re: #106 Jay C

Yep. But attributable to just ONE factor: The Vietnam War. By 1972, the war (and the “right” strategy for ending it) had become a millstone around the political neck of the whole country: Nixon’s “peace” strategy, i.e. graduated withdrawal, coupled with (insincere-on-both-sides) “diplomatic” disengagement had “worked” to the extent that Nixon could campaign as the “ended-the-war” genius candidate, while George McGovern was (irreparably) tarred as the “disloyal-peacenik-anti-American-commie-symp-Dirty-Fucking-Hippie” one.
Totally unfair, unrealistic and warped: but then, that’s American politics….

Uh… Nixon’s 1968 landslide also owes a lot to RFK’s assassination, MLK’s assassination and the ensuing riots in a dozen cities, the riots at DNC, weatherman bombs, etc