Nation: The Quixote Candidate

For a while he had one pledged delegate, 666 short of the total he would need to win the Republican presidential nomination. Then he released the one he had. His national campaign staff numbers seven. After Robert Kennedy's murder, he was assigned a few Secret Service guards, which prompted a Congressman's quip: "It's the biggest crowd he's had this campaign." Not even his wife accompanies him on his campaign. Yet he persists. He is Harold Stassen, who quadrennially offers up his obsession on the public altar—where it is scorned.

Once Stassen was the boy wonder—a county attorney at 23, Governor of Minnesota...

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