Major cutting. h/t: The Corner
MCGOVERN: I have to tell you something I've never said before publicly. I voted for [Ford] in 1976.
KING: What?
MCGOVERN: When he – yes, I did. And at Thanksgiving dinner that year, I never said anything about this to Eleanor or to her five children. But I told them at Thanksgiving time I had voted for President Ford, even though he lost. And I told them why, because I thought he had come in at a difficult time. I didn't know President Carter very well then. And I just felt more comfortable somehow with Gerry Ford. Whereupon my wife Eleanor said, so did I vote for him. We went around that table – this is hard to believe – all five of my kids voted for him. So they get seven votes out of the McGovern family for President Ford and Senator Dole, my long-time Republican friend. I voted for Carter again in 1980. So with my brand of political luck, I voted against Carter when he won, I voted for him when he lost. But I can justify both of those votes.
McGovern has it backwards. I would have voted for Carter in '76 when I was young and foolish (more reason to not let 14-year olds have the vote. The first vote I ever cast, months after turning 18, was for Ronald Reagan (OK, electors pledged to him), the top of the ticket. |