The American Presidential Election of 1968

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The 46th episode in a very long series about the American presidential elections from 1788 to the present. In 1968, the country is a bit chaotic as everyone seems to be out in the streets protesting or smoking marijuana. Oh, and there's a three-way race for the Presidency. And people keep getting shot.

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The 46th Presidential election in American history took place on November 5, 1968. Sure, President Lyndon Johnson kicked butt in the 1964 election, but what a difference four years makes. In case you didn’t know, the 1960s were probably the most exciting decade of the twentieth century. Society was dramatically changing, and one of the quickest ways to realize this is by comparing music from the beginning of the decade to music from the end of the decade. Not only was there the rise of the hippie counterculture, but there was the rise of the New Left movement and Black Power. 1968 was a crazy year in American history. There were many riots and just a lot of mad people who took to the streets to protest. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, for crying out loud.

Meanwhile, Johnson’s popularity declined dramatically, most due to the Vietnam War. Each year during his Presidency, Johnson had sent more and more soldiers to fight in a war that more and more Americans were saying was stupid and pointless. Not only that, the war was not going well at all. It was looking like this might be the first war the United States lost, ever, well unless you count the Civil War.

Despite all this, Johnson decided to run for reelection anyway, but he did have opponents, like Eugene McCarthy, the Senator from Minnesota, and Robert Kennedy, the brother of John Kennedy and now Senator from New York. When the Vietnam War went worse and Johnson didn’t do so well with the New Hampshire primary, he decided to drop out of the race.

(Video of Johnson)

After this, Vice President Hubert Humphrey decided to run. In the Democratic primaries, it was basically a three-way race between Humphrey, Kennedy, and McCarthy. Humphrey had supported sending troops to Vietnam, and Kennedy and McCarthy were both strongly anti-war. This would make you think Kennedy and McCarthy were all cozy, and they used to be, but McCarthy was a little annoyed that he was the first one bold enough to challenge Johnson about the war and now Kennedy was wanting all the glory from it. Kennedy and McCarthy debated each other several times, and the two were in a tight race for the most delegates heading into the convention.

But then, more tragedy. Robert Kennedy was assassinated in Los Angeles on June 5th by a dude named Sirhan Sirhan, who to this day says he does not remember doing it. Um...yeah. The Democrats tried to press on after Kennedy’s death. Many Kennedy supporters switched to support McCarthy.

However, at the convention, despite violent confrontations between anti-war protesters and the police going on right outside, Hubert Humphrey won the nomination. The Democrats went with Edmund Muskie, a Senator from Maine, as Humphrey’s running mate.

The Republicans once again had Richard Nixon, who had returned for another go at it after losing the 1960 election. Nixon was always the frontrunner for the nomination, but George Romney, the Governor of Michigan, posed a big threat early on. Later, Ronald Reagan, the Governor of California, an even bigger threat. At the convention, a bunch of candidates tried for the nomination, and Republicans also wrote-in a ton of names, like people from other political parties. This proves there was significant opposition to Nixon, but he won the nomination anyway, barely, and with the help of former Dixiecrat Strom Thurmond, who was now a dedicated Republican thanks to liking Barry Goldwater.The Republicans nominated Spiro Agnew, the Governor of Maryland, as Nixon’s running mate.

Well, we haven’t heard from third parties in awhile. So it’s about time someone like this dude came along to challenge the status quo. The newly formed American Independent Party nominated George Wallace, the now former Governor of Alabama for President of these here United States. Curtis LeMay, the former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, was his running mate. Wallace continued to run on a segregationist platform. However, he was also a populist, appealing to many blue collar workers outside of the South.

Wallace polled as high as 21% in September, but most Americans thought he was just a bit too racist for them. Therefore, as election day drew near, it seemed it would be either Nixon or Humphrey.