What I Am Reading...The Last Campaign

During the Obama campaign many references were made to the 1968 campaign of Robert F. Kennedy. Obama appealed to people of all races, creeds, economic, and educational backgrounds. Kennedy's campaign was a little different. Kennedy appealed to the lower class, African Americans, Chicanos, and Native Americans. His relationship with the privileged class was anything but stellar. The common thread that both campaigns had was that they both offered hope to a period where hope seemed a far away dream. Kennedy got in late to the election after he realized that none of the candidates for the Democratic nomination offered the hope he felt America needed. His problem was finding his footing or his core group of supporters. The pro-Vietnam group supported the candidacy of LBJ and when he chose not to run, they immediately rallied behind current Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The university students and anti-war activists were behind Eugene McCarthy, and most southern Democrats were supporting George Wallace. This left the late arriving Kennedy to carve out his own niche. Kennedy was unique in is method of campaigning. He chose to go to areas where candidates didn't normally go, the inner city ghettos, the Indian reservations, etc. He chose to campaign in methods that most politicians had deemed antiquated.

Kennedy was the hope that America needed at the time. One has to wonder what would have happened had he made it to Chicago in 1968. Would the 68 Democratic Convention have been the stain on the party that it became? What kind of atmosphere would another Nixon-Kennedy campaign have created? Imagine how Nixon would have felt coming so close to the presidency only to run against another Kennedy?

The Last Campaign is a very appropriate title in that it was the last campaign conducted of its type and probably the last campaign that captured the imagination of individuals that had previously been locked out or disinterested in a presidential campaign. One can only hope that the recent campaign has recaptured the imagination of the American electorate.