Now is the moment, now is the time ...

I just pray we have something greater than Carter (the president, not the humanitarian) and McGovern as the nominee.

I'm still slowly reading Fear and Loathing: On The Campaign Trail '72 in 'comparitive' time.

Muskie was a time bomb waiting to happen - while the dirty tricks squad may have authored the letter, Sunshine Ed was disconnected, disoriented and certainly wearing a target on his back.

So what about 1968, '64 (obvious) and 1960 in particular? Was Kennedy or LBJ the establishment candidate?

I personally prefer both Carter and McGovern to Obama -- though I'll readily acknowledge that Obama's a more savvy politician than either of them.

In 1968, Humphrey was the establishment candidate, while Kennedy and McCarthy were anti-establishment candidates. In 1960, both Kennedy and Johnson were establishment candidates, while Adlai Stevenson was the leading anti-establishment candidate.

Mind you, the establishment candidate isn't necessarily bad. In fact, had I been alive and politically active from 1960 to the present, I would have voted for the establishment candidate four times: Udall against Carter in 1976; Carter against Kennedy in 1980; Mondale against Hart in 1984; and Gore against Bradley in 2000 (though, to my everlasting chagrin, who I DID support over both of them in 2000 was McCain).

Clinton was establishment in 1992, really?

Well, he definitely wasn't anti-establishment. I'd consider ranking him as "other" only because Tsongas was considered at one point to have locked it up. I feel pretty comfortable in saying that the anti-establishment candidates that year were Harkin and, later, Brown.