Eugene McCarthy: Dead at 89

Eulogies provide tribute to presidential candidate and former Sen. Eugene McCarthy (D-MN) who died Saturday at age 89. David Broder calls him parodoxical; the Boston Globe describes him as baffling; and USA Today, quirky and principled. In 1968, his showing in the New Hampshire primary is credited with President Johnson's decision not to run for re-election. In his 1967 declaration of candidacy, he said:

I am hoping that this challenge I am making, which I am hoping will be supported by other members of the Senate and by other politicians, may alleviate the sense of political helplessness and restore to many people a belief in the processes of American politics and of American government.

McCarthy chose to run for president when "the Attorney-General declared that the President need not necessarily obtain the consent of Congress before declaring war," according to the Telegraph. The Telegraph continues:

Moreover McCarthy resolutely declined to give tub-thumping radical speeches. "I've grown a little disturbed," he would tell an assembly of agriculturists, "that almost everything the Church tried to give up at the Vatican Council has been picked up by the Defence Department - the idea of grace in office, a little hint of infallibility, a kind of revival of the ideas of heresy and of holy wars, the Inquisition, a kind of index on publications. The Pentagon is even beginning to talk Latin, and has given a contract to a Californian company for a study entitled Pax Americana."

His quixotic candidacy brings to mind that of Governor Howard Dean in 2004 -- the lone dove, party maverick, choice of a younger generation.

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