percentage points behind Johnson..............