I was always a bit excentric as far as my political views went. As a young lad, I supported George McGovern over Richard Nixon in the 1972 Presidential election.
President Nixon ran on the same platform he had used in 1968. Nixon told voters he still had a secret plan for winning the Vietnam war. He had told voters 4 years earlier that he had a secret plan for winning the Vietnam war. In his campaign to be reelected President he promised to actually use his secret plan! Of course he could never reveal any details about this plan, because then it would no longer be secret! I will never understand why no news reporters ever asked President Nixon why he had not implemented his secret plan for winning that war during his first term in office. I’ll also never understand why US voters did not vote for George McGovern, who clearly stated his plans, especially that he would simply withdraw US troops from Vietnam and allow the Vietnemese to determine the fortunes of thier country.
During that Presidential election campeign President Nixon used the FBI and the CIA to illegally inform him of what the Democrats, the opposition party, as well as anti-war activists, were doing. It is believed undercover agents even made bad suggestions, such as George McGovern’s selection of Thomas Eagleton as his running mate, who had to be replaced because he was being treated for mental health problems.
In the end, Richard Nixon won reelection with a landslide win over George McGovern. Shortly after Nixon began his second term, information about the various dirty tricks Nixon’s reelection campaign had used became public, the Congressional Watergate hearings were held and President Nixon was forced to resign.
So although I was ridiculed by friends and foes for supporting George McGovern, history showed in the end that he would have been the better President.