March 12, 1968: New Hampshire (Almost) "Goes Clean for Gene"

March 12, 1968: For the 1st time, the New Hampshire Primary is more than just a formality. Former Vice President Richard Nixon runs away with the Republican side, with 77 percent of the vote. But that’s barely noticed, because of what happens on the Democratic side.

Officially, incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson was not yet a candidate for a 2nd full term, even though the 22nd Amendment would have allowed it. (If successful, he would have been President for 9 years and 2 months, longer than anyone except Franklin Roosevelt.) So he was a write-in candidate only.

Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota was a single-issue candidate, the issue being the U.S. role in the Vietnam War. Announcing his campaign to challenge Johnson in the Democratic Primaries on November 30, 1967, he said:

I run because this country is now involved in a deep crisis of leadership; a crisis of national purpose, and a crisis of American ideals. It is time to substitute a leadership of hope for a leadership of fear. This is not simply what I want, or what most of us want. It is, I believe, the deepest hunger of the American soul.

Tired of LBJ dragging things out and lying about how well we were doing, hundreds of young activists joined his campaign, having cut their hair and worn suits, using the slogan "go clean for Gene." And they hit the snowy ground of New Hampshire, doing "retail politics" for their new hero.

Okay, by the standards of 1963, this would still have been "long hair."

Not by 1968, though. Notice that even the women in the photo

have short hair, and the black woman doesn't have an Afro.

And they had lots of star power campaigning along with them. Actors Paul Newman, Burt Lancaster, Dick Van Dyke, Alan Arkin, Tony Randall (not yet the co-star of The Odd Couple, but already well-known), and Star Trek's Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy. Actresses Bette Davis, Tallulah Bankhead, Myrna Loy, Eva Marie Saint and Jill St. John. Playwrights Arthur Miller and Neil Simon. Married actors Eli Wallach and Anne Jackson. Comedians Carl Reiner, Steve Allen and Woody Allen (no relation, and Woody hadn't yet started directing films). Singer-actress Barbra Streisand. Broadway composers Alan Jay Lerner, Adolph Green and Betty Comden.

The results stunned everybody. Contrary to legend, LBJ did win this Primary, with 50 percent of the vote. But McCarthy went beyond his wildest dreams, and finished a strong 2nd, taking 42 percent of the vote.

Suddenly, everyone knew that LBJ could be beaten, that the "Dump Johnson Movement" had to be taken seriously. Four days later, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York got into the race. And 15 days after that, Johnson got out.

But those 2 events revealed something: The McCarthy campaign was built on a house of cards. A lot of the people who voted for him weren't voting for him so much as they were voting against Johnson. With Bobby Kennedy in the race, supporting both peace and civil rights -- McCarthy hardly mentioned civil rights -- a lot of voters moved over to the more glamorous campaign of RFK.

McCarthy, who hated both RFK and his brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, and supported former nominee Adlai Stevenson over JFK at the 1960 Democratic Convention, had one head-to-head win over RFK, in the Oregon Primary, but that was it. RFK won the California Primary, but was immediately assassinated. McCarthy told his fellow Minnesotan, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, that he no longer had the heart for the campaign, and the nomination was his.

There's also an urban legend that a lot of Republicans in New Hampshire temporarily registered as Democrats in an attempt to sabotage Johnson. This is compounded by a sub-legend that some people -- including some Democrats -- were so dumb, they thought they were voting for Senator Joseph McCarthy, the famous (and completely unsuccessful) Communist hunter of the early 1950s. Who was from Wisconsin, next-door to Minnesota. And was a Republican. And was an alcoholic. And was completely exposed as a liar in 1954 by both Edward R. Murrow of CBS News and U.S. Army general counsel Joseph Welch. And had died in 1957.

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March 12, 1968 was a Tuesday. Tammy Duckworth, who went on to become a Senator herself, representing Illinois, was born. So was actor Aaron Eckhardt.

Baseball was in Spring Training. Football was out of season. There were 4 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Baltimore Bullets, 107-104 at the brand-new Madison Square Garden. Willis Reed led the Knicks with 30 points, while Earl "the Pearl" Monroe scored 37 for the Bullets.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 139-123 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit. Eddie Miles of the Pistons led all scorers on the night with 39 points.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Chicago Bulls, 139-115 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the San Francisco Warriors, 124-121 in overtime at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

There were 4 games in the American Basketball Association:

* The New Jersey Americans beat the Pittsburgh Pipers, 126-112 at the Teaneck Armory in Teaneck, New Jersey. Hank Whitney of the Americans, the Nets-to-be, and Connie Hawkins of the Pipers each scored 34 points.

* The Kentucky Colonels beat the Houston Mavericks, 130-109 at Freedom Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

* The Dallas Chaparrals beat the Minnesota Muskies, 122-107 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Denver Rockets beat the Oakland Oaks, 112-92 at the Denver Auditorium Arena.

And there was 1 game in the NHL: The Detroit Red Wings and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 2-2 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.