Eugene McCarthy (1916 - 2005), native rural Minnesotan, poet, World War II veteran, one-time Benedictine novice and, in 1967, an American disillusioned by President Johnson and the escalating war in Vietnam, declared his candidacy for the Democratic Party nomination:

I am hoping that this challenge I am making, which I am hoping will be supported by other members
of the Senate and by other politicians, may alleviate the sense of political helplessness and restore to many
people a belief in the processes of American politics and of American government.

Heading into the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy, dismissed by the mainstream press who doubted he could beat Johnson, nonetheless attracted waves of anti-war college students from around the country. They would influence the 1968 campaign in ways no one could have imagined.

Escalation is a word that has no point of interruption. By the time you raise the question the flag has gone by.

Hoping to shake the image of the hippie protester, many who volunteered to canvass for McCarthy in New Hampshire chose to shave their long hair, beards and mustaches, leading to the unofficial campaign slogan "Get Clean for Gene."

This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.

After the disastrous Tet Offensive, the quixotic anti-war candidate and his "children's crusade" seemed less like a novelty, to both the press and to Democrats looking for an alternative to Johnson. McCarthy would go on to take 42% of the vote with Johnson securing 49%. A loss, but a definite signal that dissent within the Democratic Party left Johnson vulnerable. Suddenly the anti-war movement wasn't just hippie kids and left-wing activists. Mainstream America began to openly examine what America was doing in Southeast Asia.

We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it.

Stunned by his near-defeat and realizing that his party was rapidly losing confidence in him, Johnson announced that he would not seek another term. Another man saw that vulnerability, too - Robert Kennedy, who declared his candidacy three days after the Primary.

McCarthy won several primaries, but in June lost California to Kennedy, who was assassinated shortly after. McCarthy faced an uphill battle against party favorite Hubert Humphrey, who eventually was nominated as the Democratic candidate. Humphrey lost to Richard Nixon.

Though McCarthy sought the Presidency three more times, as recently as 1988, his legacy lies on the wintry, well-worn streets of Dover, Portsmouth, Nashua, Manchester ... where every four years volunteers from around the country still descend by the masses ... and where nearly 40 years ago a man who challenged his party and his President, and an increasingly restless movement desperately in need of a leader, drew together for a brief moment in time to spark a fire of dissent that would transcend the New Hampshire primary and even the 1968 Presidential campaign.