Eugene McCarthy: 1916-2005

The election that made him famous, he didn't win; Lyndon Johnson did, 49% to 42%, in New Hampshire's 1968 Democratic presidential primary. But EUGENE MCCARTHY, who died last week at 89 in Washington, had scared the sitting President by articulating a principled opposition to the Vietnam War and corralling enough idealists to turn vexation into votes. Thousands of the scruffy young went Clean for Gene, proselytizing in New Hampshire, then in Wisconsin, where the Minnesota Senator won, 57% to 35%. That humiliation persuaded Johnson to quit the race.

It was a sweet triumph for the former college professor, who had been...

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