George S. McGovern, Democratic nominee and proud liberal who lost to Nixon in ’72, dies at 90

HGP salutes George McGovern, the former U.S. senator and 1972 Democratic presidential nominee who ran against Richard Nixon. McGovern, who passed away early Sunday at age 90, was a proud liberal who fought for the under-dog and opposed the war in Vietnam.

As reported in the New York Times:

His death was announced in a statement by the family. He had been moved to hospice care in recent days after being treated for several health problems in the last year. He had a home in Mitchell, S.D., where he had spent his formative years.

In a statement, President Obama called Mr. McGovern “a champion for peace” who was a “statesman of great conscience and conviction.”

To the liberal Democratic faithful, Mr. McGovern remained a standard-bearer well into his old age, writing and lecturing even as his name was routinely invoked by conservatives as synonymous with what they considered the failures of liberal politics.

He never retreated from those ideals, however, insisting on a strong, “progressive” federal government to protect the vulnerable and expand economic opportunity while asserting that history would prove him correct in his opposing not only what he called “the tragically mistaken American war in Vietnam” but also the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. read more