1968 Presidential Election Analysis of Term Paper

Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's VP, announced his candidacy shortly after Johnson stepped down, and won the nomination during the Democratic Convention in Chicago. Humphrey chose senator Edmund Muskie as is VP running mate.

ISSUES of the CAMPAIGN (Republican Candidates) New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller ran in the primaries as a dove (anti-Vietnam) but Richard Nixon easily defeated him. George Romney also ran as a peace candidate, and was soundly beaten. California Governor Ronald Reagan also challenged Nixon, but not as a peace candidate, on the contrary Reagan talked tough on law and order in the streets. Nixon won the nomination and chose Spiro Agnew as his running mate.

American Independent Party) Segregationist Alabama Governor George Wallace ran for president on a conservative platform; he did not seriously challenge the major parties, but he did get a lot of votes in primaries by appealing to racist and conservatives who were upset at blacks' demands in the Civil Rights Movement, at the "Black Power" movement (Black Panthers) and at increasingly loud and violent anti-Vietnam demonstrations.ISSUES of the CAMPAIGN (Nixon) the Republican Platform was expressed in Nixon's campaign; his rhetoric was strictly "law and order," and he had a "Southern Strategy" in which he appealed to white southern voters who were traditionally Democratic voters but were turned off by Humphrey's support for civil rights. Nixon's campaign had an enormous amount of money available. (Humphrey) the Democratic Platform was wishy-washy on Vietnam, because it was the Democrats who got America into the war. But the vice president had no choice but to pull back from supporting the Vietnam War, since so many Democrats in rank-and-file were opposed to the war. Humphrey's campaign was low on funds, and he was hurt politically when many of the labor unions that Democrats traditionally counted on supported Wallace instead. In the end, after Election Day, Nixon got 43.4% of the vote, Humphrey got 42.7%, and Wallace got 13.5%.

Works Cited

Kingwood College Library. (2005). American Cultural History: 1960-1969. Retrieved 28 Feb. 2007 at http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade60.html.

Wikipedia. (2006). "United States Presidential Election, 1968.".....