Humphrey Syndrome Likely to Doom McCain

Do you remember the Presidential election of 1968? If you are as old as I am, this year’s campaign may be déjà vu all over again.

In 1968, America was sick of the Vietnam War and it seemed there was nothing Hubert Humphrey could do to separate himself from the war policies of Lyndon Johnson. When the vote was counted, Humphrey found he could not disassociate himself from Johnson. The voters chose Nixon because Nixon promised to end the war and bring the troops home. Sound familiar? The Electoral College vote in 1968 was 301 for Richard M. Nixon, 191 for Hubert H. Humphrey and 46 for Gov. George C. Wallace.

This year, in spite of his best efforts, John McCain cannot separate himself from the failed policies of George Bush, the President with whom he voted 90 percent of the time. McCain has the added challenge of trying to disassociate himself from the economic disaster that accompanies a failed Bush administration struggling to find an exit off the stage

Circumstances -- mostly out of his control -- are likely to end McCain's ambitions and put Barack Obama in the Oval Office. It will be interesting to see if the Electoral count of 2008 is even close to the count of 1968 and not a tsunami as some have predicted.

History does repeat itself.