“Senator Edmund Muskie” – The War Room Reference
Presidential candidate
- Main article: U.S. presidential election, 1972
Before the 1972 election, Muskie was viewed as a frontrunner for the Democratic Presidential nomination. The nation was at war in Vietnam and President Richard Nixon’s war policies (and foreign policy, more generally) promised to be a major issue in the campaign.[2]
The 1972 Iowa caucuses, however, significantly altered the race for the Presidential nomination. Left-wing dark horse candidate, South Dakota Senator George McGovern, made a strong showing in the caucuses, giving his campaign national attention. Although Muskie won the Iowa caucuses, McGovern’s campaign left Iowa with momentum. Muskie himself had never participated in a primary election campaign, and it is possible that this led to the downfall of his campaign. Although Muskie went on to win the New Hampshire primary, the victory was only by a small margin, and his campaign faltered.[2]
The collapse of Muskie’s momentum early in the 1972 campaign is also attributed to his response to campaign attacks. Prior to the New Hampshire primary, the so-called Canuck Letter was published in the Manchester Union-Leader. The letter claimed that Muskie had made disparaging remarks about French-Canadians – a remark likely to injure Muskie’s support among the French-Canadian population in northern New England. Subsequently, the paper published an attack on the character of Muskie’s wife Jane, reporting that she drank and used off-color language during the campaign. Muskie made an emotional defense of his wife in a speech outside the newspaper’s offices during a snowstorm. Though Muskie later stated that what had appeared to the press as tears were actually melted snowflakes, the press reports that Muskie broke down and cried shattered the candidate’s image as calm and reasoned.[3]
Evidence later came to light during the Watergate scandal investigation that, during the 1972 presidential campaign the Nixon campaign committee maintained a “dirty tricks” unit focused on discrediting Nixon’s strongest challengers. FBI investigators revealed that the Canuck Letter was a forged document as part of the dirty tricks campaign against Democrats orchestrated by the Nixon campaign.[4]
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Yeah, it shows that even when it looks like someone will win, someone else will win instead. Haha. (Thus why we still have Bush?).
But I’m personally wondering, why, in paragraph 3, the press could mistake SNOWFLAKES for TEARS. Shouldn’t it be pretty obvious if someone is crying or upset? Tears or not? There are other symptoms to sadness/anger/frustration. He was probably very frustrated at the time – that or the press is just full of complete jerks/hypocrites/idiots (yes, IDIOTS).
The only other thing I can think of asking is what kind of country would we have if there was a MUSKEE in our Presidential roster instead of NIXON and his WATERGATE scandal. Any thoughts? Any ideas? I really have no idea – I don’t know a thing about Muskee. He didn’t win after all.