The Gallant Idealism of George McGovern

In the summer of 1972, I went to work for the late senator with the profound hope that he would carry on the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy, writes Ben Heineman Jr. in The Atlantic. Other obits concentrate on his having lost the 1972 Presidential election.

People now remember McGovern as going down in one of the biggest defeats in history, losing every state but Massachusetts (and the District of Columbia) to Richard Nixon. But many forget that he made a gallant effort to present Kennedy's idealism — and anti-war and domestic reform policies — to an increasingly tired, racially divided, and increasingly conservative electorate.