Nov. 15, 2011

McGovern says he feels good but must slow down

Tom Lawrence • The Daily Republic

George McGovern speaks Monday morning during the McGovern Conference on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell. (Chris Huber/Republic)

George McGovern said he has been given a clean bill of health by doctors at the Mayo Clinic — as long as he starts to “act like a normal person.”

McGovern, the 89-year-old Mitchell native and former South Dakota congressman and senator, spoke Monday morning at the 2011 McGovern Conference in the Sherman Center on the Dakota Wesleyan University campus in Mitchell. He has been hospitalized twice recently but said Monday that he “feels great.”

Doctors at the Mayo Clinic told McGovern to slow his pace and refrain from alcohol, which he said was a major blow.

“No wine, no beer … no nothing with alcohol,” he said, drawing laughs from the crowd.

While at the Rochester, Minn., facility, he spoke with another South Dakota political icon.

“I ran into Governor (Bill) Janklow there and believe it or not, we gave each other a big hug,” he said.

Janklow, 72, announced recently he is suffering from inoperable brain cancer and is seeking experimental treatment at the Mayo Clinic.

Monday, McGovern looked slim and moved slowly but smiled easily as he signed copies of his new book, “What It Means to Be a Democrat,” and posed for photographs.

He gave a brief speech at the start of the six-hour conference, which focused on a new book on South Dakota history: “The Plains Political Tradition: Essays on South Dakota Political Culture.”

McGovern said he studied history — “Obviously the most important of all college subjects” — when he attended DWU, where he later served as a professor before he entered politics six decades ago.

McGovern said he grew interested in politics in 1952 while painting in his living room on Sanborn Boulevard. Adlai Stevenson was giving his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention and McGovern had the speech on as he worked.

“It caught my ear and then it got to working on my mind and then my heart,” he said. “I thought, here is a man talking common sense. He’s doing it with perfect command of the English language.”

McGovern said he was soon a volunteer in charge of the Stevenson campaign in South Dakota and his efforts and speeches caught the attention of the South Dakota Democratic Party chairman, who attended a speech McGovern gave in Platte on Oct. 31, 1952.

It was both Halloween and a significant personal date, since it was McGovern’s wedding anniversary. McGovern was offered a job as the first executive secretary of the state party.

“What that consisted of was working around the clock,” he said. “I didn’t have any aides.”

He wore out three second-hand cars as he circled the state drumming up support and recruiting candidates for the 1954 election. McGovern said he was determined to have a full slate of Democratic candidates.

In 1952, there were two Democrats in the Legislature. A decade later, there were 52 and McGovern was a former two-term congressman who was about to be elected to the Senate.

McGovern served 22 years in Congress and ran for president three times, coming closest to the White House in 1972, when he was the Democratic presidential nominee before losing in a landslide to President Richard Nixon.

On Monday, McGovern, standing at a lectern, touched on a few topics in his speech and fielded a pair of questions.

n He said the United States erred greatly by invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, even though Hussein was “an S.O.B.”

He said the Iraqi dictator was the primary restraint against a strong and potentially dangerous Iran.

McGovern said President George H. W. Bush acted properly by garnering world support before launching the first Gulf War in 1991, unlike the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

“I have a high regard for President Bush senior,” McGovern said. “Not quite so high for his son.”

n He also said the current political climate is not as polite or as effective as it was in the past.

“Some of the respect we used to have between the two parties has been replaced by narrow, partisan attacks,” McGovern said.

He quoted Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who recently said neither party has a monopoly on wisdom, and McGovern said he agrees with that assessment, although adding with a smile, “the Democrats have more.”

McGovern said he spoke to as many Republicans as he did Democrats during his career in the state. A competitive balance is a crucial element to the political process, he said.

“I honestly believe the two-party system in the United States is the best system,” McGovern said.

n He noted a growing resentment toward the federal government.

“These so-called tea party people ... They act like they hate the federal government in Washington,” McGovern said.

Social Security, Medicare, interstate highways and other federal initiatives have served the country well, he said. McGovern said the thought came to him as he rode across the state on an interstate highway funded by federal dollars.

n He said advances in technology have required candidates to spend more money on technology and the media, and that has made money a bigger factor in politics. When he first ran for Congress in 1956, he was elected to represent the state’s First District while spending $12,000.

“Now, $1 million would be considered pinching it,” he said. “I’m not sure we’ve raised the conversation in politics with all the technology available today.”