Is the President of the U.S. allowed to cast a vote for himself or herself?

The United States presidential election of 1968 was the 46th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1968. The Republican nominee, former Vice President Richard Nixon won the election over the Democratic nominee, incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

Nixon ran on a campaign that promised to restore law and order to the nation's cities, torn by riots and crime. Analysts have argued the election of 1968 is a realigning election as it permanently disrupted the New Deal Coalition that had dominated presidential politics for 36 years. Coming four years after Democrat Lyndon B.

Johnson won in a historic landslide, the election saw the incumbent President forced out of the race and a Republican elected for the first time in twelve years. Initially, Nixon had held a comfortable lead, which had steadily decreased to a virtual tossup. It was a wrenching national experience, conducted during a year of violence that included the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. and subsequent race riots across the nation, the assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Robert F.

Kennedy, widespread demonstrations against the Vietnam War across university campuses, and violent confrontations between police and anti-war protesters at the 1968 Democratic National Convention as the Democratic party split again and again. The election featured the strongest third party effort since 1912 by former Alabama Governor George Wallace, a Democrat. Because Wallace's campaign opposed federal intervention in the South to end school segregation, he carried the Deep South and ran well in ethnic industrial districts in the North.

In the election of 1964, after serving the 14 remaining months after President John F. Kennedy's assassination, Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson had won the largest popular vote landslide in U.S. Presidential election history over Republican Barry Goldwater.

During his term, Johnson had seen many political successes, including the passage of his sweeping Great Society domestic programs (also known as the "War on Poverty"), landmark civil rights legislation, and the continued exploration of space. At the same time, however, the country endured large-scale black riots in the streets of its larger cities, along with a generational revolt of young people and violent debates over foreign policy. The emergence of the hippie counterculture, the rise of New Left activism, and the emergence of the Black Power movement exacerbated social and cultural clashes between classes, generations and races.

Every summer since 1964 --the "long, hot summers"--major cities erupted in massive race riots that left hundreds dead or injured and destroyed hundreds of millions of dollars in property. Adding to the national crisis, on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, igniting further mass rioting and chaos, including Washington, where rioting came within just a few blocks of the White House and machine guns were stationed on the Capitol steps to protect it. A major factor in the precipitous decline of President Johnson's popularity was the Vietnam War, which he greatly escalated during his time in office.

By late 1967 over 500,000 American soldiers were fighting in Vietnam. Draftees made up 42 percent of the military in Vietnam, but suffered 58% of the casualties as nearly 1000 Americans a month were killed and many more were injured. 4 Johnson was especially hurt when, despite his repeated efforts to downplay the war, the national news media began to focus on it, the high costs and ambiguous results of escalation.

The Tet Offensive of February 1968, in which Communist Vietcong forces launched simultaneous attacks on all government strongholds in South Vietnam, forced national attention on the issue. The Tet episode led many Americans to ponder whether the war was winnable or worth it. The Pentagon called for sending several hundred thousand more soldiers to Vietnam.

Johnson's approval ratings fell below 35%, and the Secret Service refused to let the President make public appearances on the campuses of American colleges and universities, due to his extreme unpopularity among college students. The Secret Service also prevented Johnson from appearing at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, because it could not guarantee his safety from assassination. Kennedy, U.S. senator from New York, brother of former President John F.

President Lyndon B. Senator Robert F. Because Lyndon B.

Johnson had been elected to the presidency only once, in 1964, and had served less than two full years of the term before that, the 22nd Amendment did not disqualify him from running for another term;1112 Johnson had served only 14 months following John F. Kennedy's assassination before being elected in 1964 to a full term. As a result, it was widely assumed when 1968 began that President Johnson would run for another term, and that he would have little trouble winning the Democratic nomination.

Despite growing opposition to Johnson's policies in Vietnam, it appeared no prominent Democratic candidate would run against a sitting president of his own party. Even Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, an outspoken critic of Johnson's policies with a large base of support, initially declined to run against Johnson in the primaries.

In time, only Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota proved willing to challenge Johnson openly. Running as an anti-war candidate in the New Hampshire primary, McCarthy hoped to pressure the Democrats into publicly opposing the Vietnam War. Since New Hampshire was the first presidential primary of 1968, McCarthy poured most of his limited resources into the state.

He was boosted by thousands of young college students led by youth coordinator Sam Brown,13 who shaved their beards and cut their hair to be "Clean for Gene." These students organized get-out-the-vote drives, rang doorbells, distributed McCarthy buttons and leaflets, and worked hard in New Hampshire for McCarthy. On 2-19729, McCarthy won 42 percent of the primary vote to Johnson's 49 percent, a strong showing for a challenger.

Even more impressively, since Johnson had more than 24 supporters running for the Democratic National Convention delegate slots to be filled in the election, while McCarthy's campaign organized more strategically, McCarthy won 20 of the 24 delegates. This gave McCarthy's campaign legitimacy and momentum. The momentum ended, however, when Senator Kennedy announced his candidacy four days later, on March 16, as McCarthy supporters cried betrayal and vowed to defeat Kennedy.

Murray Kempton, an influential liberal journalist and McCarthy supporter, bitterly criticized Kennedy for waiting to enter the primaries until McCarthy had tested whether Johnson was vulnerable. Kempton wrote that Kennedy "was like a man who comes down from the hills after the battle and shoots the wounded." Thereafter McCarthy and Kennedy would engage in an increasingly bitter series of state primaries.

Although Kennedy won most of the primaries in which he and McCarthy were in direct competition, he could never shake McCarthy and his devoted following of anti-war activists, which included many Hollywood celebrities such as Paul Newman, Gene Wilder, Barbra Streisand, and Burt Lancaster. On March 31, 1968, following the New Hampshire primary and Kennedy's entry into the election, the President announced to the nation in a televised speech that he was suspending all bombing of North Vietnam in favor of peace talks. Johnson concluded his speech and startled the nation by announcing "With America's sons in the fields far away, with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office--the Presidency of your country.

Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President." Not discussed publicly at the time was Johnson's concern he might not survive another term—Johnson's health was poor, and he had suffered a serious heart attack in 1955 while serving in the U.S. Senate; indeed, he died on January 22, 1973, only two days after the new presidential term would have concluded. Bleak political forecasts also contributed to Johnson's withdrawal: internal polling by Johnson's campaign in Wisconsin, the next state to hold a primary election, showed the President trailing badly.

With Johnson's withdrawal, the Democratic Party quickly split into four factions, each of which distrusted the other three. The first faction comprised labor unions and big-city party bosses (led by Mayor Richard J. This group had traditionally controlled the Democratic Party since the days of President Franklin D.

Roosevelt, and they feared their loss of control over the party. After Johnson's withdrawal this group rallied to support Hubert Humphrey, Johnson's Vice President; it was also believed that President Johnson himself was covertly supporting Humphrey, despite his public claims of neutrality. The second faction, which rallied behind Senator Eugene McCarthy, was composed of college students, intellectuals, and upper-middle-class whites who had been the early activists against the war in Vietnam; they perceived themselves as the future of the Democratic Party.

The third group was primarily composed of Catholics, African-Americans, Hispanics, and other racial and ethnic minorities as well as several antiwar groups; these groups rallied behind Senator Robert F. The fourth group consisted of white Southern Democrats, or "Dixiecrats". Some members of this group (probably older ones remembering the New Deal's positive impact upon rural areas) supported Vice President Humphrey, but many of them would rally behind George C.

Wallace and the Alabama governor's third-party campaign in the general election. Since the Vietnam War had become the major issue that was dividing the Democratic Party, and Johnson had come to symbolize the war for many liberal Democrats, Johnson believed that he could not win the nomination without a major struggle, and that he would probably lose the election in November to the Republicans. However, by withdrawing from the race he could avoid the stigma of defeat, and he could keep control of the party machinery by giving the nomination to Humphrey, who had been a loyal Vice President.

14 Milne (2011) argues that, in terms of foreign-policy in the Vietnam War, Johnson at the end wanted Nixon to be president rather than Humphrey, since Johnson agreed with Nixon, rather than Humphrey, on the need defend South Vietnam from communism. After Johnson's withdrawal, Vice President Hubert Humphrey announced his candidacy. Kennedy was successful in four state primaries (Indiana, Nebraska, South Dakota, and California) and McCarthy won six (Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Oregon, New Jersey, and Illinois); however, in primaries where they campaigned directly against one another, Kennedy won three primaries (Indiana, Nebraska, and California) and McCarthy won one (Oregon).

16 Humphrey did not compete in the primaries, leaving that job to favorite sons who were his surrogates, notably Senator George A. Smathers from Florida, Senator Stephen M. Young from Ohio, and Governor Roger D.

Branigin of Indiana. Instead, Humphrey concentrated on winning the delegates in non-primary states, where party leaders such as Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley controlled the delegate votes in their states.

Kennedy defeated Branigin and McCarthy in the Indiana primary, and then defeated McCarthy in the Nebraska primary. However, McCarthy upset Kennedy in the Oregon primary. After Kennedy's defeat in Oregon, the California primary was seen as crucial to both Kennedy and McCarthy.

McCarthy stumped the state's many colleges and universities, where he was treated as a hero for being the first presidential candidate to oppose the war. Kennedy campaigned in the ghettos and barrios of the state's larger cities, where he was mobbed by enthusiastic supporters. Kennedy and McCarthy engaged in a television debate a few days before the primary; it was generally considered a draw.

On June 4, Kennedy narrowly defeated McCarthy in California, 46%–42%. However, McCarthy refused to withdraw from the race and made it clear that he would contest Kennedy in the upcoming New York primary, where McCarthy had much support from antiwar activists in New York City. The New York primary quickly became a moot point, however, for in the early morning of June 5, Kennedy was shot shortly after midnight; he died twenty-six hours later.

Kennedy had just given his victory speech in a crowded ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles; he and his aides then entered a narrow kitchen pantry on their way to a banquet room to meet with reporters. In the pantry Kennedy and five others were shot by Sirhan Sirhan, a Christian Palestinian who hated Kennedy because of his support for Israel. Sirhan admitted his guilt, was convicted of murder, and is still in prison.

17 In recent years some have cast a doubt on this including Sirhan himself who said he was "brainwashed" into killing Kennedy and was a patsy. Political historians have debated to this day whether Kennedy could have won the Democratic nomination had he lived. Some historians, such as Theodore H.

White and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., have argued that Kennedy's broad appeal and famed charisma would have convinced the party bosses at the Democratic Convention to give him the nomination. Jack Newfield, author of RFK: A Memoir, stated in a 1998 interview that on the night he was assassinated, "Kennedy had a phone conversation with Mayor Daley of Chicago, and Mayor Daley all but promised to throw the Illinois delegates to Bobby at the convention in August 1968.

I think he said to me, and Pete Hamill, 'Daley is the ball game, and I think we have Daley.'"22 However, other writers such as Tom Wicker, who covered the Kennedy campaign for The New York Times, believe that Humphrey's large lead in delegate votes from non-primary states, combined with Senator McCarthy's refusal to quit the race, would have prevented Kennedy from ever winning a majority at the Democratic Convention, and that Humphrey would have been the Democratic nominee even if Kennedy had lived. The journalist Richard Reeves and historian Michael Beschloss have both written that Humphrey was the likely nominee, and future Democratic National Committee chairman Larry O'Brien wrote in his memoirs that Kennedy's chances of winning the nomination had been slim, even after his win in California. Robert Kennedy's death altered the dynamics of the race.

Although Humphrey appeared the prohibitive favorite for the nomination, thanks to his support from the traditional power blocs of the party, he was an unpopular choice with many of the antiwar elements within the party, who identified him with Johnson's controversial position on the Vietnam War. However, Kennedy's delegates failed to unite behind a single candidate who could have prevented Humphrey from getting the nomination. Some of Kennedy's support went to McCarthy, but many of Kennedy's delegates, remembering their bitter primary battles with McCarthy, refused to vote for him.

Instead, these delegates rallied around the late-starting candidacy of Senator George McGovern of South Dakota, a Kennedy supporter in the spring primaries who had presidential ambitions himself. This dividing of the antiwar votes at the Democratic Convention made it easier for Humphrey to gather the delegates he needed to win the nomination. When the 1968 Democratic National Convention opened in Chicago, thousands of young activists from around the nation gathered in the city to protest the Vietnam War.

In a clash which was covered on live television, Americans were shocked to see Chicago police brutally beating antiwar protesters in the streets of Chicago. While the protesters chanted "The whole world's watching," the police used clubs and tear gas to beat back the protesters, leaving many of them bloody and dazed. The tear gas even wafted into numerous hotel suites; in one of them Vice President Humphrey was watching the proceedings on television.

However, the police claimed that their actions were justified because numerous police officers were being injured by bottles, rocks, and broken glass that were being thrown at them by the protestors; the protestors had also yelled verbal insults at the police, calling them "pigs" and other epithets. The antiwar riots divided the Democratic Party's base- some supported the protestors and felt that the police were being heavy-handed, but others disapproved of the violence and supported the police. Meanwhile, the convention itself was marred by the strong-arm tactics of Chicago's mayor Richard J.

Daley (who was seen on television angrily cursing Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut, who made a speech at the convention denouncing the excesses of the Chicago police in the riots). In the end, the nomination itself was anticlimactic, with Vice President Humphrey handily beating McCarthy and McGovern on the first ballot. After the delegates nominated Humphrey, the convention then turned to selecting a vice president.

The main candidates for this position were Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, Edmund Muskie of Maine, and Fred R. Harris of Oklahoma; Governors Richard Hughes of New Jersey and Terry Sanford of North Carolina; Mayor Joseph Alioto of San Francisco, California; former Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance of West Virginia; and Ambassador Sargent Shriver of Maryland.

Another idea floated was to tap Republican Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, one of the most liberal Republicans. Ted Kennedy was Humphrey's first choice but the senator turned him down. After narrowing it down to Senator Muskie and Senator Harris, Vice President Humphrey chose Muskie, a moderate and environmentalist from Maine, for the nomination.

The convention complied with the request and nominated Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine as Humphrey's running mate. However, the tragedy of the antiwar riots crippled Humphrey's campaign from the start, and it never fully recovered. 24 Before 1968 the city of Chicago had been a frequent host for the political conventions of both parties; since 1968 only once has a national convention been held in the city (in 1996, the Democrats held their convention for Bill Clinton there).

Many believe that this is due in part to the violence and chaos of the Democratic Convention that year. President of the United States Lyndon B. Mayor Richard J.

Governor Harold E.