George Wallace Presidential Token
melvin289
Posts: 3,019 ✭
Found this while going through some of my boxes of stuff, left over from my youth. Since Wallace ran for president in 68 it is from somewhere around there. Don't know where exactly I got this or why I have it. We went to Darlington for the Southern 500 in 1968 and Wallace was the Grand Marshall. It might have been something they were giving out there.
Sorry for the sloppy photos.
Ron
Sorry for the sloppy photos.
Ron
Collect for the love of the hobby, the beauty of the coins, and enjoy the ride.
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Comments
I just Googled it to be sure. Wallace ran against Humphrey and Nixon in '68 as a third party candidate.
I do believe he ran again in 72 though.
Ron
<< <i>I just Googled it to be sure. Wallace ran against Humphrey and Nixon in '68 as a third party candidate.
I do believe he ran again in 72 though. >>
Yes, he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in '72. He was the early front-runner at the time he was shot.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
<< <i>
<< <i>I just Googled it to be sure. Wallace ran against Humphrey and Nixon in '68 as a third party candidate.
I do believe he ran again in 72 though. >>
Yes, he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in '72. He was the early front-runner at the time he was shot. >>
Wallace was never really a front-runner in 1972. He got a lot of blue collar votes in states like Michigan in addition to his powerbase in the Deep South. This was an angry time when the people were still heavily divided over the Viet Nam War, working class people were riled up over busing to achieve school desegregation and others were generally concerned over the drift of the country. Wallace stood for winning in Viet Nam, “ending the busing of little school children,” and a return to traditional values.
I might ruffle some feathers here, but this was the first primary season in which the news media created a presidential candidate and won the nomination for him. In the early going, Maine Senator, Edmund Muskie, was the Democratic front-runner for the nomination. Muskie won the first in the nation New Hampshire primary with “only” 50% of the vote in a crowded field. George McGovern “actually won” with a “surprising” 25% of the vote. The news media kept twisting the results like that until McGovern won the Democratic presidential nomination. I was a volunteer working for McGovern campaign at the time so I following things pretty closely.
I remember that the news media made a big deal out of the “two Georges” – McGovern and Wallace in the primaries. They were the “surprises” that opposed the Democratic establishment leaders, like labor union boss, George Meany.
I believe that your Wallace campaign medalet is made of plastic. I have a few other Wallace pieces in plastic as well, including one where he ran his wife for Governor of Alabama because he could not succeed himself. If anyone would like me to post pictures of some of these Wallace items, I will.
Wallace ran as a third party candidate in 1968. The question on Election Night was whether or not Wallace would pull enough electorial votes from the Nixon and Humphrey to throw the presidential election into the House of Representatives. The results were not known until the wee hours of the morning.
George Wallace was first elected Governor of Alabama in 1962 and served from 1963 to 1967. He was very popular because of his opposition to African-American civil rights and could have been elected easily to a second term, but the state constitution barred him from serving two consecutive terms. To hold on to power he decided to run his wife for governor.
Mrs. Wallace had few qualifications for the job. She had been a wife and mother, first lady of Alabama and at one time a clerk in a dime store. Nonetheless she was elected governor.
Sadly Mrs. Wallace carried a tragic secret. She had cancer which had been diagnosed before she ran for office. After she took office, her condition worsened, but George Wallace insisted that she remain in office. She was in constant pain and should have resigned. In the end she weighted less than 80 pounds as the disease spread to her liver and lungs. Yet, George Wallace continued to insist that. “She had conquered cancer.” Mrs. Wallace died in office in May 1968.
This was a sad chapter in George Wallace’s life, and showed something about the man’s political ambitions and how he treated those who loved and supported him.
This piece was obviously issued as more of an advertising token than a campaign piece, but it’s unusual that a former governor would be show next to the sitting governor of the state.
are faced with on election day.
By the way, 1972 was the year I first voted for President, both in the primary and the general
election. I remember it well.
The big buzz among the news media about front-runner McGovern was, "When was he going to get 50% of the vote in a primary?" He finally did toward the end when most all of the other candidates, excpet George Wallace, had dropped out. That 50% problem did not bode well for the Democrats, and since the election was a huge landslide for Nixon that was the right read.
Most of Democratic big guns stayed out of the presidential primaries that year because no one figured they could beat Nixon in the fall. As it turned out Nixon didn’t have sense enough to know he had the election won, and he ended up beating himself with the Watergate scandal.
<< <i>
<< <i>
<< <i>I just Googled it to be sure. Wallace ran against Humphrey and Nixon in '68 as a third party candidate.
I do believe he ran again in 72 though. >>
Yes, he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination in '72. He was the early front-runner at the time he was shot. >>
Wallace was never really a front-runner in 1972. He got a lot of blue collar votes in states like Michigan in addition to his powerbase in the Deep South. This was an angry time when the people were still heavily divided over the Viet Nam War, working class people were riled up over busing to achieve school desegregation and others were generally concerned over the drift of the country. Wallace stood for winning in Viet Nam, “ending the busing of little school children,” and a return to traditional values.
Wallace ran as a third party candidate in 1968. The question on Election Night was whether or not Wallace would pull enough electorial votes from the Nixon and Humphrey to throw the presidential election into the House of Representatives. The results were not known until the wee hours of the morning. >>
I guess I forgot about the 1968 run.
The 1972 Michigan primary came the day after he was shot. He got a huge sympathy vote, and carried the state.
TD
<< <i>The 1972 Michigan primary came the day after he was shot. He got a huge sympathy vote, and carried the state. >>
Wallace had already won the Florida primary at that point, carrying every county.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
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